On another episode, the show welcomed blacklisted folk singer Pete Seeger — he’d been banned from television for years. He sang his “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” a song widely understood to ridicule President Lyndon Johnson for the Vietnam War. CBS refused to air the segment, but Tom and Dick brought Seeger back and he sang it again, this time making the air. Segments like these, along with others poking fun at religion, racism and the establishment, led to CBS giving the brothers the ax.

The song started out with clips from other US war protest songs going back to the 1800s: https://youtu.be/qHETC5qAnqo?si=7OIaA0nxsy3h0rlH

Edit link to article: https://www.cracked.com/article_40618_the-late-tommy-smothers-was-canceled-back-when-that-meant-something.html

  • stevehobbes
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    1 year ago

    No. Not until 1995. CBS was more or less its own thing until then.