My Brother the Angel

Tommy Smothers, lost at sea and dead for two years shows up at Dick Smothers doorstep (with a life saver around his neck) saying he is an angel, sent back to earth to perform angel assignments every week in the hopes he can get into heaven. They play Tom and Dick Smothers.

I remember watching this half-hour sitcom when in second or third grade. It was my favorite show at the time, and came out right about the time their "Mom Always Liked You Best" comedy album did.

I seem to remember my Mom telling me at the time that this was originally a "summer replacement" program for Summer 1965 that proved so popular, they extended it (apparently into 1966). The popularity of the show also fueled the creation of their Variety Show, but as a kid I did not like the variety show near as much as the sitcom.

I was finally able to see the show 25 years later on British Satellite TV ("Lifestyle"?), and still remembered the theme song. I would imagine the shows are quite rare in the states seeing as how they only made one season of the sitcom and most people remembered their variety show that immediately followed.

All in all a good show featuring Roland "Charlie Chan" Winters as Dick Smothers boss in the advertising business.

I didn't think there were that many people who actually remembered this show. I do not recall too many of the episodes, but, yes, the theme song still sticks in my head......or most of it. I seem to remember it this way, but please, anyone feel free to correct:

Tonight you'll meet, two brothers who, Just happen to be us

Though Tommy is an angel, A problem we will now discuss.

Brother Tom was lost at sea, Without his water wings,

And now he is an angel, And tries to do amazing things.

That's right!.......

Brother Dick gets so sick as you'll see, Lot's of different people, Who look a lot like me!

.....and that's as far as I can go (out of useless brain cells, I guess)

...there was a sitcom.

A black and white half hour series on CBS. (I think it was the last season the networks had B&W during primetime). It lasted only one season, but had 32 episodes.

Drowned at sea many years earlier, Tom Smothers returns to earth as an apprentice angel, and takes up residence in the bachelor apartment of his living brother, Dick. Inept and ordered to assist people in distress, Tom reluctantly assisted by Dick, struggles to complete his assignments and acquire the status needed to become a full-fledged angel.

I barely remember this show. I remember looking forward to it, because the brothers were good when they did their musical stand-up routines.

This show was OK, but did not make the best use of their talents. It was not particularly popular, and only lasted one season; it appears that the Smothers Brothers were among the folks happy to see it go. Their later variety show format suited them much better.

On the other hand, other than a single episode of Burke's Law, this is the first acting exposure for the brothers, so was probably instrumental in their careers.

The rest of the cast - was there really a 'rest of the cast'? Roland Winters was in less than a third of the episodes. No one else in the credits comes close to that.

Props for the opening cartoon sequence, no biggy, but cute.

Perhaps this has potential for replay on Nickelodeon, but sixties sitcoms seem dated on replay - the pacing is slower, the acting and conversation stilted, the laugh track forced. Never again mainstream.

Try it once, if you've got nothing better to do.

Perhaps ADULTS in this time era did not enjoy the show as much as KIDS did! It was a shame children in this period of time did not have as much impact as children do today. There was not any show then, or now that carried these aspects of "Life after Death" in the same way that this show portrayed it.

The show also carried a special and personal meaning to me. This was due to my brother had drowned in March 1961, (I was 6 years old, and my brother was 7 at this time) and the thought that he was an Angel and could see me, helped me cope with his death.

When The Smothers Brothers became a variety show years later, I was already in tune to their type of comedy.

For this reason, I would like to thank this show and it's cast members.