According to his family, Tom Smothers, half of the well-known Smothers Brothers comedy and song combo that opposed racism, the Vietnam War, and television censorship, passed away on Tuesday from an aggressive form of cancer.
He was eighty-six.
The National Comedy Center and Smothers’ family confirmed his demise at his Santa Rosa, California, home on Wednesday.
Brother Dick Smothers, 84, said in a statement, “Tom was not only the loving older brother that everyone would want in their life, he was a one-of-a-kind creative partner.” “I am eternally thankful for having shared a lifetime with him for more than 60 years, both on and off stage. The longer we were together, the more we loved and respected each other, just like in a healthy marriage. We were quite fortunate.
In the restrained, confrontation-averse media of the 1960s, Tom and Dick Smothers were never afraid to use their platform to poke fun at authority in any manner that they could.
“The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” began airing in the autumn of 1967, but CBS infamously cancelled it in April 1969 due to its content, which often made fun of the powerful and supported opponents of the Vietnam War and civil rights activists.
The two continued to share their hilarious perspectives on their significant roles in pop culture history at a 2019 event honoring the 50th anniversary of the firing.
“To be recognized in this manner is truly a privilege,” Tom Smothers said to The Associated Press in 2019. “At least we both survive and don’t have a representative speaking for us. We are able to get by by mumbling.
Looking back, brother Dick claimed that they thought their humor was rather “benign” in spite of the criticism after their 1969 CBS firing.
“Never instruct a comic to omit a word. “They’ll definitely do it,” he said. The amusing part is that I remember those things. Although they were volatile at the time, they are now rather innocuous.
However, Tom Smothers expressed doubts in 2004 about the ability of American viewers to tolerate open political discussion on prime-time television.
There’s a lack of social criticism even when “dirty words are flowing, the sex is flowing, and the violence,” he added at the time.
On February 2, 1937, Thomas Bolyn Smothers III was born on Governors Island in New York. He was the son of Ruth Remick Smothers, a housewife, and Army Maj. Thomas Smothers, a Japanese prisoner of war who lost his life during World War II.
Both brothers attended San José State and graduated before starting their careers in comedy and music, after their relocation to a Los Angeles suburb. At renowned clubs like New York’s Blue Angel and San Francisco’s Purple Onion, they perfected their trade.
The brothers’ folk music was nonetheless unpopular on mainstream venues even after it had early critical recognition. Smothers described how getting on “The Tonight Show,” which was hosted by Jack Paar at the time, required a lucky break.
Smothers said in 1964 that “Paar kept telling our agent he didn’t like folk singers— except for Burl Ives.” But we continued that night despite his cancelation. That evening, everything went well.
The two worked consistently for decades after CBS closed its doors on them.
In a 1969 hotel room in Montreal, Tom Smothers provided the acoustic guitar accompaniment for John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s recording of “Give Peace a Chance.”
But the two never achieved the kind of wide-spread success they had with “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” Rather, they became symbols of the finest comedy possible, using humor to address weighty subjects.
“We weren’t deliberate about it,” Tom Smothers said in 2019. “No guy goes to war and takes a bullet on purpose.”
According to Journey Gunderson, executive director of the National Comedy Center, programs like “Saturday Night Live” and “The Daily Show” have the Smothers Brothers as their ancestors.
“Tom Smothers was a true champion for freedom of speech, harnessing the power of comedy to push boundaries and our political consciousness. He was not only an extraordinary comedic talent who, with his brother Dick, became the most enduring comedy duo in history, entertaining the world for over six decades,” a statement from Gunderson read.
Later on, when Tom Smothers wasn’t destroying the place with humor or music, he was crushing grapes at his mother’s vineyard, Remick Ridge Vineyards, in the Sonoma Valley.
Eventually, he sold it to Arrowhead Winery, and the family brand is still used on some cabernet produced today. Smothers-Remick Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon from 2018 costs $105 a bottle.
According to the National Comedy Center, Smothers is survived by his brother Dick, his two daughters, Bo and Riley Rose Smothers, their mother, Marcy Carriker Smothers, a grandson named Phoenix, and his sister-in-law Marie Smothers.
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