SHOUT! Studios DVD Request: "The Smothers Brothers Show: The Complete Series"

[stevearino]

Dear Brian Ward,

I have a proposal for SHOUT! Studios: In Loving Memory of Tommy Smothers (who died this week at age 86 of Lung Cancer after being diagnosed with the illness earlier this year), it's my humblest suggestion that SHOUT! Studios make a deal with 20th Television (as of 2019 a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company) for SHOUT! Studios to issue and release, for the first time EVER on DVD, "The Smothers Brothers Show: The Complete Series," a loving showcase of all 32 half-hour episodes of the short-lived and forgotten 1965 sitcom "The Smothers Brothers Show" 100% Complete, 100% Uncut, AND 100% Unedited, just the way that each episode originally aired on the CBS Television Network.

Created by Aaron Spelling (Yes, HIM), "The Smothers Brothers Show" originally aired on CBS from September 17, 1965 - April 22, 1966; the sitcom's premise was far-fetched, with Tommy Smothers returning to Earth 2 years after Drowning at Sea as the Guardian Angel of his brother, Dickie Smothers.

At the start of the series, Dickie Smothers portrayed a fictional version of himself as a rising executive at the fictional Pandora Publications in Los Angeles, California, where he worked for Leonard J. Costello (Roland Winters, fresh from his role as Charlie Chan in a series of Charlie Chan feature films) and had his own swinging Bachelor Pad where Tommy Smothers showed up, much to Dickie's disbelief, as Dickie's Guardian Angel--an Apprentice Angel working for an unseen and unheard character known only as Ralph.

After this sitcom ended, The Smothers Brothers became more successful with their topical hit '60s variety show "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," which ran for 2 years on CBS from February 5, 1967 - June 8, 1969, airing weekly every Sunday night at 9 P.M. ET opposite NBC's "Bonanza"; despite beating "Bonanza" every week, CBS fired The Smothers Brothers and abruptly cancelled "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" in the spring of 1969.

In the years after their firing by CBS, The Smothers Brothers continued to tour until their 2010 Retirement and last year were planning a Reunion Tour before Tommy fell ill with Lung Cancer and ultimately died this week at age 86.

The Smothers Brothers were both born in New York City, New York--respectively, Tommy on February 2, 1937 and Dickie on November 20, 1938--and were raised soon after Dickie's birth in Altadena, California, a small town near Pasadena, California, beginning their Musical Comedy career as part of a folk music group called The Casual Quintet before striking out on their own as The Smothers Brothers in 1959; soon after the brothers' relocation to California, Dickie was involved in a freak accident upon being ejected accidentally by a moving car, and is completely deaf in his left ear ever since.

Tommy was diagnosed with Dyslexia at age 30, soon after the debut of "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" on CBS, but despite their different disabilities--including Dickie being legally blind in one eye by the time he turned 50--they refused to let their disorders stop them from entertaining.

Their father, Tom, during World War II, died very young of Pneumonia en route to a Japanese POW camp, after which their mother, Ruth, married and divorced several more times--including once to a man she met while attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting--while the Smo Bros lived with relatives.

Tentatively, Brian, SHOUT! Studios shall issue and release "The Smothers Brothers Show: The Complete Series" on May 14, 2024 at a cost of ONLY $19.99 wherever DVDs are sold.

Sincerely,
Steve Arino

[albabe]

I'm with you 100%! I'd like to see their Variety Show released too. All the episodes, with all the great bits that CBS removed.

[albabe]

I'd love to see Box Sets of the original "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour..." that would hopefully include the February 1970, "Return of the Smothers Brothers..." the February 1988 "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour: The 20th Reunion," and the short series that followed 1988–89.