''The Smothers Brothers Show'' is an American

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

sitcom featuring the Smothers Brothers that aired on CBS on Friday nights at 9:30 p.m. ET from September 17, 1965, to April 22, 1966, co-sponsored by Alberto-Culver's VO5 hairdressing products and

American Tobacco The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members of ...

Tareyton Tareyton is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. History Tareyton began as a variation of Herbert Tareyton cork-tipped non-filter cigarettes (whose slogan was, "There's ''someth ...

cigarettes. It was the first television show to feature the Smothers Brothers as regulars, following a series of night club and guest appearances. It lasted one season, consisting of 32 episodes. It was the network's last situation comedy filmed in black-and-white; shortly after its final telecast, all CBS prime-time series were transmitted in color. In 1986, two decades after cancellation, reruns were seen on

Nick at Nite Nick at Nite (stylized as nick@nite) is an American nighttime basic cable television channel that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon. It typically broadcasts Mondays to Thursday nights from 9 p.m. - 6:30 a.m. Eastern Time Zone, ET/Pac ...

Synopsis

Dick Smothers Richard Remick Smothers (born November 20, 1938) is an American actor, comedian, composer, and musician. He was half of the musical comedy team the Smothers Brothers, with his older brother Tom Smothers, Tom. Life and career Smothers was born i ...

played himself as a rising young executive at Pandora Publications, working for publisher Leonard J. Costello ( Roland Winters). Brother

Tom Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

had been lost at sea two years earlier and now shows up as an apprentice angel assigned to do good deeds on Earth to earn his wings and become a full-fledged angel. Of course, Tom's efforts to help people never seem to work as planned and Dick had to help him clean up the mess. Tom received his orders from Ralph, his unseen and unheard boss. The series also featured

Harriet MacGibbon Harriet MacGibbon (born Harriet E. McGibbon; October 5, 1905 – February 8, 1987) was an American film, stage and television actress best known for her role as the insufferably snobbish, "blue-blooded Bostonian" Mrs. Margaret Drysdale in ...

as Mrs. Costello, and on occasion, Ann Elder as Dick's co-worker and girl friend Janet (Eileen O'Neill) also appeared in several episodes as another of Dick's girl friends, Wanda. As was typical of the Smothers Brothers in ''

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour ''The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'' was an American comedy and variety show television series hosted by the Smothers Brothers and initially airing on CBS from 1967 to 1969. The series was a major success, especially considering it was sched ...

'', Dick was typically the straight man to Tom's humorous antics.

Creative control struggles

The series was produced by Four Star Television in association with the brothers' Knave Productions (named for Tom's catchphrase "

Curb Your Tongue, Knave! ''"Curb Your Tongue, Knave!"'' is the fourth comedy album recorded by the Smothers Brothers, released November 1, 1963 on Mercury Records. The album was recorded live at Mister Kelly's in Chicago, Illinois. It reached number 13 on the ''Billbo ...

", and the title of their 1963 record album). This series may have inspired the Brothers' more successful later series ''

'' in that Tom Smothers had been critical of the series as not being compatible with the brothers' strengths (in fact, he fought with Four Star executives over more creative control of the series, earning an ulcer and irritating his marital relationship to the point of divorce at the end of the season). For instance, neither brother played their instruments on the show (with one exception, at the beginning of "'Twas The Week Before Christmas" episode), and it was not until halfway through the season that they sang the theme song.

Episodes

References

External links

*
Link to theme song
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smothers Brothers Show, The 1965 American television series debuts 1966 American television series endings 1960s American sitcoms American fantasy television series Angels in television Black-and-white American television shows CBS original programming English-language television shows Fantasy comedy television series Television series about brothers Television series by Four Star Television Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television series created by Aaron Spelling