Don’t Blink: Shows That Received Pink Slips by the Holidays

April 27, 2020 / thewritelife61 / 7 Comments

One thing I have learned doing blogs the past four years is how many shows don’t make it. Although every year has its share of flops, some years are just notorious for having weak programming. The late 1970s was a period of just truly awful shows. Bob Newhart who starred in The Bob Newhart Show decided to quit in 1978. When asked about ending the show, he said, “I could see what was coming in situation comedy, and I didn’t want to be a part of it. If we’d gone another year, they’d have had the guy and two girls living in the apartment above us, a Martian living on the same floor next door to three girl detectives. The floor below us would have been occupied by a fraternity and a sorority.” As bad as that sounds, the shows that the networks put on the air during this time were even worse. Let’s take a look at some of the programming that didn’t make it through a season in the late 1970s.

A Year at the Top

Photo: imdb.com
Note the young Paul Shaffer

Believe it or not, in 1976 Norman Lear teamed up with Don Kirshner of Rock Concert fame for a sitcom about the music business. This show was supposed to begin in January of that year but was delayed until summer with an entirely different cast. Two young pop stars Greg and Paul (Greg Evigan and Paul Shaffer—yes the Paul Shaffer from David Letterman) move to LA for their big break. They meet a potential agent named Hanover (Gabriel Dell) who agrees to sign them if . . . and if you think the concept is weird so far, get this: Hanover is the devil’s son, and they need to sign over their souls to become famous. The pair never actually sign the contract. It might have taken a year to get on the air but it only lasted five weeks.

Quark

This show’s concept was also a bit of a reach. It took place on Perma 1, a space station in 2222. Adam Quark (Richard Benjamin) had a mission to clean up all the trash in outer space. Quark took orders from a giant disembodied head called, what else, The Head, along with Perma 1’s architect Otto Palindrome (Conrad Janis). If you think this sounds crazy, wait till you learn about Quark’s crew: a part fish/part fowl first officer, a humanoid vegetable named Ficus, clones Betty 1 and Betty 2, and Andy the Robot, a walking junk pile. I was surprised not that it was cancelled after two months, but that it lasted two months. I was also surprised to learn that Buck Henry was the creative force behind this series.

Sanford Arms

A year later in 1977 we have another interesting set-up. When Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson, the two stars, the only stars, left the show Sanford and Son, Norman Lear was left with a show title only. Aunt Esther (LaWanda Page) had been one of the cast members on Sanford and Son and suddenly she was at the hub of this new show. Phil Wheeler (Theodore Wilson) a widower with teenagers buys the house, the junkyard and Esther’s rooming house and tries to start a residential hotel. A month or so later, before he could even make his first payment, the show was done.

Another Day

David Groh (who had played Rhoda’s husband) is Don Gardner, a struggling businessman who can’t make ends meet. His wife Ginny (Joan Hackett) has to get a job, and they both had to deal with their introverted son Mark (Al Eisenmann) and their extroverted daughter Kelly (Lisa Lindgren), as well as Don’s mom Olive (Hope Summers who had played Clara on The Andy Griffith Show) who is critical of all of them. Don struggled through a few episodes and was finished.

Apple Pie

A lonely hairdresser played by Rue McClanahan named Ginger-Nell Hollyhock placed ads in the newspaper for a family. The family that she “found” included a daughter (Caitlin O’Heaney) who tap-danced, a son (Derrel Maury) who wanted to fly like a bird, an elderly grandfather (Jack Gilford), and con-artist Fast Eddie (Dabney Coleman). The show was set in Kansas City in 1933. It took place during the Depression and depression is what anyone watching felt, although the pain was fleeting. After one episode the network decided no one wanted this family.

Hanging In

This one was so bad they didn’t want any evidence so there are no photos.

Another flop came along with a star who had been another star’s spouse. Bill Macy who played Maude’s long-suffering husband starred in this show as Louis Harper, a former football hero who did not have the right credentials to be a university president. He has a desire to help the underprivileged, but the rest of the faculty is more concerned about raising money. Other cast members included high-pressure dean Maggie Gallager (Barbara Rhoades), PR man Sam Dickey (Dennis Burkley), and housekeeper Pinky Nolan (Nedra Volz). No finals for this series; it was cancelled after a few weeks.

