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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 1980)
lsa*P1W \ O \ CD \ O \ O \ 0) \ QJ 1 (D 1 @ l I U I «£• I 1 \ oavx \ MVAM ga \ KM.M CB \ 3aKM GB \ nw\f^ \ MaiM GP \ nOHM q» \ IHnM Q \ OaiM O \ M30M O \ X19V< Q I QHdM Q I Page 12 ® KVUE §B KTW OKUHT ©KHOU ©KTRK ©KPRC OKBTX © KCEN OKTBC The Flintstones Bugs Bunny Good Morning America Sesame Street Morning News Morning Show Good Morning America Morning News Good Morning Weather Cartoon Show Banana Splits Sesame Captain Kangaroo America Captain Kangaroo Mister Rogers Shakespeare Good Morn. Austin Donahue Las Vegas Gambit Blockbusters Good Morning Houston Mister Rogers Electric Company The Jeffersons Alice The Jeffersons Alice News Math Patrol Electric Company Jeffersons Donahue Donahue Wheel Of Fortune Days Of Our Lives Leave It To Beaver Brady Bunch 3-2-1 Contact Electric Company Wheel Of Fortune Password Plus 3-2-1 Contact Shakespeare The Price Hour Magazine Wheel Of Fortune Password Plus To Tell The Truth Sesame Street Young And The Restless Eleven News Musical Heritage News Family Feud Search For Tomorrow Card Sharks News Card Sharks Richard Simmons Doctors Search For Tomorrow Van Dyke Beverly Hillbillies Corner Pyle All My Children Footsteps All My Children Days Of Our Lives Young And The Restless Math Patrol Musical Heritage Math Patrol The Doctors Days Of Our Lives Midday Search For Tomorrow Cavett And Mel Gunsmoke One Life To Live Another World One Life To Live Soccer Made In Germany As The World Turns As The World Turns News Discovering Shakespeare One Life To Live Another World Another World I Dream Of Jeannie Krofft Superstars General Hospital General Hospital Vegetable Soup Victory Garden Guiding Light General Hospital Art Chest Edge Of Night Partridge Family Cartoons Popeye & Friends The Flintstones Sesame Street Movie: Sesame John Davidson Show Edge Of Night Tom & Jerry Doctors Griffin Gilligan's Happy Days Again Gilligan's Island John Davidson Get Smart Andy Griffith Mister Rogers Electric Company Mister Rogers Electric Company Cross-Wits Mary Tyler Moore World Of People Beverly Hillbillies Andy Griffith & Pals M.A.S.H. Sanford & Son Joker's What's Happening Sha Na Na 3-2-1 Contact Over Easy ABC News M.A.S.H. 3-2-1 Contact Over Easy ABC News NBC News M.A.S.H. ABC News CBS News CBS News NBC News NBC News Smothers brothers returning to TV United Press International HOLLYWOOD — The Smothers Brothers, television’s rebellious comedy team of the turbulent ‘60s, have returned to the tube just as funny but more subdued than dur ing their salad days as the voices The brothers were TV’s bad little kids. Their songs and jokes were larded with vitriolic politico- philosophical satire attacking the Vietnam war, Richard Nixon and the establishment in general. Their 76 "Smothers Brothers seasons, 1966-69, epitomized youthful discontent in the country. But as the show wore on it grew less funny and increasingly politi cal. CBS, accusing them of poor taste, fired the brothers. The boys contended the cancellation violated their contract. Suits and countersuits were filed attended by public disaffection with the brothers. In 1973 the brothers won $1 mil lion in damages from the network, but taxes and lawyers’ fees took most of it. By that time the Smothers Brothers were past his tory, washed up on TV and not a big attraction on the road. The cool, laid-back 70s had no ear for their old insurgent song. Tom and Dick Smothers, ap pearing on TV for the first time in five years on last month’s Emmy Awards, got a thunderous wel come from the audience. They sur faced again this week with their own NBC-TV special. There’ll be another Nov. 11. Next January they begin their own hour-long weekly comedy- drama series — as opposed to a variety show — for Universal. Dick will play a San Francisco TV newsman and Tom his wacky cameraman on the still untitled show. They won’t be playing brothers. “We got good, positive reaction from viewers and people in the in dustry who saw the Emmy show,” said Dick, the straight man. "We’d already signed for our first NBC special but it encouraged the net work to give us a second one.” Tom grinned and added, “It was the first time we’d been together on national TV in five years. Our last regular series was a 13-week sum mer show in 1970. It was a good show but our time had passed. We had become the bad boys of TV.” “By that time viewers were tired of us,” Dick said. “The two specials we’ve done this fall relate to the ’80s, not the ’60s. We’ve got an ’80s attitude, sorta crazy but we aren’t involved with heavy issues. “Any act that stays together for a long time and fails to grow has got to suffer,” Tom said. “So we pur posely stayed off the tube individu ally. We avoided talk shows and game shows and variety programs. They were going through talent like a chopping block.” “We went our own ways as ac tors,” Dick said, picking up the nar rative. “We worked in plays in little theaters and dinner theaters. It was okay. We needed the money.” The brothers reformed as a team to star on Broadway in “I Love My Wife” for eight months of full-house business. They toured in the same play from December 1979 through April this year. They purposely scheduled per formances in San Francisco and Los Angeles, hoping movie and TV folk would take notice. The Los Angeles engagement never materialized but producer Glen Larson of Universal Television caught the play in San Francisco and signed them for the new series. During the brothers’ absence, such other comedians as Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, John Be- lushi, Chevy Chase and Robin Wil liams have come along. Dick and Tom believe their humor is still a counterpoint to what most Americans are seeing on TV. It is less frantic than it was at the height of their popularity. They aren't pressing anymore. “Our 20-year-old material is right with the times today,” said Dick. “The difference is we’re not neurot ically hitting out at everyone. We make more fun of ourselves than other people and issues. “We never did get as vicious as some of the things you see on ‘Saturday Night Live,”’ Tom added. “About 1970 I lost my point of view and humor dealing with heavy top ics. I forgot what satire is. I let the issues get in the way. “Now, thanks to working in ‘I Love My Wife’ together, we’ve re gained our timing. Dick and I have begun to believe in ourselves again.” Tom, twice divorced, is unmar ried now. Dick, his wife Linda and their three children, live in Santa Cruz, Calif., where they own a vineyard and a thriving wine business — bottling 3,300 cases of various wines this year. During the time immediately fol lowing their break-up as a team, Tom spent the better part of two years avoiding show business at his ranch in Sonoma, Calif. Dick, who had been an avid race car driver — winning at Sebring twice — gave up racing to concentrate on his winery. Throughout their hard times the brothers remained in touch with one another. “Now we're starting over,” Dick said. “The bad days only brought us closer together.” of youthful protest. Comedy Hour” shows over three. * * 3601 E. 29th St. Post Oak Center 846-3162 * * * ¥ PUL & -TRUCK TAPES 4 Tape. Cases OfW * ¥ k- * * Oat ev«ry</ay/ow pnce So/fi Ends / * * 4