Dick Turns Eighty Four

Dick Smothers turns eighty-four today.

He & his brother Tom were pretty important cultural figures in the great uproar that became the “nineteen sixties.” Their brief two-year run “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” poked the authorities in a time when that was not done on television and pointed viewers in important directions.

I have a vivid memory of the show where Pete Seeger showed up and sang “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.” Everyone knew who he was singing about. It had originally been cut in the long and bitter censorship controversies that embroiled the brothers and CBS. Somehow they prevailed. And Pete played…

Brilliant.

Funny…

Pointing to deeper realities.

They’ll always have a place in my heart.