Why did CBS censor The Smothers Brothers? How did The Smothers Brothers respond to CBS’s attempts at censorship? How did questions of what constitutes appropriate content for network TV play out in the late 1960s and early 1970s and how do they play out today?
CBS censored The Smothers Brothers because they attempted to make reference to and even glorify the central ideas of the youth counter culture that had made them so popular. CBS only wanted the Smothers Brothers there in order to embody the style of the counterculture in order to attract youth viewers while still maintaining the positive, family friendly content that had previously existed.
ReplyDeleteThe Smothers Brothers responded to this censorship by making fun of the process of censorship and pointing out that the content that was being removed by censors was exactly the content that their audience wanted to see. For example in one of the clips that we saw in class, the Smothers Brothers depicted the “censorship process” in a humorous light. The network executives were given a draft of the brothers’ script for the night and after each one read it, they chuckled and then promptly removed the page that had led them to chuckle. Finally, the last executive read the remaining page and said something to the effect of “there’s nothing funny here” and then gave it to the Smothers Brothers.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the content for network television tended to error on the side of more family friendly than not. This was partly because the sponsors played a bigger role in the production process and did not want to be associated with vulgar acts. More recently however, following the magazine style process for television advertising, the demographic targeting allows for more questionable content to find sponsors whose products are directed to the same audiences that the shows are. This has led to more lenient programming in recent times.
CBS censored The Smothers Brothers because of the issue of what was said on the show ranging from topics critiquing the government (specifically the President) to the Vietnam War. In response to CBS, there was an audio snippet by Pat Paulsen on the topic of censorship. Humor was used to poke fun at the enforcement of censorship as there is no clear boundary of what is deemed as censorship worthy. For example, the word “bull feathers” was used to point out the fact that actual profanity words would be censored, but by saying “bull feathers” someone can get away with it. On the topic of Ronald Reagan, there was a statement saying Reagan is a lousy actor, but we can’t say he is a lousy governor. This looks at the debate in the issue of slander and about legal issues that one may face for criticizing a political official. In the end of the snippet there is a statement saying, “so we can see there is a place for censors, we only wish we could tell you where it is”. The unclarity of the boundaries of censorship is the main criticism of this audio snippet and one of the Smothers Brothers for being censored by CBS.
ReplyDeleteWhat was constituted as appropriate content network TV in the 1960s and 1970s were not solidified and had loopholes in which “inappropriate” content was aired. Since those incidents standards are able to be set to prevent similar occurrences from being broadcast again. As there are obvious standards of censoring profanity, offensive words/actions, obscenity, hate speech, slander, etc. already established, there is still a debate over borderline censoring of undefined areas. In terms of censorship today, there still debates over what can be broadcasted on television such as criticisms about public officials. However, compared to late 1960s and 1970s, today there are more standards and guidelines on what can be broadcasted and consequences for breaking those boundaries.
CBS never planned for The Smothers Brothers to be a success, let alone a countercultural phenomenon. Most involved with the show expected it to fail against Gunsmoke, which it was situated against and had held its timeslot against plenty of shows before The Smothers Brothers came along, but CBS had something special on its hands; The Smothers Brothers was able to hold its own against Gunsmoke. It was a pleasant surprise. The brothers incorporated some relevant social satire, they were, at least in the early days, make it appear tame and acceptable to a conservative audience. Yet, as the show progressed, the satire became much too caustic and poignant for the network, and after a long, and well publicized, battle of ideas, CBS cancelled the show, justifying it with the stated intention of sponsor-network relations.
ReplyDeleteOver the course of a sort of censorship war, the Smothers Brothers responded by satirizing its own relationship to the network and the censorship process. One particular bit, involving a series of actors portraying CBS executives, critiqued the network as cowardly and uninterested in keeping the show comedic.
The network’s interest in the late 1960s and the early 1970s was in gathering the largest possible audience. That has not changed today and neither has the network’s relationship with politically minded comedies. Today, all the relevant television programming that lampoons Americans politics, including those hosted by comedians Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Bill Maher, air on Cable networks.
There is a curious parallel between the third comedian and the Smothers Brothers. Both acts had a show on CBS which was eventually cancelled after sustained controversy. Of course, unlike in the early Network days, there were large cable networks who felt there was a market for socially relevant satire. In Maher’s case, it was HBO. Perhaps if the Smothers Brothers aired on CBS today, they would’ve been promptly cancelled and then they HBO would have picked them up instead. Of course, were the Smothers Brothers aired on NBC, they would’ve just been replaced by Jimmy Fallon.
