Comedian Tom Smothers of the Smothers Brothers dies at 86, 26 December 2023

[Betty P]

 

[Betty P]

From link in OP.
"... brother Dick said...
“Don’t tell a comedian not to say a certain word. For sure they’ll do it,” he said. “The funny thing is, I look back at those things. They’re so benign, but at the time they were volatile.”

Ain't that the truth?
Controversial back then.
Now probably clean, benign enough to include their material on Sesame Street.

So true.
I think CBS opposed their talk that was critical of Nixon and the Vietnam War, Cambodia, etc. The US was a pressure-cooker of protest against the war at that time, for good reason.

Smothers Brothers weren't renewed at the end of 1969, Nixon invaded Cambodia in the spring of 1970, student deferments for the draft were cancelled, protests grew on college campuses, then the Ohio National Guard killed and wounded innocent students at Kent State. CBS was probably responding to pressure from elsewhere, a bad decision on their part.

 

[Morag]

Nice story about a sad topic:

Comedian Tom Smothers, one-half of the Smothers Brothers, dies at 86

Tommy Smothers who, along with his brother Dick, formed a groundbreaking comedy duo that made people laugh for decades, died Tuesday at age 86.

www.wave3.com