Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour – David Bianculli
As we come to the end of 2015, I now have only two more books to read to reach my lofty goal of 51 books read. Book 49 for the year was Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour by David Bianculli. It took Bianculli fifteen years and countless interviews with the people involved to tell the story of these very funny and very volatile Brothers. To many of us who lived through the three years, their show was the only one that spoke to us!! They presented music that we wanted to hear, and spoke true words about a war that we didn’t believe was right!
From Goodreads…..
A behind-the-scenes look at the rise and fall of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour — the provocative, politically charged program that shocked the censors, outraged the White House, and forever changed the face of television.
Decades before The Daily Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour proved there was a place on television for no-holds-barred political comedy with a decidedly antiauthoritarian point of view. In this explosive, revealing history of the show, veteran entertainment journalist David Bianculli tells the fascinating story of its three-year network run — and the cultural impact that’s still being felt today. Read More
In Dangerously Funny Bianculli tells the whole story of the rise and fall of Tom and Dick Smothers. He chronicles the shows and tell the reader which ones were the ones that brought the show down. While reading the book there were times that I thought, “Yeah, I remember that and then other times when I said “I didn’t know that! ” I think that filmmaker Ken Burns sums it up nicely in his quote on the back cover of the book.
:”It is hard for many of us to remember – back when there were only a handful of stations on the dial – just how profoundly influential and controversial the Smothers Brothers were. But David Bianculli’s brilliant new book has brought it all back to life”
There are many times when I am writing this blog that I really don’t want to write things that would offend anyone, particularly when I knew I worked for someone who didn’t hold the same political or social beliefs that I did. But then there was Tommy Smothers who did that in spades, not only butting heads with CBS on the issue of the war in Vietnam but also religion!! That head-butting eventually got the Brothers Smothers fired, but the one thing that they never did was back down or compromise their beliefs. They stood their ground. The fact that they did that was amazing because they were facing one of the most powerful companies in the world in CBS. A company that had a close relationship with the presidents and other power brokers that the Smothers Brothers were skewering!! The Brothers were certainly way ahead of their time and paved the way for the comedians like George Carlin and Richard Pryor that followed.
Bottom Line: Dangerously Funny:The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour is a great read. For those of us who lived through the three years tumultuous years (1967-1969) that the Smothers Brothers were on it brings back a lot of memories as well as filling in some of the aspects of their struggle that we may not have known about. But it also is great for those who want to find out about what it was like on TV before there were a bazillion channels and you can do or say just about anything! So Check it Out!!
Now I could show some of those great songs that the Smothers Brothers did to open the show but I’ll go with something that got them into trouble, when they showed clips of the 1968 Democratic National Convention behind Harry Belafonte performing his song “Don’t Stop the Carnival” Tame for 2015 – not so much for 1968!! You can also see two films by Chuck Braverman that appeared on the show in 1968 . The first of his films to appear on the show was American Time Capsule, a history of the US in under 3 minutes and then 1968, which was certainly on of the most turbulent years in America’s history both make powerful statements!!