This is the seventh post of a series. The previous posts are:

#1: The Howdy Doody Show
#2: 
#3: 
#4: 
#5: 
#6: 
#7: 
#8: 
#9: 
#10: 

The discerning reader will notice that I have skipped posts two through six. They will be filled in at a later date (#3 has already been written), but events have sadly conspired to force me to expedite #7.

I mean, of course, the recent death of Tommy Smothers, as the seventh of my Top Ten Shows is The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

To tell the truth, their show is a blur in my mind. It began during my final year in high school, and I remember being quite taken by Pat Paulson,who was always running for president, and his editorials. You could even write in to the show with a self-addressed, stamped envelope and get a copy of that week’s editorial, which I did at least one time (see below).

Their second season, however, I probably didn’t get to watch the show as often as I would have liked because I was at Penn State without a TV for the first half of the year, though I would have caught them when I went home for vacation. Their third season, I definitely watched them regularly, as I had the portable TV and they were a favorite of lots of the fellows in the dorms. That was the final season, when they ran afoul of Nixon, of course. They were just too controversial and too popular with the young people, and too hated in the South.

As I said, their show is a blur, because it’s hard for me to separate what I saw at the time from what I read about it later. Though I do recall watching the official Beatles video of their “Hey Jude” single, which they released to the Smothers specifically for their show.

Of course, I loved the openings with the brothers singing and exchanging barbs, sometimes political and sometimes not. And, of course, I was outraged when CBS cancelled the show, presumably because Nixon put pressure on them to do so, at least that was the rumor.

The folks at Electoral-Vote.com have posted a truly fitting tribute To Tommy Smothers and I recommend reading that.