Comedian Tom Smothers, one-half of the Smothers Brothers, dies at 86
Tom Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers and the co-host of one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in the history of the medium, has died at 86.
The 国家の Comedy 中心, on に代わって of his family, said in a 声明 Wednesday that Smothers died Tuesday at home in Santa Rosa, California, に引き続いて a 癌 戦う／戦い.
"I'm just 荒廃させるd," his brother and the 二人組's other half, 刑事 Smothers, told The Associated 圧力（をかける） in an interview Wednesday. "Every breath I´ve taken, my brother´s been around."
When "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" debuted on CBS in 早期に 1967 it was an 即座の 攻撃する，衝突する, to the surprise of many who had assumed the 網状組織´s 期待s were so low it positioned their show opposite the 最高の，を越す-率d "大当り."
But the Smothers Brothers would 証明する a turning point in television history, with its sharp 注目する，もくろむ for pop culture 傾向s and young 激しく揺する 星／主役にするs such as the Who and Buffalo Springfield, and its daring sketches - ridiculing the 設立, railing against the Vietnam War and portraying members of the 時代's hippie counterculture as gentle, fun-loving spirits - 設立する an 即座の audience with young baby boomers.
"We were 穏健な. We were never out there," 刑事 Smothers said. "But we were the first people through that door. It just sort of crept in as t he '60s crept in. We were part of that 世代."
FILE - Tom Smothers does yo-yo tricks during arrivals at CBS's 75th 周年記念日 祝賀 Sunday, Nov. 2, 2003, in New York. Tom Smothers, half of the Smother Brothers and the co-host of one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in the history of the medium, has died, Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2023 at 86. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano, とじ込み／提出する)
The show reached No. 16 in the ratings in its first season. It also drew the 怒らせる of 網状組織 censors. After years of 戦う／戦いing with the brothers over the show's creative content, the 網状組織 突然の 取り消すd the program in 1969, 告発する／非難するing the siblings of failing to 服従させる／提出する an episode in time for the censors to review.
Nearly 40 years later, when Smothers was awarded an 名誉として与えられる Emmy for his work on the show, he jokingly thanked the writers he said had gotten him 解雇する／砲火／射撃d. He also showed that the years had not dulled his outspokenness.
"It´s hard for me to stay silent when I keep 審理，公聴会 that peace is only attainable through war," Smothers said at the 2008 Emmy Awards as his brother sat in the audience, beaming. He 献身的な his award to those "who feel compelled to speak out and are not afraid to speak to 力／強力にする and won´t shut up."
During the three years the show was on television, the brothers 絶えず 戦う／戦いd with CBS censors and occasionally 乱暴／暴力を加えるd テレビ視聴者s 同様に, 特に when Smothers joked that 復活祭 "is when Jesus comes out of his tomb and if he sees his 影をつくる／尾行する, he goes 支援する in and we get six more weeks of winter." At Christmas, when other hosts were sending best wishes to 兵士s fighting overseas, Smothers 申し込む／申し出d his to 草案 ペテン師 who had moved to Canada.
In still another episode, the brothers returned blacklisted folk singer Pete Seeger to television for the first time in years. He 成し遂げるd his song "Waist 深い in the Big Muddy," 広範囲にわたって 見解（をとる）d as ridiculing 大統領 Lyndon Johnson. When CBS 辞退するd to 空気／公表する the segment, the brothers brought Seeger 支援する for another episode and he sang it again. This time, it made the 空気／公表する.
After the show was 取り消すd, the brothers 告訴するd CBS for $31 million and were awarded $775,000. Their 戦う／戦いs with the 網状組織 were chronicled in the 2002 文書の "Smothered: The 検閲 Stru ggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour."
"Tom Smothers was not only an 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の comedic talent, who, together with his brother 刑事, became the most 耐えるing comedy 二人組 in history, entertaining the world for over six １０年間s - but was a true 支持する／優勝者 for freedom of speech," 国家の Comedy 中心 (n)役員／(a)執行力のある Director 旅行 Gunderson said in a 声明.
Thomas Bolyn Smothers III was born Feb. 2, 1937, on 知事s Island, New York, where his father, an Army major, was 駅／配置するd. His brother was born two years later. In 1940 their father was transferred to the Philippines, and his wife, two sons and their sister, Sherry, …を伴ってd him.
When the Japanese 爆弾d Pearl Harbor, the family was sent home and Maj. Smothers remained. He was 逮捕（する）d by the Japanese during the war and died in 捕らわれた. The family 結局 moved to the Los Angeles 郊外 of Redondo Beach, where Smothers helped his mother take care of his brother and sister while she worked.
"Tommy was the greatest older brother. He took care of me," 刑事 Smothers said. "His 成熟 was amazing. いつかs you lose part of your childhood."
The brothers had seemed ありそうもない to make television history. They had spent several years on the nightclub and college 回路・連盟s and doing TV guest 外見s, honing an offbeat comedy 決まりきった仕事 that mixed folk music with a healthy dose of sibling 競争.
They would come on 行う／開催する／段階, Tom with a guitar in 手渡す and 刑事 こどもing an upright bass. They would quickly break into a 伝統的な folk song - perhaps "John Henry" or "Pretoria." After playing several 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s, Tom, positioned as the dumb one にもかかわらず 存在 older, would mess up, then quickly （人命などを）奪う，主張する he had meant to do that. As 刑事, the serious, short-tempered one, berated him for failing to 認める his error, he would 叫び声をあげる in exasperation, "Mom always liked yo u best!"
"It was the childlike enthusiasm through ignorance, and me, the teacher, 訂正するing him - いつかs I´d 訂正する him even if I was wrong," 刑事 Smothers said. "I was the perfect straight man for my brother. I was the only straight man for my brother."