Hizzoner

David Huddleston plays Mayor Cooper who runs a small Midwestern town. The cast included the mayor’s secretary Ginny (Diana Muldaur), the mayor’s daughter (Kathy Cronkite, yes Walter’s daughter) and several other quirky characters. While the mayor is quite conservative, his children are left-wing liberals. Apparently, the mayor broke out into song at least once an episode. I guess, he was singing the blues because the show was cancelled after 7 episodes.

In the Beginning

The year 1978 just keeps getting worse for television series. Father Daniel Cleary, played by McLean Stevenson, works in a community center in the heart of Baltimore. Sister Agnes (Priscilla Lopez) works with him. She loves her neighborhood; Father Cleary does not. She is fairly liberal and he is not. It ended almost before it began after seven episodes.

Miss Winslow & Son

In this one, an unmarried woman (Darleen Carr) who is an art designer, decides rather than marry a man whom she doesn’t love, she will become a single mother after getting pregnant. Her next-door neighbor Mr. Neistadter (Roscoe Lee Browne) hates kids. Her wealthy and snobby parents are divided about her situation; her father (Elliot Reed) is much more sympathetic than her mother (Sarah Marshall). Before the baby had its first check-up, the show was off the air.

13 Queen’s Boulevard

This show was about “a hilarious group of tenants in a garden complex in Queens, New York.” In the first episode, one of the tenants, Felicia Winters (Eileen Brennan) decides to host a class reunion and invites her best friend and spouse, her ex-husband, the class “sexpot,” Fat Hughie, and the class photographer. I don’t know what could possibly go wrong; however, not much went right since it was gone within two months.

Turnabout

I get Freaky Friday, but in this series the husband and wife switch places. A magic statue allows them to inhabit each other’s bodies. Sam Alston (John Schuck) is a sportswriter and his wife Penny (Sharon Gless) is a cosmetics executive. The couple tries to live both their own life and their spouse’s life whenever they switch back and forth. They also must focus on keeping the switch a secret. We never know who is who, and all the audience knew is they didn’t like either one of them, and the show was cancelled after a few weeks.

Waverly Wonders

NBC decided Joe Namath would be a good person to build a sitcom around. However, he’s not a football player in this show; he’s a former pro basketball player, Joe Casey, who now teaches history at Waverly High in Wisconsin. Linda Harris (Gwynne Gilford) is the principal and Mr. Benton, who they call “Old Prune Face” (Ben Piazza) was the former coach. The only problem is Joe Casey is a bad history teacher and a bad coach. That apparently makes for a bad show because it was cancelled after three episodes aired, although nine were made.

Struck by Lightning

If you think the concept of some of these shows was weird, wait to you hear about this one. Frank (Jack Elam) is the caretaker of an old inn in Massachusetts. A science teacher, Ted Stein (Jeffrey Kramer) inherits the inn and decides to sell it. Then he realizes that Frank was really a 231-year-old Frankenstein monster. Ted just happens to be the great-great-grandson of the original Dr. Frankenstein. So, they decide to run the inn together. Rounding out the cast was Glenn (Bill Erwin) who had been living there forever, Nora (Millie Slavin) who managed the inn before Ted came, Nora’s son Brian (Jeff Cotler), and real estate agent Walt (Richard Stahl). Apparently, the only thing “great” about the show was Ted’s relationship to Frankenstein because the network canceled it after five episodes.

So, you might be wondering with all these awful shows, what made it on the air more than a couple of months during the late 1970s. In 1977 the only shows that made it to the next season were Three’s Company and Soap. In 1978 Mork and Mindy and Taxi were the “classics” followed by Diff’rent Strokes and WKRP in Cincinnati. Without Robin Williams, Mork and Mindy would probably have been another concept that would have lasted a couple of weeks. In 1979, out of 21 shows that debuted that fall, Facts of Life was the only one that returned for a second season. With the exception of Taxi and WKRP, I would not rate any of these shows true classics, although you could make a good case for Soap. Anyway, the bar was set pretty low for success during the late 1970s.

At least television viewers could go to the movies for a bit of entertainment. This was the era of Animal House, Annie Hall, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Grease, Kramer vs Kramer, Rocky, Saturday Night Fever, and Smokey and the Bandit. Things stayed pretty glum on the small screen until 1982 when Cheers, Newhart, and Family Ties saved us.

