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DVD: Smothered - The Censorship Struggles
of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (Docurama)
Director: Maureen Muldaur. 93 minutes.
Reviewed by DJ Johnson
It's a well known bit of 60s cultural "trivia" that The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was taken off the air by CBS due to issues involving censorship. Some people have the story down better than others. If you're like me, a child in 1969 when the show was yanked, that's probably the extent of your knowledge of the event. As it turns out, it was quite complicated on one level in that there were dozens and dozens of events that infuriated both sides over the show's three year run, and quite simple on another level in that two forces pushed against each other and the force with the most network clout won. Ah, there's some intrigue right there. Wasn't it the network itself, the big entity, that closed shop on the brothers? No, the battle was with Standards and Practices, the censors, who did and still do have the ultimate power at all networks. This excellent documentary, created by Maureen Muldaur, shown on Bravo network and now available on VHS and DVD from Docurama, brings us the entire story via the memories of many of the people involved, from the brothers to their writers to network brass.
Anyone harboring the belief that the Smothers Brothers are anything like they portrayed themselves in their nightclub act and eventually their television show needs to give that up right away, particularly the image of Tommy Smothers as a buffoon. In truth, Tom was the driving force behind the show, not to mention one very intelligent guy when it came to negotiating with the network for artistic control. Interviews with writers Bob Einstein, Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin), Mason Williams and Rob Reiner (yes, that Rob Reiner), all hired by Tom, reveal the working process, Tom's hands-on approach as well as the struggles with the censors that were a fact of life almost from day one. Many clips show exactly what was upsetting the censors, not to mention President Johnson, as Tommy and Dickie, dressed in their red blazers and looking harmless as can be, would deftly weave a piece of dialogue that ended with a left hook to the "morons" running the country or an invitation for all the boys to come on home from Vietnam. As Dick points out, and rightly so, controversy wasn't their forte, it was just the result of presenting a piece with social relevance amidst many harmless bits of straight-forward entertainment.
For those looking for a Best Of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour experience, I have to warn you away, or at least halt you long enough to say that you'll only get a few minutes of the great Pat Paulsen, a few minutes more of that adorable, high-as-a-kite hippie chick, Goldie (Leigh French), and you won't see Mason Williams perform "Classical Gas" on guitar. It's not about these things. It's about Tom Smothers and CBS' Standards & Practices division squaring off week after week. Tom doesn't come out the hero you expect; though his heart was clearly in the right place, his head was sometimes in a very wrong place, and with a quick arch of the eyebrows and an embarrassed groan here and there, it's clear he knows this. Director Muldaur wisely chose to forgo the use of a narrator and let these people tell their own stories, and it paid off well.
For all his faults, Tom Smothers followed his heart and did what he believed was the right thing to do. Both brothers put it on the line every time they took a slap at the Vietnam war or the generals running it. I hear some people make jokes about Tom being an announcer at the Monterey festival, as if someone so uncool and out of step , someone so "establishment," was out of place among people like Jimi and Janis and the Who and Otis. I refer them to this DVD. Maureen Muldaur shows us that although the brothers' hair was short and they wore matching red blazers and pressed slacks, and they appeared to be the guys Lyndon Johnson would want dating his daughters, they weren't "establishment." Ultimately, they were performers putting on a very entertaining comedy hour with some social relevence written in somewhere every week, but the harmless look drew a cross section of the population to the show, and therefore they weren't just preaching to the choir. Despite the best efforts of the censors, The Smothers Brothers operated successfully behind enemy lines.
© 2003 - DJ Johnson