American comic Tom Smothers, the elder half of the musical-comedy duo the Smothers Brothers, whose 1960s CBS variety show tested the limits of network censors and the boundaries of television satire, died Wednesday at age 86.
He died at his home in California following a battle with cancer, Smothers’ family said in a statement released by the National Comedy Center.
Smothers and his younger brother, Dick, started out wanting to be folk singers but found success weaving comedy into their act, a formula they perfected in 1967 on CBS with The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, a precursor of Saturday Night Live and other satirical television shows.
Tom played guitar and Dick played the stand-up bass, and both brothers sang. Their performance of songs usually digressed into comedy bits or arguments, often sparked by Tom mangling the lyrics, singing off-key or interjecting outlandish commentary.
In his stage persona, Tom was the dimwitted, stammering older sibling forever provoking the calmer, more refined straight man played by his brother, spinning elaborate stories of their childhood and his resentment of Dick as their mother’s favored son.
When trick-or-treating on Halloween, he recalled in one routine, their mother gave Dick a pillowcase in which to amass candy, while Tom had to make do with a sock.
"Tom was not only the loving older brother that everyone would want in their life, he was a one-of-a-kind creative partner," Dick Smothers said in a statement. "Our relationship was like a good marriage – the longer we were together, the more we loved and respected one another."