Where Did They Go? Television Characters Who Simply Vanished

April 20, 2020 / thewritelife61 / 4 Comments

It’s the Case of the Missing Character. While it sounds like a Perry Mason episode, it’s not unusual for television shows to suddenly have a cast member simply disappear without a trace, and no one seems to notice. Let’s look at some of our favorite shows where a character simply vanished.

The Brady Bunch

When it comes to disappearing characters, Oliver is often mentioned on The Brady Bunch. Oliver is a cousin who came to live with the Bradys during the final season while his parents were in South America. While it was weird that Oliver was around for a few episodes and then he was gone, someone could easily assume he went back home. However, I thought a bigger vanishing act was their dog Tiger. Tiger was involved in many plots during the first two seasons. When the show returned for the third season, no Tiger. In real life, the dog who portrayed Tiger was hit by a car; it seems as though we could have gotten an explanation about why the family suddenly lost their beloved pet.

The Doris Day Show

I have talked about the plot variations in The Doris Day Show several times in my blogs. The original concept in 1968 was that widow Doris Martin and her two sons left the city to move back to her dad’s ranch. In the second season, Doris drives back and forth from San Francisco to the ranch after getting a job as a secretary at Today’s World magazine. Rose Marie plays Myrna Gibbons her friend at work. In season three, the family moves into an apartment in San Francisco that is rented from the Palluccis who own a restaurant on the ground floor. Billy de Wolfe played their neighbor, a cranky bachelor who doesn’t like noise, especially made by children. However, he has a soft spot and becomes close to the family. In the fourth and fifth seasons, there is no mention of the father, the kids, Myrna, or the Palluccis! Doris is now a single person and is a staff writer for Today’s World.

Photo: sitcomsonline.com
Say goodbye Dad, boys, and Myrna

Family Matters

Family Matters featured the Winslows, a working-class family who lived next door to an annoying kid named Steve Urkel, and it aired for nine years. For the first four seasons, the Winslows have three children: two daughters and a son. During season five, Judy disappears. One source said that Judy asked for more money, and the network called her bluff and wrote her off the show. The Winslows talked about their two children; perhaps they had amnesia and just forgot they ever had a third child.

Photo: imdb.com
When there were two Winslow girls

Friends

Ben was Ross’ son from his first marriage on Friends. He was very precocious and cute. During the first season, Ross talks about him all the time, and Ben spends time with both Ross and his ex-wife Carol, living close to Ross. By season two Ross rarely saw him, and did not really seem to spend much time worrying about that. Ben was so neglected on the show that when Ross and Rachel had a daughter, Ben never even met his own stepsister. His last appearance was in season 8. Apparently, Ross’s dad forgot about him too. He mentions Emma being his first grandchild. The character of Ben appears in only 18 of the 236 episodes.

Happy Days

I remember watching “Love and the Happy Days” (a/k/a Love and the Television Set) when it aired on Love American Style in 1972. That episode became the pilot for the television series which began airing in 1974. Several characters were played by different actors in the pilot. Harold Gould played Howard Cunningham and Susan Neher played Joanie. Tom Bosley would take over the role of Howard and Erin Moran would play Joanie in 1974. Marion Ross as Marion, Ron Howard as Richie, and Anson Williams as Richie’s friend Potsie carried over to the new show.

Photo: wikipedia.com
With Chuck unless he photoshopped himself into the picture

What people might not remember is that in the pilot, Joanie and Richie had an older brother Chuck played by Ric Carrott. When the show began airing in 1974, Chuck was still around until he wasn’t. Gavan O’Herlihy played Chuck originally and was replaced by Randolph Roberts. After 11 episodes he just never showed up again, and none of the Cunninghams ever talked about him. At least on My Three Sons when Mike got married and moved away, the other characters mentioned him from time to time. Like the Winslows, whenever Mr. and Mrs. C mentioned their kids, they only had two.

King of Queens

Although this show was about a married couple, Doug and Carrie Heffernan, Carrie’s sister Sara (Lisa Rieffel) lives with them when the show begins. She is an aspiring actress, but by the sixth episode, she was just not around. Did she get a role in an off-Broadway play? Decide to go to Hollywood? We don’t know, but her father later talked about Carrie being an only child. Apparently, the writers couldn’t decide how to develop her character, so they just didn’t.

Photo: wiki-fandom.com
Taking sibling to new heights.

MASH

We fondly recall many spats in the Swamp between Pierce and Winchester. We also remember both Hunnicutt and Trapper, but do you remember Oliver Harmon Jones? Timothy Brown played Spearchucker Jones, a neurosurgeon who lived with Trapper, Hawkeye and Frank Burns during the first season. But then he just disappears with no explanation after six episodes.

