TVC 633.4: David Bianculli, longtime television critic and longtime contributor to NPR's Fresh Air, and the author of Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, joins Ed as TV Confidential pays tribute to comedian Tom Smothers, the comic half of the Smothers Brothers stage act who was also the driving force behind The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (CBS, 1967-1969). Tom Smothers passed away Tuesday, Dec. 26 at age eighty-six. Topics this segment include the many way in which The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was a pivot point in the landscape of network television comedy, paving the way for such other topical shows as Laugh-in, All in the Family, M*A*S*H, and Saturday Night Live; how the Smothers Brothers did not necessarily set out to become a comic act when they began their nightclub career; and the many ways in which Tom was an impresario, much like Ed Sullivan was in the 1950s and Lorne Michaels was in the 1970s.

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