R.I.P.: Tom Smothers Older Half of The Smothers Brothers

Tom and Dick Smothers

Tom Smothers, the older half of the comic folk duo the Smothers Brothers, whose skits and songs on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” in the late 1960s brought political satire and a spirit of youthful irreverence to network television, paving the way for shows like “Saturday Night Live” and “The Daily Show,” died on Tuesday at his home in Santa Rosa, Calif., a city in Sonoma County. He was 86, reports The NY Times..

He died “following a recent battle with cancer,” a spokesman for the National Comedy Center announced on behalf of the family.

The Smothers Brothers made their way to network television as a folk act with a difference. With Tom playing guitar and Dick playing stand-up bass, they spent as much time bickering as singing.

With an innocent expression and a stammering delivery, Tom would try to introduce their songs with a story, only to be picked at by his skeptical brother. As frustration mounted, he would turn, seething, and often deliver a trademark non sequitur: “Mom always liked you best.”

Reuters reports 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 with the CBS show "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," a precursor of "Saturday Night Live" and other satirical television shows.

Tom played guitar and Dick played bass, and both brothers sang. Their onstage performance of songs was usually derailed into comedy bits or arguments sparked by Tom.

In his onscreen persona, Tom was the dimwitted, stammering older brother to Dick, spinning elaborate stories of their childhood and his resentment of Dick as their mother's favored son. When trick-or-treating on Halloween, he joked in one episode, 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."

Tom Smothers was born in New York City on Feb. 2, 1937. His father, Thomas B. Smothers, was an officer of the U.S. Army who died in 1945 as a Japanese prisoner of war. The family moved to Southern California while Tom and Dick were children.