In discussing the sudden disappearance of Jones on an online posting, Larry Gelbart replied “There were no black surgeons attached to MASH units in Korea.” However, research has indicated that there were at least two black surgeons in MASH units during the Korean war. Other reasons given for his removal was that budgetary cuts mandated getting rid of characters, and one source mentioned that the network did not want to deal with his nickname which could be taken as a racial slur. Spearchucker Jones was in both the original novel MASH and the movie which the television series was based on.

Photo: pinterest.com
What did they do to Frank?

Again, this is a show about war; surely, the writers could have found a creative solution for his being gone. Other characters who left the show were involved in crashes or just simply went home.

Mission Impossible

During the 1960s Mission Impossible was quite popular with its “your mission should you decide to accept it” plots. Dan Briggs played by Steven Hill led the team. Hill didn’t come back for the second season. He was an orthodox Jew and unable to work during the Jewish Sabbath which was making life difficult for the rest of the crew. Suddenly in season two, Jim Phelps is leading the team, but no one talks about what happened to Dan. Come on – this was a spy show; could we not have learned about a mission gone wrong which explained his disappearance. Actually, Briggs resurfaced on Law and Order thirty years later, so perhaps he was just hiding out for a few decades to protect his cover.

Photo: mycast.io
Life before Peter Graves

Night Court

Night Court had a tough time finding a public defender who could hold their own against Dan Fielding, played by John Larroquette. Ellen Foley played Billie Young for season one and most of season two. When the third season aired, the public defender was suddenly played by Markie Post. Post had been the first choice for the role originally, but she had a conflict with her contract in The Fall Guy. When that show was cancelled and she became available, Foley was simply replaced with no explanation as to why.

Photo: imdb.com
Perhaps Harry thinks if he can’t see Billie, he won’t know she was replaced.

Star Trek

If you watched the earliest Star Trek episodes, you’ll see Janice Rand, Captain Kirk’s secretary. Grace Lee Whitney was hired to play Janice. She was supposed to be a romantic interest for Kirk. She was a popular character during the first season, but in season two she just didn’t exist anymore.

There were a couple of reasons for her disappearance. First of all, the network didn’t want Kirk tied down; they wanted him to be free to get involved with a variety of characters the crew met from week to week. Also, the show was too expensive and was forced to make some budget cuts, so she was let go. I understand the reasons why they let her go, but of all shows, couldn’t Star Trek come up with some interesting plot twist to explain her disappearance. Maybe she asked Scotty to beam her up but he waited too long and she’s just floating around somewhere in outer space.

Teachers Only

In its first incarnation (April to June 1982), the setting of this show was Millard Fillmore High School in Los Angeles. Diana Swanson played by Lynn Redgrave is an English teacher. Ben Cooper is the school principal, Michael Dreyfuss and Gwen Edwards are fellow teachers, Mr. Brody is the assistant principal, and Mr. Pafko is the janitor. Most of the scenes occurred in the faculty lunchroom and lounge from which students were excluded. When the show returned in February, the school was now Woodrow Wilson High School in Los Angeles with a new cast. Samantha Keating and Michael Horne are teachers, Spud Le Boone is the gym teacher and Shari is the principal’s secretary. What was even weirder is that Diana is now a guidance counselor, but the principal is still Mr. Cooper played by Norman Fell. I would give the writers a big, red “D” because they forgot to include a transition paragraph in their work.

Photo: wikipedia.com
Don’t put it in the yearbook–it could change before then!

For whatever reasons, sometimes producers think they are perfectly justified in simply eliminating characters without any type of explanation. In never seems like it was a great idea and, in the age of syndication, it makes even less sense. Let me know if you can think of other characters who just disappeared from the airwaves.

Bewitched vs I Dream of Jeannie: The Great Debate

April 13, 2020April 13, 2020 / thewritelife61 / 8 Comments

Do you get a bit nervous when you see someone twitch or blink in public? If so, you probably have a bit of MSD, magic stress disorder. It comes from watching Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie reruns. Today, I am attempting to settle the long-debated Jeannie vs Samantha question. Let me state first that I am not considering the “who is hotter” question. That argument has been going on for five decades and is a personal preference, so I’ll continue to let those people who care and have an opinion debate that issue. Also, both women could provide any wish, so it’s not about what they could do for someone else by blinking or twitching for say a million dollars.

