The Smothers Brothers

During the 1960s the Smothers Brothers stood among the decade’s leading comedy acts, attaining stardom precisely when folk records and comedy albums both generated substantial sales and allowing the pair to succeed in each domain at once. Although Tom and Dick Smothers performed capably as vocalists and players with solid command of traditional folk material, their widest recognition arose from the humorous exchanges they inserted midway through numbers, exchanges in which the mischievous, boyish Tom traded barbs with the steadier Dick. After attracting attention through club dates and television appearances, the brothers issued their first LP, The Songs and Comedy of the Smothers Brothers!, in 1962, a release that faithfully preserved the routine responsible for their renown. Their appeal proved strong enough for eight further albums to appear between 1962 and 1966, yet the arrival of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967 simultaneously delivered their greatest public exposure and halted their recording activity.

Tom and Dick Smothers were born and raised on Governors Island, New York, where their father, Thomas Bolyn Smothers, Jr., served as a United States Army officer. Tom Smothers entered the world on February 2, 1937, and Dick Smothers followed on November 20, 1938. Their father fought with the 45th Infantry Regiment in World War II and perished while held as a Prisoner of War by Japanese forces. Their mother, Ruth Smothers, relocated the family to California; the brothers attended Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach and sang in a barbershop quartet there. After graduation both enrolled at San Jose State University, where folk music captured their interest. Tom adopted the guitar and Dick the upright bass, and the siblings joined the Casual Quintet. The group later shrank to a trio featuring Bobby Blackmore on lead vocals; reflecting the irreverence later evident on their television program, the act was named the Smothers Brothers and Gawd. Although the musicianship and singing were accomplished, audiences responded most enthusiastically to the between-song banter in which Tom assumed the role of a stammering, impudent younger brother—despite being Dick’s senior—and Dick grew exasperated trying to maintain order. The comedy soon infiltrated the songs themselves: Tom would insert a rehearsed error mid-number, Dick would correct him, and the ensuing exchange would escalate into sibling rivalry, culminating in Tom’s signature declaration, “Mom always liked you best!” A single-night engagement at San Francisco’s Purple Onion extended to two weeks, after which the Smothers Brothers became regular guests on television variety programs and sold-out college-concert attractions.

As their profile climbed, the Smothers Brothers secured a Mercury Records contract that yielded their debut album, The Songs and Comedy of the Smothers Brothers!, in 1962. The release sold briskly, prompting Mercury to issue a follow-up, The Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers, before year’s end; one side contained their comic folk material while the other presented straight performances, partly because insufficient new routines had been prepared for a full comedy record. The LP reached number 40 on the Top 200 Albums chart. Two more albums appeared in 1963—Think Ethnic! and Curb Your Tongue, Knave!—the latter attaining the duo’s highest placement at number 13. 1964’s It Must Have Been Something I Said! contained “Jenny Brown,” the brothers’ sole charting single, which climbed to number 84 on the Pop Hot 100. In 1965 Tom and Dick found time for two releases, Tour de Farce: American History and Other Unrelated Subjects and Aesop’s Fables: The Smothers Brothers Way (the latter aimed at children), while also developing their initial television effort, the situation comedy The Smothers Brothers Show. On that series Tom portrayed an angel dispatched to Earth to supervise the philandering Dick; notably the program contained no music from the brothers and lasted only one season. 1966 brought two further albums, Mom Always Liked You Best! and The Smothers Brothers Play It Straight, the latter their only entirely non-comic collection and devoted solely to folk and pop standards. (Dick issued his own non-comic solo album, Saturday Night at the World, in 1967.)

After the disappointing run of their sitcom, the Smothers Brothers accepted another television opportunity in 1967 when CBS, seeking counterprogramming to the long-dominant Bonanza, granted them a variety hour. The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour showcased Tom and Dick delivering their established mixture of music and clean-cut comedy. Tom, however, sought to introduce more provocative content. He assembled a writing staff that included the then-unknown Steve Martin and Rob Reiner, booked progressive musical guests such as the Who, Jefferson Airplane, the Doors, Buffalo Springfield, and George Harrison, and permitted sketches that offered pointed social and political commentary together with occasional allusions to drugs and sex—elements that provoked repeated conflicts with network censors. The program unexpectedly succeeded in the ratings, and the brothers’ final album, 1968’s The Smothers Comedy Brothers Hour (the inverted title intentional), drew its material from the broadcast. As the sketches grew bolder, the Smothers Brothers and their producers repeatedly clashed with CBS executives responding to complaints from conservative viewers, among them Richard Nixon, a frequent target of the humor. CBS pressured the brothers to moderate their material; they declined. In 1970 the network invoked a technical violation—a sketch featuring comic David Steinberg had not been submitted for clearance in time—and canceled the series on contractual grounds. CBS soon substituted the markedly less controversial country series Hee Haw in its slot.

Following the cancellation of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, live performances again became the brothers’ principal activity, although they later hosted variety programs on ABC and NBC, neither of which matched the original series in popularity or notoriety. In 1978 they appeared in a Broadway production of the comedy I Love My Wife and subsequently toured the show. They also ventured into dramatic television, co-starring as an investigative-reporting team in the short-lived series Fitz & Bones, which was canceled after five episodes. Mercury’s Smothers Brothers catalog had long been unavailable when Rhino Records released Sibling Revelry: The Best of the Smothers Brothers in 1998, an anthology containing eighteen of their most familiar routines. During periods away from performing, Tom operated a successful winery, and over time the brothers were recognized as advocates for free speech because of their confrontation with CBS. That episode later inspired both a documentary film, 2002’s Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and David Bianculli’s book Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. The Smothers Brothers retired their act in 2010, yet they made several low-key appearances in 2022 and scheduled a reunion tour for 2023. The tour was canceled in July 2023 after Tom Smothers received a diagnosis of Stage 2 lung cancer; he died on December 26, 2023, at age 86.