The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour - clips and commercials 10/13/68

[kiwiperson]

I cant believe that commercials were that short

[fromthesidelines]

At 6:10, there was supposed to be either a network promo {"Shelley Winters meets Lucille Ball, and the results are hilarious...on 'HERE'S LUCY'- tomorrow night, on CBS"} or a straight I.D. {"This is CBS"}, followed by a 40 second station break and I.D. {"Channel 2, New York"}, returning to the show at 6:12.

[RCmack]

It's interesting that back in '68, many Green Bay Packers and other NFL fans thought Bart Starr was the best quarterback around. Now nearly 44 years later, Aaron Rodgers has the chance to become the best Packers QB ever. He has already surpassed Brett Favre, in my opinion. Two months from now, Rodgers may already have won twice as many Super Bowl rings as Favre and won as many as Starr.

[RCmack]

Are Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour episodes available to purchase on DVD?

[ToriTinkles]

@RCmack Yes, they released two 'Best of' collections on DVD of seasons 2 and 3. The episode posted here is not one of the season 3 episodes available. The shows on the collections (I have them both) are mostly the cutdowns from when they were re-aired back on E! in the early 90s (I think?) but they are better than nothing. They have lots of cool extras though so if you are a fan, they are worth owning IMO.

[courtney359]

by god 44 yrs ago

[raclarkus]

If you look close, you can see a young Steve Martin as one of the censors in the opening scene.

Wow, back in the day of cigarette commercials.

[tomservo56954]

The topper is Bart Starr sharing the screen with Gunilla Knudsen. Those shave cream spots were as controversial as the Brothers. One person described the way she said "Take it ALL off" as sounding like "she was five seconds away from an orgasm"

[tomservo56954]

You even have the counterculture represented by the "banana cigarette" spot, playing off the briefly popular if mistaken belief that one could get high by smoking banana peels. And VW was still viewed as not being truly mainstream, even though in 1968 more of them were sold in the U.S. than all other imported makes...COMBINED.

[tomservo56954]

Personally, I like seeing what companies advertised on what shows, especially one like this which had as much controversy...as it did prime 18-49 viewers. Multiple cigarette spots, toothpaste and face cleaner with female appeal, Volkswagen, as well as Brylcreem AND Vitalis (the latter was successful in positioning itself against products like the former, by dismissing them as "greasy kid stuff"....think Don Drysdale shared this secret with Greg Brady, as well?)

[bethshair]

seeing the cigarette ad is weird

[grindlbebe]

When are they going to win the Mark Twain Prize at The Kennedy Center? Will Farrell is the recipient this year. Over the Smothers Brothers? Are you kidding?

[actresssongstress]

President Lyndon Johnson made them cancel this show because it was to anti-war!

[7pledger]

I'd LOVE to see more of these commercials if you have any available.....Thanks!

[lsmftymf]

The Kool cigarettes commercial featured Paul Picerni who played Agent Lee Hobson in "The Untouchables" TV series. Love the one for Vitalis with Don Drysdale, Herman Franks, Tom Haller, Harry Wendelstedt, Candlestick Park, the Giants & Dodgers.

[karlwho1]

I'm sorry but this really sucked. Tcommercials were intersting but if you can't show any real skits or music, then what's the point ?

[RadioCannedMusic]

@karlwho1 I agree...This doesn't show the Smothers Brothers show, it shows the SELL_OUTS! I grew up with this show. You show more commercials here then they ever had in one of their episodes.

Time for a Redux.

[ToriTinkles]

@RadioCannedMusic That's a little harsh don't you think? I think the purpose of the post is to show the old commercials. These are the spots exactly as they aired within t his episode so there was nothing 'more' added.

[ToriTinkles]

@karlwho1 I think the main purpose of the post was to show the old commercials which a lot of people like. There are lots of other posts with just the skits on YouTube.

[krammit69]

Great show also those commercials bring back a lot of memories. I was 12 years old when this aired. To be honest I didn't really get most of the political humor until years later.

[skitch88]

Steve Martin

[gsnfan]

This aired the day after I turned 1.

[tedhobgood]

I loved seeing the commercials, despite what the other fellows said.

[mefeire]

So...basically, this video is the commercials from a Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour? As interesting as these ads are, if you're going to label it SBCH I'd like to see the actual show....

[Ramulac019]

it's like watching t.v. today, an hour of commercials and 5 minutes of show,

[46cafejay]

nothing to see here but dumb commercials......yuk!



[DINOLOVER6717]

Are you serious?! You might as well just label this video old commercials. There are hardly any smothers brothers clips and the ones you do play part of its not the whole thing!!! This is ridiculous....

[AarHan3]

"CBS presents this progoram in color!" That's what was missing from this...

[xcited4vids]

lot of cigarette commercials back then, unlike today.

[Gaylel1]

If this show had aired today, the most watched network would have not have complaints--they would have some, but the show would have been on anyways.

[fromthesidelines]

CBS cancelled the show, 'TIPTON", because they were tired of Tom's tirades against the network, accusing them of "muzzling free speech" by censoring their most "offensive" sketches, making fun of Vietnam, President Johnson, politics, religion, and society at its most hypocritical [the opening blackout is an excellent illustration of this "nitpicking"]. After Tom failed to send a closed-circuit "preview" of an April 1969 telecast, CBS finally got their legal department to sever their contract.

[Kirok]

DAMMIT, I WANNA SEE BARBARA FELDON!

[waitaminute991]

how did our culture devolve into a lowly morass from this?

[InLoveWithHarpoMarx]

must..buy...cigarettes

[EJ160E]

i kinda want to smoke now....

fuck the los angeles dodgers!

[dragonnelite]

they had the wierdest commercials back in the 60s.......but also the greatest music ever!!!!

[gnumusic]

what a heavy show! the best of the time! beatles, smothers, nelson riddle, a who' who of writers. how do i get to watch this unedited?

[TIPTON340]

I can't believe CBS cancelled this sharp modern show for Hee-Haw!

[carchavtube]

@TIPTON340

They even poked fun at the censors, and ironically, some acts got censored.

If they pulled that stuff in 2010, probably no one would be shocked.

[Igotaholeinmybucket]

Nothing but old advertisments here. boo

[krammit69]

No doubt about it the Smothers Brothers had the best show on TV with the best writers. It's a shame what the critics and CBS executives did to them. Also on a lighter note that Brylcreem commercial clip at 5:05 reminds of Cameron Diaz in There's Something About Mary.

[alwayssme]

omg steve with dark hair!!

[intruderart]

Please start marking the ones with Aaron Wiliams the ventriloqusit and his partner Freddie. Not the sports guy,

[cosmiquemuffin]

OMG, Steve Martin was in there!

[orrdrake]

Steve wrote for them and started out there.

[RayNDeere]

The guy who passed the script to Steve was Bob Einstein, better known as Super Dave Osbourne

[garrisonskunk]

The opening skit was used in the PBS special "Smothered" a few years ago.