My goal was to decide, from a mortal perspective, who would be the better woman to have a relationship with, be it a spouse, best friend, neighbor, or PTA co-chair.

There were a lot of similarities in the two shows. Bewitched began in 1964 and ran till 1972. I Dream of Jeannie debuted in 1965 and was cancelled in 1970, but had its beginnings in the movie, The Brass Bottle, a 1964 comedy about a modern man who accidentally acquires the friendship of a long-out-of-circulation genie. It starred Burl Ives, Tony Randall, and Barbara Eden. In this version, Ives is the genie, and Eden is Randall’s girlfriend, but it gave Sidney Sheldon the idea for the television series.

Both shows had an animated opening and a great theme song.

Also, both shows center around a relationship where the woman has magic powers, and the man has to live with the consequences.

In the case of Bewitched, Darrin falls in love with Samantha and proposes before he learns she is a witch; with I Dream of Jeannie, Major Nelson finds Jeannie’s bottle on a beach after a space landing and then feels like he is “stuck” with her.

That said, let’s look at Life Issues, Friends and Family Issues, and Magic Issues to try to determine who would be the better person to have as part of your life.

Life Issues. In the area of life issues, I think most people would agree that Samantha understands life in the 20^th century United States. Jeannie has to do some observing and reading to learn what that type of life means and different concepts confuse her, resulting in some uncomfortable situations for Tony.

Samantha lives a fairly normal life. She has taught herself to be a “regular” housewife. She cooks, cleans, and shops like her friends. Jeannie spends her days holed up at Anthony’s house, and no one can know she is there. Related to that is the fact that the majority of the time, Samantha wears the same type of clothing as everyone else in her community.

Jeannie does get to wear more fashionable clothing from time to time, but most of the time is spent in her pink harem outfit.

Another factor is how much damage could be done to their spouse’s career of to a friend or family member. Darrin is an advertising executive; really, there is not a lot of damage Sam can do. She can cause a client to leave the firm, but that’s not too significant. With Major Nelson being an astronaut, there are a lot of problems Jeannie can create when she pulls him into and out of outer space or causes NASA staff to question Tony’s reliability as an astronaut.

One of the biggest problems for Tony was Jeannie’s quick temper. While Samantha often was unhappy about certain things, Jeannie was a bit more vindictive. Samantha might cause someone who was being treated unfairly to acquire a skill they didn’t really have, usually a positive action. Jeannie was typically mad at Tony, and often the problem involved another woman, so Tony is the one who typically was put into a dangerous or complicated situation. She might send him to another century or put him in a torture chamber.

A final life factor, which would have more repercussions in today’s social media age than in the sixties, is that Jeannie did not show up in photos. That meant she would have to blink a clone or add another complication like destroying the film to keep her invisibility a secret.

There were a lot of family and friend matters that also come into play on this question. Samantha was not hidden from Darrin’s friends and family members, only her witchcraft was kept secret. That also became true for Jeannie after she and Tony Nelson married in the final season, but in the first four years there were often plots where Jeannie had to be explained or hidden, causing much confusion. Roger Healy did know of Jeannie’s existence which could be a positive or negative. Roger could help Tony keep her hidden or get Jeannie’s help when necessary, but occasionally he also caused problems by trying to get Jeannie to do things for him Anthony might not approve of.

Both women had to deal with another character who was suspicious and always on the lookout to get an “a-ha” moment. In the case of Bewitched, Gladys Kravitz knew there were some strange things happening at the Stephens’ household.

She was constantly trying to peek in the window or capture some evidence when things seemed not quite right. However, her husband Abner thought she was crazy and didn’t give any credence to her hare-brained schemes so she remained a harmless busybody.

In Jeannie’s case, Dr. Bellows was a psychiatrist and was also alarmed at things he saw or learned about Major Nelson. His wife Amanda was a co-conspirator, often trying to help him learn the truth behind what was going on.

Family Issues. Both Tony and Darrin had to deal with some wacky and quirky relatives.

Tony was forced to obey some more powerful relatives who were fierce and could cause great harm; they often showed up to threaten Tony. Darrin was really only threatened by his mother-in-law Endora.

She often put a spell on him that affected his looks and made it hard for him to explain what was happening, but Samantha was always able to convince her to make things right. He was perhaps inconvenienced by some of her other relatives. Although he could be annoyed by them, we found them delightful and enjoyed hanging out with most of them, especially Uncle Arthur and Aunt Clara.