CBS decided to censor The Smothers Brothers due to the show’s content, which created conflict between the brothers and the network. As a show that featured sacreligious sermontettes and other parodies of America’s middle-class morality, controversy was evidently bound to happen.
ReplyDeleteTo start, the character Goldie O’Keefe, who played a “hippie chick,” created certain potential censorship problems for the show and CBS due to her drug-oriented humor. That being said, her script slipped by CBS censors easily due to the use of drug slang that was used to legitimize its material with young viewers and most likely unknown by most of its viewers (particularly the older audience). However, CBS still encountered issues due to the fact that as a network they could not promote illegal drugs.
Additionally, because the brothers tried to appeal to a younger audience, the program featured rock bands and folk singers, such as Joan Baez. Baez’s appearance is often noted to have led to one of the Smothers’ final showdowns with CBS censors before the network removed the show completely (Bodroghkozy). She had dedicated the song she performed on the show to her husband, David Harris, who was currently in prison after outwardly expressing his views against ‘militarianism’ and being associated with civil rights and antiwar movements. At first CBS censored the show but eventually ended up pulling it from the time it was supposed to air.
The Brothers did not respond well to CBS’s attempts at censorship and, instead, “metaphorically gave CBS the finger and to critics and viewers who complained that the comics were no longer funny” (Bodroghkozy). Therefore, the brothers took every opportunity they could to emphasize where their political allegiances lied, which was generally perceived as propagandists of the New Left. Although they attempted to illustrate the social transformations and political upheavals that the late 1960s had witnessed, CBS continued to censor the brothers’, notably the episode with Harry Belafonte, which wanted to use footage from the Chicago demonstrations on Michigan Avenue.
Obviously, CBS faced economic dilemmas due to their affiliates filing complaints, threatening to no longer air the show. Additionally, the brothers continued to feature guests along similar lines of Baez and Belafonte, which CBS could no longer tolerate; the dissemination of counterculture sentiments were attracting socially and politically uncontrollable “hip folk” (Bodroghkozy). These issues caused CBS to terminate the show in 1969.
With all that being said, underground press were extremely sympathetic toward the brothers and generally expressed their negative views on CBS’s decision to censor and ultimately eliminate the show. The brothers were typically viewed as expressing their rights of free speech, however, the censorship system overruled.
Overall, it is clear that the show was significant in the cultural context of the late 1960s because it showed how popular culture became a battlefield or a “terrain of struggle” (Bodroghkozy). Therefore, it is clear that material that constitutes as being appropriate for the time (1960s and early 1970s) is that that is sensitive to social transformations and political upheavals without being overly censored to the point that eliminates free speech. I believe that television censorship is similar today in the sense that the material cannot be prejudice or racist, but can still incorporate narrative elements that may express these negative opinions – it is something that media is never going to completely censor out.
The Smothers Brother Comedy Hour was a variety show on CBS that was surrounded by controversy for much of its three seasons on air. Although it was extremely controversial, it was very popular, and increasingly so among the counterculture movement. CBS ripped it off the air in its third season because of the amount of controversy and negative feedback it created in the right leaning audience. CBS, as a network must appeal to a very large audience in order to attract viewers and advertisers. When CBS would tell the Smothers Brothers that they couldn’t discuss a particular topic on air, such as the Vietnam War, they responded in the same way that a smart alecky kid would, and pushed the envelope as far as they could. When they were disciplined the Smothers’ continued to spit out left-wing material, growing bolder as no serious punishments were handed down. They even had skits to poke fun at how much their show was censored, making fun of the very people that put them on the air. CBS finally got sick of the Smothers Brothers ignoring their comments about the shows material based on viewer complaints.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1960s and 70s, when there was a lot of political unrest in America about various things like race relations and the Vietnam war, shows were strongly censored as to not set off an avalanche of negative energy towards their stations. They had to tread lightly, and even if the Smothers Brothers appealed to the growing counterculture audience, there was enough right wing criticism to pull them off the air.
We still censor sensitive material, but because the political unrest is much lower than it was then, networks are less sensitive to criticisms and concerns. One major similarity between the two eras is the censorship of slanderous material about the president. However, the government still does its best to subtly censor this material, because the censoring itself is enough to bring about negative energy.
Like many entertainers before them, The Smothers Brothers were censored by their network company due to their willingness and downright insistence on speaking their mind in regards to political matters and current events. The problem, to CBS, was in the Smothers Brothers using these events to make important people and companies look extremely foolish, as comedians are often wont to do. They mad comments which were sure to drum up controversy and negative press against CBS as a network, though the show went on to be a counter-cultural phenomenon, holding a slot even against the mighty Gunsmoke. In response to these attempts at censorship, The Smothers Brothers went on to increase the amount of controversial content they put out, snarkily referencing topics CBS specifically told them to avoid, such as the Vietnam War (and more importantly The Brothers opinions on it). They even began pushing out skits that specifically referenced and ridiculed the CBS networks attempts at censoring them.
