Over The Edge

I just read David Bianculli's Dangerously Funny, the story of the Smothers Brothers' variety hour. He does offer a bit of biography, but three-quarters of the book is devoted to the three years Tom and Dick did their show on CBS in the late 60s.

The story is fascinating, with the brothers (Tom in particular) trying to be provocative in an era when TV ran away from controversy. When CBS hired the duo, they thought they were getting a clean-cut act, not realizing the two had their radical side (or acquired it as the 60s went on).

The book has its problems. It's repetitive: over and over Bianculli announces something the Brothers would do in the future and sure enough, later, when it fits chronologically, he tells us about it again. Furthermore, I'm not sure if anyone needed to go into such excrutiating detail about the fights Tom Smothers had with CBS. But, overall, it's a good story, and one worth telling.

Ironically, though the Brothers were high-profile for these few years when their show was on the air, it was only later (after a bit of a falling out) in the 80s, when they were at their best as an act. They were good in the 60s, no doubt, and had a unique style, but they would get even better.

PS Occasionally, Bianculli will state as fact what seems to me an opinion. Probably the worst example is on page 346:

All In The Family made sure to balance the various points of view (for every bigoted Archie Bunker remark, there was a liberal counterargument from his "Meathead" son-in-law), and to use Archie's venom-spewing yet cuddly character as a double-barreled weapon. Liberal viewers could get and enjoy the show's overall message, and laugh at Carroll O'Connor's Archie; conservatives could miss the message entirely and laugh with Archie.

Huh? Archie may have been, for all his flaws, a sympathetic character. And his son-in-law's liberal views may have occasionally been mocked. But, overall, the show didn't leave any doubt that Archie's bigotry was foolish and wrong. Everyone who watched, liberal and conservative, understood the show was laughing at Archie.