Cheap Smothered - The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (DVD) (Maureen Muldaur) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Smothered - The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

But, as Rob Reiner, one of the writers, and others commented, they were so...ordinary! The blazers, the short hair (earlier, anyway). They were so American that people couldn't resist. It was also "wholesome" humor, not, say, George Carlin, or Lenny Bruce. That's how they got on, to compete with the select hour which "Bonanza" had dominated for years.

Then they did a bit--Tommy and Elaine Maye did--spoofing censors. That's where the censorship began. The whole bit was removed from the show!

In fact, the documentary shows that they were politicized by the censorship. The more they tried to say, the more they were challenged by CBS.

For what it's worth, I think their comedy hour was the last variety show I could even stomach. Most weren't very good anyway. They either weren't funny or were pathetically predictable. This opened new doors. In fact, contemporary critics said if it weren't for the Smother Bros.' show, Saturday Night Live would probably have never been on the air.

The timing of the show is just about right. Any shorter and I might have felt short changed. Too long and it may have gotten a little dry. The people the producers talked to included the Brothers themselves, the writers, including head writer Mason Williams, famous for his single, "Classical Gas," and guests including Joan Baez and Pete Seeger (who was responsible for letters CBS received reminscient of the McCarthy witch hunt!)

If you want to remember an era when television even had some potential, or even just remember a great comedy duo, this is a DVD I recommend.

Not bad. but.....
This gives a good overview of the story of the Smothers Bros. late 1960s show and why and how it got cancelled. Those who are familiar with the basic story behind this may learn of some new things, such as the fact that LBJ himself watched and disliked the show (you' figure he had other things to worry about like Vietnam and Civil Rights) and of the Smothers successful lawsuit against CBS.

There are a few clips of the skits and on-air sermonizing that got the show in hot water, but very few. Joan Baez's speaking on her imprisoned husband, the hippy commentator's drug references, Harry Belafonte singing "Carnival" to footage of the 1968 Chicago riots (it's never clear if that footage actually aired), and Pete Seeger singing "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy and the Big Fool Says to Push On" and a snippet of David Steinberg's biblical parodies are about it. The other stuff is just talked about.

More clips would help, as well as an extra of an actual episode.

Nice
It's hard enough to get a guy in his thirties (me) emotionally invested in the sixties with a Time magazine ad "Turn, Turn, Turn" montage. So it's nearly impossible to get fired up about a (now) relatively tepid variety show. But this documentary works well at showing a banal, nuts and bolts level of politics. It's close to the center of things, where contract disputes and institutional pressures are mainstream metaphors for clubs and tear gas. (Rob Reiner compares key 60's assasinations to network "artistic assasination"... and looks like he knows he's stretching it). The story focuses largely on the increasing tension between CBS and performer Tommy Smothers over the program's political satire. LBJ and Nixon seem to loom in the shadows throughout, as fodder for jokes while exerting (plausibly deniable) pressures on the network. Throughout, David Halberstam provides good historical and political context. And clips from the show are... educational... (Look it's Steve Martin, David Steinberg, and that guy) There is a sort of "guess you had to be there" feel.... In the recent interviews, the entertainers are low key about their accomplishments. So you don't jump up and down, yet feel good that nothing is hyped -- great tone throughout.