On the Edge of Tastelessness: CBS, the Smothers Brothers and the Struggle for Control

Abstract

It is hard to imagine a time when a critic could seriously claim that skits mocking the Revolutionary War or the first Trans-Atlantic flight were the edge of tastelessness because insulting our heroes... was definitely over the edge.' Yet it was over this other issues of taste that one of American television's most vehement struggles for control occurred. stakes were censorship, free speech, the right to determine programming content, the players involved not just a network some enfants terribles, but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), individual broadcasters, elected officials, the mainstream press as well. result was one of the most publicized showdowns in American broadcast history. Ironically enough, this showdown was not over serious drama or even pointed satire; Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was a comedy/variety show, replete with the standard concoction of comedic sketches musical interludes. To be sure, the show did not fit the generic mold of variety shows such as Sonny Cher Comedy Hour or the later Captain Tennille. And Laugh-In, NBC's hip nod to the comedy hour a spinoff of Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, went much further in its so-called blue material the flippant relevancy of its sock it to me jokes. Certainly, All in the Family, which the CBS television network premiered a year a half after it cancelled Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, pushed the boundaries of controversy relevance well beyond those of any other comedy or comedyvariety show of that era. Yet on 4 April 1969, the Good Friday before Easter Sunday, the same network responsible for See It Now All in the Family splayed Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour upon the altar of good taste killed it. Some, like controversial FCC commissioner Nicholas Johnson, lamented the show's passing. My God, Johnson told Nat Hentoff, if we've come to the point where that is so controversial it can't be seen on American television, we're a hell of a lot sicker in a hell of a lot more trouble than I ever thought.2 But others, especially CBS president Bob Wood, defended the network's action as preserving the sanctity of the American living room. The Smothers Brothers took the position that we must abrogate the standards we apply to all entertainment programs, Wood argued, and make a special exception to them.3