The world needs a little Tommy Smothers right now

"The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen." -- Tommy Smothers

Left to right: Tommy Smothers, Pete Seeger and Dick Smothers.

I remember sitting at the dinner table with my parents telling them that my kindergarten teacher said we would be writing letters to United States (US) soldiers fighting in Vietnam. The letters were meant to cheer them up at Christmas time.

The next day I handed my unsuspecting teacher a note from my father stating that my letter was going to be written to the people of Vietnam and I would be apologizing for the illegal war that the US was waging against them and for the napalm that the US was dropping on them.

Napalm, gasoline mixed with a jelling agent, had been ‘used successfully’ during the Korean War so why not use it again?! Over 388,000 tons of napalm were dropped on Vietnam between 1963 and 1973.

Dow Chemical raked in handsome profits from the production of napalm. It also profited from the production of Agent Orange. Over 43 million litres (11.4 million gallons) were sprayed over forests and people. The effects of this defoliant are still impacting the people of Vietnam, US veterans and their descendants.

Monsanto, the other manufacturer of Agent Orange, denies any negative health effects despite it being a dioxin and in spite of literally decades of scientific and anecdotal proof that this defoliant has neurological and psychological impacts and exposure leads to cancers and birth defects.

The main ingredient of Agent Orange known as 2,4-D later became an essential component of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. Something to think about the next time you spray that weed on your lawn because essentially, you are using a chemical originally designed to kill everything from plants to the people hiding in that foliage.

The use of Agent Orange is now considered an act of ecocide, a war crime and a violation of international law. But then, the US government committed war crimes and violated international law umpteen times during the illegal war they waged on the people of Vietnam and surrounding countries.

I don’t remember if I ever wrote my letter, but I still think about it at Christmas time. This year more so when I heard about the passing of Tommy Smothers on December 26 from cancer.

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour hit the Columbia Broadcasting Systems (CBS) airwaves in September 1967. Tommy and Dick Smothers were given the toughest time slot possible competing against the number one show on the air Bonanza. But at their peak, the brothers gave Pa, Hoss and Little Joe a run for their settler colonial money.

Even though I was only six when the show first aired, I watched it every week and naively thought everyone else was watching it too. Of course, most of the satire was going over my head, but I did get the references to the Vietnam War and most of the references to important political figures like Martin Luther King.

Researching material for this article, I was blown away by the impressive list of writers who contributed to the weekly politically charged comedy show. The long list included John Barrett, Carl Gottlieb, Murray Roman, Paul Wayne, Steve Martin, Mason Williams, Rob Reiner, Lorenzo Music, Bob Einstein, Jim Stafford, Larry David, Leigh French, Barbara Bosson, Kathy Ish, Jessica Myerson, David Steinberg and of course, Pat Paulsen -- who I really did believe was running for, and would become, president of the US.

The guests were a veritable who’s who of famous entertainers including Jack Benny, George Burns, George Segal — who sang a little ditty Donald Trump knows all too well – the Draft Dodger Rag, Jill St. John, Bette Davis, Peter Bonerz, Harry Belafonte -- whose censored performance set the riots of the Chicago Democratic Convention to the Caribbean song Don’t Stop the Carnival, Sonny and Cher, Janis Ian, Jennifer Waren, Donovan, Dion, George Harrison, Buffalo Springfield, The Who, Joan Baez – censors cut her song dedication to her husband who was on his way to jail for being a conscientious objector, a blacklisted Pete Seeger who had rarely been on television during the previous 17 years and the list goes on and on and on.

In a time when Bewitched, Green Acres, The Andy Griffiths Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Gilligan’s Island, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Munsters numbed minds and offered escapism, the Smothers Brothers were tacking the Vietnam conflict, the draft, conscientious objectors, anti-Black racism, anti-immigration racism, fire arm restrictions, inter-racial marriage, religion and of course, censorship.

The brothers and their writers were speaking truth about power while exposing their audience to the ways in which power corrupts and creates policy to protect its self-interests. At times that could be a simple as Tommy reading passages from the censors’ own handbook.

Young people were tuning in just as fast as old white conservatives were tuning out anything that pulled into questioned the picture-perfect all-American family and a federal government that was supposed to act in the best interest of its people.

Medgar Evers and John Kennedy were assassinated in 1963. Then, Malcolm X was murdered in 1965. In 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated followed by Robert Kennedy. It seemed anyone working for equity, social justice and basic human rights was a target for this ultimate form of censorship.

Colleges were no longer safe bastions of higher learning as police with batons and tear gas descended on campuses sometimes killing students peacefully protesting an illegal, undeclared war and institutionalized segregation.

When Richard Nixon took over from Lyndon Johnson the administration became even more hostile to media with a special focus on what it considered liberal broadcasting media.

As affiliate stations increasingly refused to include The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in their programing, CBS reached an agreement that ensured stations would receive a copy of the taped show each Wednesday to review before its Sunday airing.

In April 1969 when the brothers apparently failed to deliver that week’s show on time, CBS abruptly cancelled their contract.

The final episode that never aired featured Laugh-Ins Dan Rowan who, along with Tommy Smothers, awarded Democratic Senator John Pastore, head of the Senate Commerce Committees which oversaw the Federal Communications Committee, the ‘Flying Fickle Finger of Fate’ (FFFF).

The episode also featured singer Nancy Wilson in a skit with Tommy Smothers that looked critically at inter-racial marriage and historical anti-Black racism.

David Steinberg revived his very controversial sermon skit which some wrongly credit with the show’s cancellation. Realistically, that directive most likely came from a much higher power like the office of Senator Pastore and can be attributed to the senator being given the FFFF in recognition of his questionable achievements.

Make the time to watch that never aired episode that Tommy dedicated to the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King here. You’ll be surprised by how little things have changed in the past five decades. You’ll also see why the world needs a little Tommy Smothers right now.

For those who want to hear from the brothers, the writers and the entertainers about the rampant censorship the show faced, I encourage you to take 90 minutes out of your day to watch Smothered – the Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (2002).

Despite being cancelled, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour writers won an Emmy in 1969 for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series. Unfortunately, Tommy did not share in the glory because as head writer he removed himself from the nomination fearing it would negatively affect the outcome.

In 2008 that omission was rectified when Tommy was awarded a special Emmy for his outspoken and outstanding work on the Smothers Brothers show.