Two relatives that could cause some serious problems were Jeannie and Samantha’s “twins.” Jeannie had a sister that looked just like her except she traded blonde hair for black and a pink harem outfit for a blue one.

However, she could pretend to be Jeannie, and it was almost impossible to tell them apart. Sam’s cousin Serena looked a lot like her and also sported a black hairdo.

However, Serena had a very different kooky personality and it didn’t take long to figure out who she really was. In Tony’s case, he could have been stuck with the other Jeannie for a long time without realizing it.

One other family concern was whether the children would follow in their mother’s footsteps. On Bewitched we did learn that both Darrin and Samantha’s children were a witch and a warlock which tripled the problems Darrin was living with. Since Jeannie and Tony never had children, we don’t know if they would have magical powers or not.

Magic Issues. Both Jeannie and Samantha could come down with some strange illnesses related to their powers.

While Jeannie often had to wait out the situation, Samantha had a personal physician available at all times, Dr. Bombay, who could usually cure her quickly.

The last question involves twitching versus blinking. Samantha’s magic was accomplished by sometimes raising her arm, but typically she twitched her nose. Jeannie would fold her arms over each other and lower her head while blinking. The two issues with their methods are that Sam’s magic was more subtle and if she turned just right, no one noticed what she was up to.

Not only was Jeannie more obvious but if her arms were broken, she would have been helpless, as she mentions in one episode. It would be less likely for a nose to be broken, but not impossible, at least according to Marcia Brady.

One last magical issue was that Tony could in fact ban Jeannie to her bottle. Since he was her master, she had to obey him and even if she refused, once she was in her bottle, a cap could keep her there. Samantha was an equal partner with Darrin and there were no consequences for her that were any different from any other marriage. She was free to come and go and send him to the couch for the night when they had a disagreement.

So, after reflecting on these issues, what is the determination? Jeannie definitely caused more problems, but she could be banned to the bottle. Samantha was more helpful, but her family caused Darrin a lot of stress.

I guess I would have to say from my perspective at least, Samantha would be the person I would rather be friends with. Jeannie often misinterpreted situations or caused more problems while trying to make things better. She also had a temper that caused her to be blinking before thinking.

With Samantha you could have a normal friendship without being subjected to any weird circumstances, and if you did get involved in something outlandish, she had the ability to freeze time till it got back to normal or put a spell on you to forget that you saw or heard anything abnormal. Whether you agree or disagree, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour: Fifty Years After Getting the Pink Slip

April 6, 2020April 6, 2020 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

The late 1960s and early 1970s might have contained the most diverse television shows than any other era. In 1968, there were the rural comedies like Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies; there were the standard sitcoms, My Three Sons, Get Smart, That Girl, Bewitched; there were the remains of a few westerns including The High Chaparral, The Virginian, and Gunsmoke; there were crime and thrillers such as Hawaii Five-0 and Mission Impossible; there was the crime/western in The Wild, Wild West, there were gameshows on at night including Let’s Make a Deal, The Dating Game, and The Newlywed Game; there were sci-fi shows like Star Trek and The Land of the Giants; family shows like Lassie; and even Lawrence Welk.

In addition, there were a couple of shows that were a bit edgier and introduced more provocative concepts and themes. The Mod Squad featured three teens who were helping solve crimes in lieu of jail time, and then there was the almost-impossible-to-describe Laugh In.

Similar to Laugh In was The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour which also debuted in 1967 featuring Tom and Dick Smothers. It had more of a variety format to it but it had the same topical and satirical humor.

In addition to poking fun at politics, the war, religion, and current issues, you could tune in to the Smothers Brothers for some of the best and sometimes controversial music in the industry. Performers such as Jefferson Airplane, Steppenwolf, Simon and Garfunkel, The Who, Cream, Pete Seeger, and The Doors appeared on the show.

The show aired Sunday nights against Bonanza on NBC; ABC aired The Sunday Night Movie in its first season and Hee Haw in its second season.

The series had some of the best writers on television: Alan Blye, Hal Goldman, Al Gordon, Steve Martin, Lorenzo Music, Don Novello, Rob Reiner, David Steinberg, and Mason Williams. Reiner and Martin both commented on the show in an interview by Marc Freeman in the Hollywood Reporter 11-25-2017 (“The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour at 50: The Rise and Fall of a Ground-Breaking Variety Show”).

