Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The Smothers Brothers - "My Old Man"


Well, I actually came away from reading Dangerously Funny with the opinion that the Smothers Brothers deserved to be fired by CBS.

Even though the brothers successfully won a breach of contract suit against the network, they did (or more specifically, Tommy did) deliberately withhold master tapes so CBS couldn't preview (and edit) them in time before air. CBS really didn't need that aggravation, so it was bye-bye Tom and Dick.

If they had just lasted a few seasons longer, they probably would have fit right in with the "new CBS" of the '70s - and all those deliberately controversial Norman Lear shows.

The saddest part about the whole Smothers controversy is the knowledge that the censored shows aired uncut in Canada. As Michael Palin once said, "so much for America being the land of the free"

Still, they were funny - and here's "My Old Man" to prove it.