Tom Smothers, half of musical comedy duo the Smothers Brothers, dies aged 86

Tom Smothers, the elder of the Smothers Brothers, has died at 86.

The Smothers Brothers, a duo that also included younger brother Dick, were a musical double act whose performances of folk songs often descended into comedic squabbling.

From 1967 to 1969 they hosted their own variety show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, which earned a reputation as one of most socially conscious and groundbreaking shows in the history of television.

In a statement on Wednesday (27 December), The National Comedy Center said on behalf of his family that Smothers had died on Tuesday (26 December) at home in Santa Rosa, California, following a cancer battle.

“Tom was not only the loving older brother that everyone would want in their life, he was a one-of-a-kind creative partner. I am forever grateful to have spent a lifetime together with him, on and off stage, for over 60 years,” said Dick Smothers in a statement.

“Our relationship was like a good marriage – the longer we were together, the more we loved and respected one another. We were truly blessed.”

When The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour debuted on CBS in the fall of 1967, it was an immediate hit, to the surprise of many who had assumed the network’s expectations were so low it positioned their show opposite the top-rated Bonanza.

But the Smothers Brothers would prove a turning point in television history, with its sharp eye for pop culture trends and young rock stars such as the Who and Buffalo Springfield. Steve Martin made his first television appearance on the show in 1968.

Its daring sketches – ridiculing the Establishment, railing against the Vietnam War and portraying members of the era’s hippie counterculture as gentle, fun-loving spirits – found an immediate audience with young baby boomers. The show reached No 16 in the ratings in its first season.

It also drew the ire of network censors, and after years of battling with the brothers over the show’s creative content, the network abruptly canceled the program in 1970, accusing the siblings of failing to submit an episode in time for the censors to review.

Nearly 40 years later, when Smothers was awarded an honorary Emmy for his work on the show, he jokingly thanked the writers he said had gotten him fired. He also showed that the years had not dulled his outspokenness.

“It’s hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war,” Smothers said at the 2008 Emmy Awards as his brother sat in the audience, beaming. He dedicated his award to those “who feel compelled to speak out and are not afraid to speak to power and won’t shut up and refuse to be silenced”.

During the three years the show was on television, the brothers constantly battled with CBS’s censors and occasionally outraged viewers as well, particularly when Smothers joked that Easter “is when Jesus comes out of his tomb and if he sees his shadow, he goes back in and we get six more weeks of winter”.

At Christmas, when other show hosts were sending best wishes to soldiers fighting overseas, Smothers offered his to draft dodgers who had moved to Canada.

In still another episode, the brothers returned blacklisted folk singer Pete Seeger to television for the first time in years. He performed his song “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” widely viewed as ridiculing President Lyndon Johnson for the Vietnam War. When CBS refused to air the segment, the brothers brought Seeger back for another episode and he sang it again. This time, it made the air.

After the show was cancelled, the brothers sued CBS for $31m and were awarded $775,000. Their battles with the network were chronicled in the 2002 documentary Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

Additional reporting by Associated Press.