They continued that shtick on their show but also surrounded themselves with a talented cast of newcomers, both writers and performers.
未来 actor-filmmaker 略奪する Reiner was の中で those on the 割れ目 令状ing 乗組員 the brothers 組み立てる／集結するd.
"Tommy was funny, smart, and a 闘士，戦闘機," Reiner said on social マスコミ Wednesday. "He created a ground breaking show that celebrated all that was good about American 僕主主義."
Other writers 含むd musician Mason Williams and comedian Steve ツバメ, who 現在のd Smothers with the lifetime Emmy. 正規の／正選手 musical guests 含むd John Hartford, Glen Campbell and Jennifer 警告するs.
The brothers had begun their own 行為／法令／行動する when Tom, then a student at San Jose 明言する／公表する College, formed a music group called the Casual Quintet and encouraged his younger brother to learn the bass and join. The brothers continued on as a 二人組 after the other musicians dropped out, but began interspersing comedy with their limi ted folk music repertoire.
"We never wrote anything, we just made it up, and tried to remember what we made up," 刑事 Smothers said. "I just 答える／応じるd to Tom, if he said something that wasn´t in the bit, I wouldn´t stick to the script, I would listen."
The brothers' big break （機の）カム in 1959 when they appeared at San Francisco´s Purple Onion, then a hot 位置／汚点／見つけ出す for new talent. 調書をとる／予約するd for two weeks, they stayed a 記録，記録的な／記録する 36. They had a 類似の run at New York´s Blue Angel. But to their 失望, they couldn´t get on "The Tonight Show," then hosted by Jack Paar.
"Paar kept telling our スパイ／執行官 he didn´t like folk singers - except for Burl Ives," Smothers told the AP in 1964. "But one night he had a 取り消し, and we went on. Everything worked 権利 that night."
刑事 Smothers said Wednesday that "we weren´t that good when we were on `The Tonight Show.' We were just charmingly different."
The brothers went on to appear on the TV shows of Ed Sullivan, Jack Benny and Judy Garland, の中で others. Their comedy albums were big 販売人s and they 小旅行するd the country, 特に colleges.
Before their more vaunted show, the 二人組 got a sitcom in 1965. "The Smothers Brothers Show" was about a 実業家 (刑事) haunted by his late brother (Tom), a fledgling 後見人 angel. It lasted just one season.
すぐに after CBS 取り消すd the "Comedy Hour," ABC 選ぶd it up as a summer 交替／補充, but the 網状組織 didn´t bring it 支援する in the 落ちる. NBC gave them a show in 1975 but it failed to find an audience and lasted only a season. The brothers went their separate ways for a time. の中で other 努力するs, Smothers got into the ワイン 商売／仕事, 開始する，打ち上げるing Remick 山の尾根 Vineyards in Northern California´s ワイン country.
"初めは the winery was called Smothers Brothers, bu t I changed the 指名する to Remick 山の尾根 because when people heard Smothers Brothers ワイン, they thought something like Milton Berle 罰金 ワイン or Larry, Curly and Mo Vineyards," Smothers once said.
They 結局 再会させるd to 星／主役にする in the musical comedy "I Love My Wife," a 攻撃する，衝突する that ran on Broadway for two years. After that they went 支援する on the road, playing casinos, 成し遂げるing arts 中心s and 法人組織の／企業の 集会s around the country, remaining popular for １０年間s.
"We just keep resurfacing," Smothers commented in 1997. "We´re just not in everyone´s 直面する long enough to really get old."
After a successful 20th 周年記念日 "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" in 1988, CBS buried the hatchet and brought them 支援する.
The show was quickly 取り消すd, though it stayed on the 空気／公表する long enough for Smothers to introduce the "Yo-Yo Man," a bit 許すing him to 論証する his かなりの 技術s with a yo-yo while he and his brother kept up a 安定した patter of comedy. The bit remained in their 行為／法令／行動する for years.
"It was like a 広大な／多数の／重要な marriage, you go through some rough 位置／汚点／見つけ出すs, but you still don´t lose that 焦点（を合わせる）," 刑事 Smothers said.
They retired in 2010, but returned for a 一連の shows in 2021 that would be their last before Tom Smothers' illness left him unable to continue.
"The audience 爆発するd," 刑事 Smothers said of those shows. "It was like a clap of 雷鳴. They were young again."
Smothers married three times and had three children. He is 生き残るd by his wife Marcy, children Bo and Riley Rose, and brother 刑事, in 新規加入 to other 親族s. He was predeceased by his son Tom and sister Sherry.
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This story has been updated to 訂正する that Smothers´ father was in the Army, not the 海軍, and tha t his wife's 指名する is Marcy, not Marie. "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" debuted in 早期に 1967, not 落ちる, and was 取り消すd in 1969, not 1970.
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Dalton 報告（する）／憶測d from Los Angeles. Moore, a longtime Associated 圧力（をかける） television writer, retired in 2017. Former Associated 圧力（をかける） 新聞記者／雑誌記者s John Rogers and the late （頭が）ひょいと動く Thomas 与える／捧げるd to this 報告（する）／憶測.
FILE - This Oct. 29, 2002 とじ込み／提出する photo shows The Smothers Brothers, Tom Smothers, left, and 刑事 Smo thers at the Kennedy 中心 in Washington for the 示す Twain Prize for Humor Award 儀式 栄誉（を受ける）ing （頭が）ひょいと動く Newhart. Tom Smothers, half of the Smother Brothers and the co-host of one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in the history of the medium, has died, Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2023 at 86.. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson, とじ込み／提出する)
