Dig it, Daddy-o

Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" by David Bianculli

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The first three-quarters of this book rates five stars, but the last quarter, which should have been omitted, turns into a political rant in which Bianculli offers idiotic opinions and lame-brain conclusions. Bianculli obviously sees the canceling, or firing, of The Smothers Brothers as some kind of conspiracy and some kind of right-wing conspiracy at that, rather than what it was--Tommy Smothers self-destructiveness spiraling out of control. Rather than spending so much time trying to uncover blame elsewhere for the battles that ultimately led to the cancellation, why didn't Bianculli try to find out what was really going on with Tommy Smothers at the time, since he seemed to have unfettered access to the brothers during the writing of the book.

This book offers no new insight into the story, although the story itself is chronicled in interesting and lively detail. What it doesn't offer is much perspective from Tommy and what was going through his mind when he pulled some of the stupid stunts he did with CBS. He doesn't take Tommy to task at all, nor challenge him in any way on his actions. Nor does Tommy seem to take any real responsibility for the cancellation. Instead its offered up as political censorship, ignoring the fact that those who censored and ultimately canceled the show weren't opposed to the brothers politics, they simply didn't want to offend the viewers on topics such as religion and sex or to offend anyone personally. It was never about the political ideas espoused.

The book could have been great if Bianculli had just kept his left-wing snarking asides out. It wasn't about Democrats versus Republicans as it so often is today. It was the younger generation versus the establishment. In fact, the Democrats of the 1960s were even more conservative than the Republicans. It was a Democrat, Pastore, who talked of censoring the brothers and most everyone involved in the censoring and ultimate firing of the brothers were Democrats. As is still the case in recent years when government censorship is pursued by Democrats such as Tipper Gore.

Here's a passage from the book that shows how much Bianculli wanted to uncover a right-wing conspiracy:
"Finding a smoking gun connecting Richard Nixon directly to the demise of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was a task at which I proved unsuccessful, but not for lack of effort." Doesn't this guy have an editor at Simon & Schuster?

How can someone who spends so much time researching a story ignore the facts he uncovers and come to such idiotic conclusions? This is what partisan politics does to a writer.






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