ReplyDeleteThe major political movements of the 1960s and 1970s drove much of the times ideals of what is and isn't appropriate on air. The Civil Rights movements and multiple wars were the prevalent issues of the day, and stations were careful not to inappropriately reference these huge events in that period. Shows attempted to avoid prejudices to always try to appeal to the broadest possible audience. I believe censorship today is similar to how it was in that portion of time. We still are rarely able to see most forms of criticisms of our government in any way which would actually cause general unrest in the public. However, nowadays with the internet, censorship is harder than ever so network TV has transitioned to become a little more open as a way to stay relevant in controversial discussions which can now grow far more easily than ever before.
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was cancelled due to its controversial political, social, and (counter)cultural content. Originally the show was supposed to cater to youths of the counterculture due to youth viewership steadily declining during the 1960's. They accomplished this in a sense, but because they strayed away from the "family values" that CBS valued and strayed more towards political and cultural satire, they were ultimately cancelled. The brother's catered more towards the left-leaning audiences that embodied the counterculture, putting on musical guests such as Joan Baez and Buffalo Springfield that other shows wouldn't put on due to their political affiliations and the content of their songs. In addition to this, the brothers "asserted their political allegiances on prime-time television" (Bodroghkozy, 202) and, because of this, right-wing backlash ensued and CBS sought to censor the show. In response, the brothers satirized CBS executive's attempts to censor the show. For example, in the clip we were shown in class, an opening skit detailed their censorship of the show. The final script for a show was passed from supposed CBS exec to CBS exec, each progressively tearing off a page until a single page arrived to the Smother's Brothers who exlaimed, "There's nothing funny in here!" Skits like this and others sparked enough controversy to cancel the show.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1960's and 1970's controversial content was tolerated very little or not at all. Sponsors and TV executives wanted shows that catered to the family and family values. Any show that sparked controversy was quickly cancelled as is evidenced by the Smothers Brothers. This seemed to be mostly due to a clash of the burgeoning counterculture of the 1960's and the residual family-oriented culture left over from the 1950's. Sponsors didn't know who to cater to, so since the Smother's Brothers was the first of its kind and caused so much backlash with right-wing audiences, it ultimately was cancelled. Today, we are a little more laid back in terms of the content shown on TV. There is still controversy over certain content, but due to all of the popular controversial shows concerning politics and counterculture over the years (South Park, SNL, The Simpsons, etc.), there is a certain degree of numbness exercised by the TV executives controlling the shows. In short, its still controversial today, we're just used to it.
The problem with The Smothers Brothers was that they shifted their program to target the political turmoil of the time. CBS considered the political topics too risky to talk about on television and censured/tried to censure them as much as possible. But of course, The Smothers Brothers pushed the limits as to what they could do. They provided programing and if it was censored then they found other ways of getting pass the censures.
ReplyDeleteThe problem in the late 1960s through the early 1970s was not knowing what was allowed on television. It is a period of political turmoil and baby boomers reaching their late teens and becoming more involved with what was happening in the country. Censorship was meant to defuse the current problems. We eventually see that the networks and the FCC eventually became more flexible and allowed more politically inclined programs such as M*A*S*H to be televised.
But programs like M*A*S*H were telefilms and not live. On live television anything and everything could happen even if they were preplanned and already censored before airtime. The program was influential, it promised comedy and it did deliver, but not in the form that was expected. The Smothers Brothers image did not reflect the content they based their comedy on. TV shows had already established that the troublemakers were the hippie looking characters, but this program was the complete opposite. I feel that it was more of the shock of seeing political being presented by the young and hip that made the program more controversial than it may have been.
I feel that today some programs are censored, but not as strongly as before. The three main networks have loosened up on what may or may not be presented on television. They tend to try and censor more of their internal problems than those of the political kind.
The Smothers Brothers were an incredibly brave duo of their time. Underdogs from the beginning, nobody ever expected their comedy special to succeed when scheduled next to popular shows of the time like Bonanza. However they did succeed, and with this success they chose to make political statements with their show that went against safe network regulations and instead expressed what they felt to be right.
ReplyDeleteThe Smothers Brothers pushed the boundaries that CBS set for them. For example, when the network advised them not to talk about the Vietnam War, which is exactly the topic they discussed. Political topics, such as the war during this time, created much controversy amongst Americans. Being a large television network seeking to appeal to a vast audience, CBS could not allow for the brothers to continue broadcasting such a highly debated topic.