Reiner relayed that “you had two cute boy-next-doors wearing red suits, one with the stand-up bass and the other with his guitar. They looked like the sweetest, most innocent kids. You got drawn to them, and then they hit you with the uppercut you didn’t see coming.”

Martin elaborated “When you have the power wrapped up in innocence, it’s more palatable. They were like little boys, but you also had Dickie there to reprimand Tommy when he would make an outrageous statement. It’s like the naughty ventriloquist dummy who can get away with murder as long as the ventriloquist is there to say ‘You can’t say that.’ It’s the perfect setup for getting a message across.”

In addition to the musical acts, hundreds of celebrities appeared on the show between 1967 and 1969, including Jack Benny, Carol Burnett, George Burns, Bette Davis, Jimmy Durante, Barbara Eden, Nanette Fabray, Eva Gabor, Shirley Jones, Don Knotts, Bob Newhart, Tony Randall, Ed Sullivan, Danny Thomas and Jonathan Winters, along with so many others.

Part of the show was the brothers’ ongoing sibling rivalry about whom their parents liked best. They also began to add political satire and ribald humor. Pat Paulsen delivered mock editorials about current topics such as the draft and gun control, and in 1968 he had a mock presidential campaign.

Photo: rollingstone.com
Pat Paulsen for president

Church sermon sketches poked fun at religion. The show lampooned many of the values older Americans valued, often delivering anti-establishment and pro-drug humor. No one was given an exception, and the show lambasted the military, the police, the religious right, and the government.

Battles over content were ongoing with the network. The network pulled Pete Seeger’s performance of his anti-Vietnam War song, “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.” They nixed Harry Belafonte’s song, “Don’t Stop the Carnival” because it had a video collage behind him of the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots.

Younger viewers were tuning in, and despite the conflicts, the show was picked up for a second season. The network insisted they receive a copy of the show at least ten days in advance for editing. In April of 1969, William Paley canceled the show without notice. Some sources contend it was canceled by CBS president Robert Wood. Some sources cite the issue with unacceptable deadlines and others mention Tom Smothers lobbying the FCC and members of Congress over corporate censorship that brought about the firing. The brothers filed a breach of contract suit against the network and after four years of litigation, a federal court ruled in their favor, awarding them $776,300.

Here’s a typical joke from the show that was not as controversial.

Tom: You can tell who’s running the country by how much clothes people wear, see?

Dick: Do you mean that some people can afford more clothes on, and some people have . . . less on? Is that what you mean?

Tom: That’s right.

Dick: I don’t understand.

Tom: See, the ordinary people, you’d say that the ordinary people are the less-ons.

Dick: So, who’s running the country?

Tom: The morons.

The Smothers Brothers elicited humor that was as topical, influential, and critical as anyone had ever heard before on television. Fifty years later, both the network and the brothers realized everyone over-reacted. If the Smothers Brothers had tried to play by the rules a bit, they would not have lost their platform to continue to help change what they saw as a messed-up culture.

The CBS executives felt the program created too much controversy. In their defense, politicians, especially Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, exerted a lot of pressure on the network. Remember this was a time of three networks and ads are what produced the profits to fund shows. The network received a boatload of hate mail daily about the program and, when viewers begin talking boycotting advertisers, executives sit up a bit straighter and listen.

The Smothers Brothers Show, a less controversial series, debuted in 1975. They had two specials on NBC later and another CBS series in 1988 but never regained the influence they had in the sixties. However, the show did help pave the way for a future that permitted, and later embraced, shows with controversy beginning with All in the Family, continuing with Saturday Night Live, and recently seen on shows such hosted by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Although the comedy spouted on the show would seem quite tame by today’s standards, the show had an important part in the history of television and the rights of free speech.

I have seen some DVDs out there from this show, but they are pricey. Recently I saw season two going for $190. I do see Laugh In on Decades quite often, so perhaps The Smothers Brothers might show up somewhere too, although I’m not sure this show would hold up as well as Laugh In, but the musical performances would be fun to see.

thewritelife61

How pop culture influences us

Month: April 2020

Don’t Blink: Shows That Received Pink Slips by the Holidays

Where Did They Go? Television Characters Who Simply Vanished

Bewitched vs I Dream of Jeannie: The Great Debate

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour: Fifty Years After Getting the Pink Slip