The Smothers Brothers Show is an American fantasy sitcom featuring the Smothers Brothers that aired on CBS on Friday nights at 9:30 p.m. ET from September 17, 1965 to April 22, 1966, co-sponsored by Alberto-Culver's VO5 hairdressing products and American Tobacco's Tareyton cigarettes. It was the first television show to feature the Smothers Brothers as regulars, following a series of night club and guest appearances. It lasted one season, consisting of 32 episodes. It was also the network's last situation comedy filmed in black-and-white; shortly after its final telecast, all CBS prime-time series were transmitted in color. In 1986, two decades after cancellation, reruns were seen on Nick at Nite.
Synopsis
played himself as a rising young executive at Pandora Publications, working for publisher Leonard J. Costello. Brother Tom had been lost at sea two years earlier and now shows up as an apprentice angel assigned to do good deeds on Earth to earn his wings and become a full-fledged angel. Of course, Tom's efforts to help people never seem to work as planned and Dick had to help him clean up the mess. Tom received his orders from Ralph, his unseen and unheard boss. The series also featured Harriet MacGibbon as Mrs. Costello, and on occasion, Ann Elder as Dick's co-worker and girl friend Janet also appeared in several episodes as another of Dick's girl friends, Wanda. As was typical of the Smothers Brothers in The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Dick was typically the straight man to Tom's humorous antics.
The series was produced by Four Star Television in association with the brothers' Knave Productions. This series may have inspired the Brothers' more successful later series The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in that Tom Smothers had been critical of the series as not being compatible with the brothers' strengths. For instance, neither brother played their instruments on the show, and it was not until halfway through the season that they sang the theme song.