The brothers responded to this attempted censorship by not responding at all. They continued the same way in which they always did, refusing to change who they were or what they stood for just because a network told them different. In the end this is what had the Smothers Brothers show removed from CBS.
In the 1960s and 1970s censorship revolved around political topics, such as the war, and a want by networks to preserve a neutral stance on these issues. They didn’t want to offend anyone since it ran the chance of them losing viewers, or loyalty to their station. I believe censorship today is a bit different. Instead of wanting to play it safe, it seems as though censorship is barely present in today’s television. Although this isn’t true, it just seems as though anything and any opinion is at your disposal when you turn on the television, you just have to flip to the right channel.
After nine shows previously failing in the 9PM Sunday CBS time slot, up against NBC's hit show Bonanza, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour began in 1967 as a variety show. Originally CBS gave the brothers full creative control, however, after the show proved to be somewhat controversial in its political commentary, CBS began to censor the show, ultimately leading to its cancellation. While the show garnered much success especially with its youth audience, there were continual conflicts between the network and the show that pushed the brothers to respond critically of the networks forcefulness. In one episode of the show, it opens with a parody showing how obnoxiously and unjustifiably the network was censoring the show, with men in black suits ripping out pages of the “script.” With this kind of response, the brothers were clearly not afraid of CBS as the brothers continually pushed the limit with their counterculture sketches.
ReplyDeleteDuring the late 1960s and early 1970s at a time when drug use was high and political issues were more than relevant, questions of what constitutes appropriate content for network TV revolved around these sensitive subjects. Also, seeing as television was a fairly new medium at the time, networks took more control over the content that aired, ensuring shows were family appropriate and uncontroversial: mainly for entertainment. Nowadays, pretty much anything goes, however, primetime shows usually express a little more constraint over issues such as race and politics.
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was on of the first shows of its time to confront the social problems and concerns of its youth audience. The show took a prominent political stance in its comedy that CBS was not too fond of. In the beginning of the show, Dick and Tom Smothers used comedic techniques like double entendres in order to push the political nature of the show past the censors of the network. When they started to invite musical guests that would sing clearly left wing songs about war and politics in America, CBS caught on and started cutting some segments of the show. The brothers responded by telling their writers to include more and more obvious political comedy into their show. Eventually, CBS had enough and cancelled the show due to its overuse of anti-war and anti-establishments themes. This is one example of censorship in the late 60s and early 70s. Networks wanted to pull in different types of audience but wanted to avoid doing so through taking a political stance. Many hints at politics in shows were heavily scrutinized and censored by the network in order to keep up a reputation in the television industry. Nowadays, censoring has more to do with themes of sexuality and extreme violence. There are many political shows on television now that take many different stances and beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI think the different relationships that CBS had are really important to focus on. CBS wanted to have a show for the counterculture of America to attract a more youthful audience, however, due to counter-programming they didn't expect Smothers Brothers to successfully compete against the top show of the time. They didn't expect it to be popular show, and the Smothers Brothers therefore had no need to be thankful for the opportunity that CBS gave them. As CBS limited their statements their relationship with the network only became more strained. It was abundantly apparent that the network's relationship with advertisers and older audiences was more important than the network's relationship with its programs.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, the Smothers Brothers pushed the limits with their show. They made fun of their censorship at the expense of the network that put them on the air. This can be seen from the skit we saw in class among other skits that they had about how their form of humor was being suppressed. Many networks of this time period wanted to capitalize on the counterculture movement to attract youthful audiences, however, these networks stole the look of counterculture without the progressive ideals that backed up the movement. In short, the Smothers Brothers appealed to the audience that CBS wanted to appeal to, but it did so in a way that took more than just the appearance of counterculture. CBS then decided to take the show off the air rather than push the line and make a public statement about these topical issues.
CBS tried to censor The Smothers Brothers because they took full advantage of their freedom of speech. CBS was a big company and was afraid to let a show that had their companies name on it be affiliated with negative counter culture. So in short CBS tried to censor The Smothers Brothers to save face, in order to save dividends. They felt if people were offended by what they were seeing then they wouldn't tune in anymore and if you're a TV stations there's nothing worse than having people not tune into your channel.
ReplyDeleteWhat was defined as appropriate and what wasn't back in the 60's and 70's was very clear cut. For the most part channels tried to make their shows towards what would be acceptable for when the whole family comes home and watched television together. So it aimed for a broad globally accepted standard of appropriate. While today television is more sectioned off. Shows are tailored now less for the whole family and instead for individual market types. Because in a world when most people have televisions in their rooms it makes varying your standard of "appropriate" much easier.