As part of today’s program, host Jane Pauley is presenting a retrospective pegged to an old CBS program,
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, that premiered on the same network 50 years ago today. I’ll be watching. And back in 2009, when I was doing the last lap of research for my book
Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of ‘The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,’ I met with Tom and Dick Smothers in Los Angeles, where they were about to be guests on
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and took them on a tour of their old
Comedy Hour soundstages, which were housed in the same building. One of the main stages they used for
Comedy Hour back in the 1960s was now the home of
The Price is Right, hosted by Drew Carey. Someone took a photo that day, of the three of us on the
Price Is Right, and former
Comedy Hour, stage. On the golden anniversary of the premiere of
Comedy Hour, I share that personal photo as a thank-you to the brothers Smothers, for putting up with my 14 years of research leading up to the book’s publication – and for remaining friendly to me in the eight years since. For my articles about this particularly meaningful golden anniversary of
Comedy Hour, see Bianculli’s Blog – or, for lots of Smothers video and quotes from Tom and Dick and head writer Mason Williams, see
my article from Saturday’s New York Times, called The Smothers Brothers: Laughing at Hard Truths. Happy anniversary, Tom and Dick. Enjoy the fuss. You earned it – and, by being fired unfairly by CBS because of your outspokenness and defiance, paid for it.