Ep. 17- The Smothers Brothers- Part Three

The Leopard Does Not Change Its Spots

       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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