Smothers Brothers

Start with: The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (CBS) Two brothers, a guitar and a double bass, and a folk song that never gets finished. Tom Smothers played the clueless one, Dick the exasperated straight man, and their musical numbers kept collapsing into sibling squabbles that Tom ended with his signature complaint, "Mom always liked you best!" The gentle act hid a sharp edge. Their CBS variety hour became one of the most controversial programs of the Vietnam War era for its political material, and network chief William S. Paley abruptly canceled it on April 4, 1969. Watch it for the push and pull between brotherly nonsense and real satire; Tom died in December 2023, at 86.