This particular episode of
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was televised in December 1968, as part of the variety show’s third and final season. By now, Tom and Dick Smothers had all but abandoned their previous approach of booking guests from several generations of show business, and were focusing on young performers and performances of interest to the Brothers’ young CBS audience. So in this episode, Tom and Dick host comedian Bob Newhart, as well as Kenny Rogers (who died recently), making a TV appearance with his group that had formed just two weeks before, The First Edition. Also, this particular
Comedy Hour features the West Coast cast of
Hair, singing three songs that would become Top 10 hits for other artists – but not until the following year, in 1969. The cast sings a medley of “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” and the title song, “Hair” – quite a counterculture statement on prime time television. And one other thing about this particular episode: This is the one that was in the works when a brand-new CBS newsmagazine called
60 Minutes visited to do a story on the show and its controversial content.
60 Minutes missed at least one story that week, when a boom mike operator was so incensed by the content of the
Hair medley that he and Tom Smothers got into an impromptu on-stage, but off-camera, wrestling match and fistfight. Just the sort of nugget you can pick up from the author of
Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. You're welcome.