First they came for the comedians…

When a network lays off America’s greatest satirists, it’s not because they failed. It is because they succeeded too loudly.

Satirists are necessary for the health of a society.

And nearly 60 years ago we had a president who, though mercilessly mocked and criticized by comics, actually came to agree with that very diagnosis.

When CBS made the shocking announcement that the Late Show franchise, hosted by Steven Colbert, would end in May 2026, they claimed it was purely a financial decision. No one was buying it.  

It was the first warning shot in this age of Trump censorship.

Then they came for Jimmy Kinmmel.

Satirists were being put on notice.

It felt like déjà vu all over again.

The Tiffany network has a history of smothering critical comic voices.

Cue the Smothers Brothers.

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was known for its anti-establishment and pro-drug humor

In the late 1960s no one pushed boundaries better than brothers Dick and Tommy Smothers on their CBS Comedy Hour.  

For a brief period of time, Sunday nights were suddenly very relevant.

Considered the premiere night of television, Sunday evenings had for the longest time been defined by Ed Sullivan and the Cartwrights of Bonanza.

Tom and Dick Smothers had performed their mix of sibling rivalry comedy schtick ( “Mom always liked you better” ) and folk songs on TV throughout the sixties. When CBS gave them their own variety show in 1967 to follow Ed Sullivan, it was a big deal. The clean-cut duo was hired to provide gentle family humor.  

What CBS didn’t expect was political satire the likes of which the network never imagined.

It debuted as a slightly “hip” version of the typical comedy-variety show of the time. But within weeks it rapidly evolved into a program that extended the boundaries of what was considered permissible in television satire.

Sunday nights were never the same.  

It was revolutionary, testing the boundaries of mainstream TV and what was considered permissible.

On Sunday, Feb 5, 1967, Ed Sullivan himself introduced the show’s premiere, saying the Smothers Brothers “are typical American kids, average in every way.” 

What Ed didn’t realize – and what made the “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” so much fun to watch during three tumultuous seasons- was that “ these typical American kids” and their cutting anti-establishment humor were typical of the American kids in the streets protesting the war in Vietnam.

And teens like me.

We had cut our teeth and sharpened our minds to question the establishment from MAD Magazine that  provoked a generation of baby boomers to think critically.

The Smothers Brothers made fun of the government, politics, religion, and everything else. When they had to battle CBS censors over their jokes and sketches, they made fun of their CBS bosses and censors, too.

Playing to a younger demographic, they showcased musical acts that challenged the norms- from Joan Baez and Pete Singer, to Jefferson Airplane, Buffalo Springfield, and the Doors. George Harrison came on unannounced just to support them and what they were doing.

Suddenly, younger people like me had a TV show that was geared for them, and the Smothers Brothers set off national debates, at diners and the family dinner table.  

CBS didn’t like it one bit. The network was the home of such popular, non-threatening fare as “The Andy Griffith Show”, “Green Acres”, “The Beverly Hillbillies”, and “Petticoat Junction”.

Pat Paulsen

Comedian Pat Paulsen’s deadpan reading of his satirical essays on immigration, gun control, postal service reform, education, and other topics could easily be on Colbert or The Daily Show.

His memorable ironic “editorials” on various hot topics included censorship: “We are allowed to say Ronald Reagan is a lousy actor, but we’re not allowed to say he’s a lousy governor, which is ridiculous — we know he’s a good actor” and gun control: “If you’re old enough to get arrested you’re old enough to carry a gun…. Let’s preserve our freedom to kill.”

The topics are as timely today.

So was the pushback.

CBS would routinely try to censor segments of the show, but by doing so, they were undermining the very audience that had made it a hit.

It wasn’t long before Network bosses were getting complaints from top politicians.

Including the President, Lyndon Johnson, who was endlessly taken to task by the brothers for his handling of Vietnam.

A skit poking fun at LBJ got the president to call CBS Chairman William Paley in the middle of the night to complain — which, in turn, led to Paley asking the show to ease up on its presidential satire.

Sprouting mustaches and longer hair and ditching the ties for turtlenecks, the brothers tangled with the network’s third season premiere.

When the Smothers Brothers returned from their summer break in 1968, their first show of the fall season included a segment in which guest Harry Belafonte sang “Don’t Stop the Carnival” over images of the tumultuous Democratic convention.

The network wouldn’t allow it, leaving the brothers to fill the time with an audience Q&A, which concluded with Tommy’s observation that “we are all aware of what’s going on in the country and the language that is used in the country today and the mores, the morals, the ethics and to not be able to discuss it on the biggest and broadest media, television, I think is a disservice to the country,” adding,

“If you don’t like what we say you have the ultimate censorship and that is to turn us off.”

CBS did finally turn off “The Smothers Brothers” the following year.

After months of fights over the program’s content, CBS canceled the show on April 3, 1969. The cancellation made the front page of the New York Times and Walter Cronkite’s “CBS Evening News.”

CBS’s executives argued that the program violated the network’s obligation, as an “invited guest” in viewers’ homes, to preserve “good taste” in programming.

President Johnson may have been disgruntled with CBS at the time the Smothers Brothers were on the air and using him as the target of satire, but when their program aired its final installment on  April 20, 1969 — by which time Johnson was out of office — he had eased up somewhat in his viewpoint.

On their closing show, the brothers spoke: “We have a certain point of view on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” Dick said. “And we feel that entertainment should contain some opinion, social comment, and should mirror the social changes that  are happening in this great country.”

Johnson indicated he took the humor in stride. In his letter, he stated that being the “target of clever satirists was “part of the price of leadership. Letter courtesy of Johnson Library

Next, they quoted proudly from the letter of support they had received from then-President Lyndon Johnson. Dick read two paragraphs verbatim, which were met with supportive applause from the audience.

LBJ Letter dated November 8, 1968 :

“To be genuinely funny at a time when the world is in a crisis is a task that would tax the talents of a genius; to be consistently fair when standards of fair play are constantly questioned demands the wisdom of a saint.

“It is part of the price of leadership of this great and free nation to be the target of clever satirists. You have given the gift of laughter to our people. May we never grow so somber or self-important that we fail to appreciate the humor in our lives.”

.

Like Colbert, 2 months after being canceled, the show won an emmy.

It was a win for truth and freedom.

Post script

Before being cancelled, The Smothers Brothers continued their anti-war satire against President Nixon. The new president wasn’t amused. It was later revealed that he tried to dig up dirt on them.

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was replaced appropriately enough with the hayseed variety show Hee Haw.

There is nothing funny about censure.

© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream