The Smothers Brothers Show

Synopsis

Dick Smothers portrayed himself as a rising young executive at Pandora Publications, working for publisher Leonard J. Costello, played by Roland Winters. His brother Tom had been lost at sea two years earlier and subsequently reappeared as an apprentice angel, assigned to perform good deeds on Earth to earn his wings and become a full-fledged angel. Tom's efforts to help people invariably went awry, requiring Dick to resolve the resulting complications. Tom received his orders from Ralph, his unseen and unheard boss. The cast also included Harriet MacGibbon as Mrs. Harriet Costello, Ann Elder as Dick's co-worker and girlfriend Janet, and Eileen O'Neill as another of Dick's girlfriends, Wanda. As was typical of the Smothers Brothers in their later Comedy Hour, Dick served as the straight man to Tom's humorous antics. The series was produced by Four Star Television in association with the brothers' Knave Productions, named for Tom's catchphrase 'Curb Your Tongue, Knave!' and the title of their 1963 record album. This series may have inspired the Brothers' more successful later series The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour; Tom Smothers had been critical of the series as not being compatible with the brothers' strengths, and he fought with Four Star executives over more creative control, earning an ulcer and irritating his marital relationship to the point of divorce at the end of the season. Neither brother played their instruments on the show, with one exception at the beginning of the episode ''Twas The Week Before Christmas', and it was not until halfway through the season that they sang the theme song.