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{ 2012 02 20 }

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour – clips and commercials 10/6/68

Here are some clips and the original commercial breaks from the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour as aired on 10/6/68. Guests for this installment included Nancy Sinatra, Aaron Williams, Pat Paulsen, and a special filmed appearance of the Beatles singing their latest single “Hey, Jude”. In fact, the Smothers Brothers was the only US show that received permission from the Beatles to run this performance as Tommy mentions here. George Harrison would make a ‘live’ surprise appearance on the show several weeks after this aired. This is from the third and final season of the show. While remembered today as ‘too controversial’, the shows when seen in their entirety are not as controversial as history suggests. They are solidly entertaining and fun with a dash of social commentary on the hot buttons of the day. It was too hot in fact for CBS at the time and the network canceled the show at the end of this season amidst a flurry of controversy. After that, the show won the emmy for that season, the Brothers sued the network (and won) for breach of contract, and CBS would soon begin airing a show called All in the Family which luckily for them never stirred up any controversy whatsoever. Note the appearance of a pre-M*A*S*H Mike Farrell in a Kool Cigarette commercial. I’m sure BJ would have something to say about smoking habits
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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Posted by admin on Monday, February 20, 2012, at 1:00 am. Filed under RETRO COMMERCIALS. Tagged , , , , , , . Follow any responses to this post with its comments RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

{ 20 } Comments

  1. fromthesidelines | February 20, 2012 at 1:56 am | Permalink

    …and Mort Marshall is the man pitching Volkswagen at the end. A veteran Broadway, film and TV actor, he also provided the voice of the “Trix rabbit” in General Mills commercials, as well as the voice of “Stanley Livingston” on “TENNESSEE TUXEDO AND HIS TALES”, and “Klondike Kat” on “THE UNDERDOG SHOW”.

  2. fromthesidelines | February 20, 2012 at 2:26 am | Permalink

    Oh, yes, Joe Sirola is the voice behind the Whirlpool ad. He’s still “the voice of Boar’s Head” deli meats in their commercials to this day…

  3. Aspergian | February 20, 2012 at 2:57 am | Permalink

    Would you have any clips of Lorenzo Music from this series? I’ve read next to his being a writer for this series, he occasionally would sneak onto camera strumming his banjo or ukelele.

  4. mikethekhotmailcom | February 20, 2012 at 3:09 am | Permalink

    the Beatles appearance was a videotape from the David frost show(UK). Available on YouTube.

  5. mikethekhotmailcom | February 20, 2012 at 4:07 am | Permalink

    The B

  6. jaytoor | February 20, 2012 at 4:52 am | Permalink

    WOW look at those cars!

  7. ModGirl1967 | February 20, 2012 at 5:23 am | Permalink

    Thanks for the post!

  8. sith4923 | February 20, 2012 at 5:51 am | Permalink

    this video is interesting as hell

  9. fromthesidelines | February 20, 2012 at 5:53 am | Permalink

    Mike appeared in dozens of commercials during this period, while trying to make his mark as a “working actor”. He was particularly appealing to cigarette advertisers, as the Kool ad demonstrates.
    “Participating sponsorship” were the keywords here; several advertisers bought individual minutes on the Brothers’ show every week {those most often, at the time, were Brown & Williamson [Kool], American Tobacco [Tareyton, Silva Thins]- they also co-sponsored their 1965-’66 sitcom- and Volkswagen}.

  10. PeerlessPaavo | February 20, 2012 at 5:57 am | Permalink

    DaVinci was a vegetarian and is deader than the proverbial doornail.

  11. FaganRoberts | February 20, 2012 at 6:35 am | Permalink

    Non-smokers aren’t long for this world either. My grandmother never smoked and she’s as dead as disco.

  12. iceaxe56 | February 20, 2012 at 7:25 am | Permalink

    he actually ran–for vice prez.–under the name of thomas eagleton

  13. findapartmentnow | February 20, 2012 at 8:15 am | Permalink

    OMG that LTD is gorgeous!

  14. 022603 | February 20, 2012 at 8:35 am | Permalink

    Commercials from the 60′s where included but not the BEATLES?????!!!!!!!!????

    Rather have seen the Beatles!

  15. daybyday007 | February 20, 2012 at 9:14 am | Permalink

    This is great with all of the commercials but could you please put the parts up with Nancy Sinatra? I’d really appreciate it!

  16. lcmoorejr | February 20, 2012 at 10:10 am | Permalink

    Thanks for posting. Used to watch this show as a kid, and even had the album Tommy was promoting. Love the old cigarette ads. There’s a classic cig ad by the Flintstones you can find on YouTube, that’s amazing…….

  17. Anglynn74 | February 20, 2012 at 10:31 am | Permalink

    Oh gee look, cigarette ads when people knew they were bad for you but weren’t uptight about it, back when we could advertise it & not have others go ape shit about it.

  18. sexymama1966 | February 20, 2012 at 11:04 am | Permalink

    love that ford commercial:)

  19. sexymama1966 | February 20, 2012 at 11:35 am | Permalink

    that mike farrell was a hottie in his time:)

  20. PeerlessPaavo | February 20, 2012 at 12:13 pm | Permalink

    That’s Mike Farrell of M*A*S*H* (2:26). Cigarette ads weren’t much longer for this world. Sadly, neither were some smokers.

    The swinging pop combo in the Ford ad (3:29) was an advertising staple then. About as swinging as they could get for that demo — my grandparents bought an LTD. Also, Jimi wasn’t available.

    I love the man asking Paulsen about “birth control” at 5:53. With it enough to be at this show, but coping with the Generation Gap at home.

    Great stuff, Toon. Thanks.