The infamous (infamous for being cancelled due to political content) Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour is coming out on DVD. The show ran three seasons and the first release gives us the episodes from the third and final one. I guess they figure that if that season — the controversial one — doesn't sell, there's no point in bringing out the other years. If you'd like to pre-order a copy from Amazon, you can do that by clicking here.
Anyway, TV reporter Will Harris met Tom Smothers recently and heard him say that he was doubtful the shows would hold up for a present-day audience. Harris told him he was wrong and they subsequently did this interview, discussing the matter further.
I'm curious to see them not so much because they may have changed but because I have. Hard as it may be for some to believe from this blog, I was pretty right-wing back in '69 when these shows aired and I didn't find them that humorous. In truth, there was only a little political humor in each show but it annoyed me enough to impair my enjoyment of the entire program. By the time I changed my mind and moved to the opposite side of the street at the Vietnam protests, Tom and Dickie were off the air. I'm eager to watch these shows now and see if they're better than I thought at the time.
Here's a little more than a minute of some of the show's guests performing its theme song. It's pretty funny…and how often do you get to see David Frye these days? Or Jack E. Leonard in a dog suit? This is from the final episode, which aired 4/20/69.