SMOTHERED SMOTHERSES

Censorship

Tom and Dick Smothers, two clean-cut, conservative-looking comedians, became the causes célèbres for civil libertarians in April 1969 when their television show The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was canceled by CBS, ostensibly because the Smotherses had failed to fulfill their contract obligations to provide entertainment that met the standards set by CBS. The reason put forth by the Smotherses and most independent ob-servers was censorship.

Risqué and Political

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour premiered on CBS on 5 February 1967 as a mid-season replacement. A Sunday-night show competing against the powerful Western Bonanza, the Smothers Brothers produced a pleasant surprise by placing often among the top thirty shows in weekly ratings. But the network censors were never happy with the brothers. Their humor was sometimes risqué and always political. The favorite target was President Johnson, and there were also drug references (which the censors at CBS were too staid to recognize), sexual innuendos, and humor at the expense of those who would censor art or stifle creativity.

Defending Cuts

According to the Smotherses, CBS had tampered with 75 percent of their material during the two years of their run. During the 1968-1969 television season the Smotherses had repeatedly asked for guidance on what the network objected to and what it would accept. CBS had repeatedly ignored their request and had instead continued to cut material from the show. In defense of their cuts CBS invoked the National Association of Broadcasters Television Code, a vague list of principles, not rules, that had its origin in the proscriptions of the Catholic Legion of Decency.

False Renewal

On 14 March 1969 the show was renewed by CBS for the 1969-1970 season, yet CBS officials continued to say the future of the show was uncertain. On 27 March the Smotherses received a warning from CBS that if they could not accept network oversight it was their duty to tell the network that they wanted out. It also reminded them that their contract called for delivery of their shows on tape no later than the Wednesday before airdate, a contract that had never been met or enforced. The brothers wired back their happiness at being renewed.

THE RED LION CASE

The Supreme Court decision in Red Lion Broad-casting Co. v. FCC on 9 June 1969 institutionalized the modern interpretation of the Fairness Doctrine for radio and television broadcasters, which provided equal time to spokespersons representing conflicting views on political issues. The case arose in 1964 when a radio preacher, Billy James Hargis, used a prerecorded radio program to attack Fred Cook, the author of a book highly critical of Barry Goldwater, the Republican candidate for president. Cook, with Democratic party support, demanded equal time from the almost two hundred stations that broadcast the show to rebut the Hargis charges.

All of the stations except one complied with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules on fairness. WGCB, a station in the small Pennsylvania town of Red Lion, instead of offering free air-time to Cook, offered to sell commercial time for the rebuttal. Cook complained to the FCC, which ordered the station to provide Cook with airtime. When the station refused, the FCC took the case to court.

After years of making its way through the court system, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the FCC. The decision spelled out the extent to which the federal government could regulate the content of broadcast media. In its ruling the Supreme Court gave greater weight to the rights of listeners over the property rights of the owners of broadcast outlets:

It is the right of the viewers and listeners, not the right of the broadcasters, [that] is paramount. …It is the purpose of the First Amendment to preserve an uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will ultimately prevail, rather than to countenance monopolization of that market, whether it be by the Government or a private licensee. …It is the right of the public to receive suitable access to social, political, esthetic, moral, and other ideas and experiences which is crucial here.

The controversial decision was unpopular with broadcasters, who believed that they had the sole right to decide what they telecast on their own stations. Most public-interest groups applauded the decision as being in the best interests of the people. The Fairness Doctrine put forth in the Red Lion case was abandoned by the FCC in 1987. President Ronald Reagan vetoed legislation that would have codified the doctrine, maintaining that the doctrine actually prohibited free speech by making broadcasters less likely to air controversial material.

Source:

Christopher H. Sterling and John M. Kitross, Stay Tuned: A
Concise History of American Broadcasting, second edition (Belmont,
Cal.: Wadsworth, 1990).

Contract Violation

The tape for the 13 April show was already completed, and CBS informed the brothers that for various reasons the 13 April show would have to be shown on 6 April. The 13 April show contained several provocative pieces—a skit with black singer Nancy Wilson on interracial marriage and a "sermon" on the biblical story of Jonah that maintained that the Gentiles on the boat had behaved characteristically by throwing the nearest available Jew overboard. CBS requested and received cuts on the material they deemed offensive. On Thursday, 3 April, the Smotherses sent a tape of the show. On 4 April CBS canceled it because the Smotherses had violated their contract by late delivery.

Press Reaction

The reaction of the press was decidedly, if not unanimously, pro-Smothers Brothers. Life intoned that "Such a network can no more lecture us on questions of responsibility and taste than the SDS [Students for a Democratic Society, a militant protest group] can advise us on etiquette." CBS offices and even affiliates were the objects of protests across the country. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times were among the media outlets weighing in against CBS. Only TV Guide among mainstream publications was against the Smotherses.

Revealing the Limits

By August 1969 Tom Smothers had lined up a syndicated network of stations to broad-cast the program, beginning with the canceled 13 April show. By the summer of 1970 ABC had picked up the show but ran it only two months before canceling it. More provocative than Rowan and Martins Laugh-In, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour revealed the limits of the networks in terms of political comedy during the turmoil of the late 1960s.

Sources:

Nat Hentoff, "Smothers Brothers: Who Controls TV?," Look, 31 (24
June 1969): 27-29;

William Kloman, "The Transmogrification of the Smothers Brothers,"
Esquire, 72 (October 1969): 148-149, 151,153,160, 199-200, 201;

Betty Rollin, "The Smothers Brothers: The Naughtiest Boys on TV,"
Look, 31 (13 June 1967): 68-69, 71-73;

"The Unsinkable Tom Smothers," Time, 94 (29 August 1969): 52-53.