TeleTales #60…The CBS Censors And The Smothers Brothers
Thanks to Randy West, here is a perfect example of the kind of censorship and restraint CBS applied to Tom and Dick Smothers. Can you say petty?
The bigger issue was politics and Tom and Dick discuss that at the link above. The best discussion on this topic is from the 2002 documentary from Maureen Muldaur called “Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour”.
It’s online, but you have to sign up to see it, but it’s worth it.
Enjoy and share. -Bobby Ellerbee
I miss restraint on TV. The blatant sex and dirty jokes are just awful today.
I wish CBS had censors today.
They consolidated the east- and west-coast continuity departments around 1971 in Hollywood. The fellow who took my place in New York was let go around 1971. I took a tour of 51 W 52 in 1971 and it was a ghost town. The desks were all sitting on their sides (perhaps a security policy).
With a name like “Downer”…
It was a different time. Contrast this with the no-holds-barred approach of any given Fox show today.
Leigh French a name from the past
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPHdkxApd9E Check this out. See if one of the “censors” looks familiar.
I always thought the brothers were a couple of punks, especially Tommy.
I assume the andy willams reference was because of the plug to another network?
How far we’ve come since 1969!
There must be a happy medium between this idiocy and Two Broke Girls.
Notice that he was too cheap to e-mail it.
And they had a good show in spite of it.
In spite of this micro-management from CBS Standards and Practices, I always thought Smothers Bros. did many helpful things getting young and liberal points of view on the air. Bravo!
A friend of mine Lillian Benson ACE edited Smothered, it is very interesting. I recommend it.
Just 4 1/2 years after this memo was written, Match Game would be asking questions with “Boobs” and “tinkle” as the answers — right there in studio 33.