Now to the aftermath of the triumphant success and dismal
denouement of THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY
HOUR. There were several attempts to resurrect some form
of the show on other networks or syndication. CBS even put on
a Special commemorating the 20th anniversary of the show’s
cancellation. The Brothers still had their fans but the buzz was
gone.
The final effort came years later when I met one of The
Boys’ lawyers at a cocktail party. He asked if I would ever
work with The Smothers Brothers again. I said I might. Even
though I knew they were a pain in the ass, I respected their
prodigious comedy talent and I loved writing for them.
The lawyer thought HBO was interested in putting on a
new Smothers Brothers Special commenting on contemporary
political and social issues. I checked and HBO confirmed
their interest. I met with Tommy who dismissed the idea,
convinced HBO could not be serious. Nonetheless, I pursued it.
HBO gave me the money to hire a writing staff. We produced a
script they loved and they ordered the Special.
Tom was truly surprised and now decided he wanted to
read the script. He hated it. It dealt with the issues of
the day, none of which interested Tommy. His mind was still
stuck in the past. Over the weekend he sat down with some of
his pals and wrote a whole new script, which HBO refused to
do. The project was abandoned.
For many years, in the numerous interviews, books and
TV reports on the show, the names of Ilson and Chambers were
never heard or seen. It was only when The Brothers were
inducted into The Emmy Hall of Fame- that Tom Smothers said
he shared this honor with Saul Ilson and Ernie Chambers and the
writers who created their show.
But I was still not finished with Tommy and Dickie.
One day I was out for my morning walk through the hills. I
began singing the beautiful, timeless old Elizabethan folk song,
“GREENSLEEEVES”:
Alas, My Love, you do me wrong
To cast me off discourteously
For I have loved you well and long
Delighting in your company.
Greensleeves was all my joy
Greensleeves was my delight….
As I walked, I imagined Tom and Dick performing the
number and Tommy suddenly singing, “Green beans was all my
joy!”!
I could imagine Dickie stopping the song right there to
correct his wayward brother. “Tommy, it is not ‘green beans’. It
is ‘green sleeves’. It is not a song about produce.”
Then Tommy would snap back, “Well, it’s not a song about
laundry.”
By the time I returned home I had written a full ten-minute
Spot. It culminated in Tommy protesting how much he loves
pottery. Dickie scoffs at him. “Tommy, do you mean you love
poetry as in poem? Or pottery as in pot?”
Tommy smirks and replies, “I definitely love pottery.”
At my wife’s urging, I typed up the routine and mailed it to
Tommy. He called to tell me how much he loved it and was
reading it to his friends and sent me a case of wine from his
vineyard in Sonoma. Alas! The brothers could not be bothered
learning new material. “Greensleeves” was never performed.
So what do we learn from The Smothers Brothers saga?
The media and the public like to believe in the Genius Theory—
that success is all the product of one person. More often than
not, a success is the product of a fortunate assemblage of
complementary—yes, and adversarial- creative talent ---and
timing. If you want a great example, read what went on between
the director, the composer, the lyricist and the book writer
during the making of the Broadway production of “West Side
Story”.
The Smothers Brothers and Ilson and Chambers and a
dynamite staff of comedy writers, art director, music director,
editors and cast were a great combination. Afterward, we all
continued to have careers, but none of us ever again had a
comparable success.
CBS, in an attempt to show how liberal they were
after summarily stifling The Brothers, asked us to produce their
replacement show, a series starring a young and beautiful,
vivacious and very talented African-American woman, the first
ever to host a network primetime Variety series. But was
America ready for it?
NEXT: EPISODE 18- LESLIE UGGAMS
How Far Can You Push The Envelope?
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