Laugh In loved any words that started with "F"... who could forget the Farkle Family sketches, featuring all family members with F names, and the "Fickle Finger of Fate" which NBC insisted the hand giving the "whoopee" gesture be placed sideways so that no one confuses it with "the finger".
Jo Ann Worley said they drove the censors NUTS because they had their hand on the "censor" button waiting for someone to sneak in an obscenity (especially during the Farkle Family skits, which had tons of words that started with F.) Anyone that's seen the Laugh In bloopers would know that they always did skits that could NEVER make it on the air (such as Arte Johnson mooning the camera, and cast members dropping "F" bombs) For some odd reason, they didn't want to show JoAnn Worley pregnant either, (even though CBS had no problem showing a real life pregnant Lucille Ball, but she was "expecting", not "pregnant")
That Smothers Brothers ep. with Mama Cass was the definitive episode about censorship. The Smothers Brothers always pushed the envelope, but at the same time, there was plenty of good, clean funny moments on the show as well. In that ep., CBS wouldn't allow Harry Belafonte's "Stop the Carnival" musical number on the air. They had no objection to the song, but the number featured footage of the (at the time) recent 68 riot at the Democratic convention. Instead, the Brothers replaced it with a Q&A session, looking obviously ticked off and explaining that for various reasons, they had time to fill and no other way to do it. In fact, they said "Go watch Bonanza for a few minutes, see what's going on there!... But don't stay away too long, cause we'll be back!" Comedy Central later aired the episode with the Belafonte number restored.
In the Bonanza parody, the Smothers Brothers were bandits, and wore handkerchiefs around their mouths saying "CENSORED". Harry Belafonte tries to pull off Tommy's mustache (Tom and Dick debuted their newly grown mustaches on this show, only Dick ended up keeping his mustache) and then Tommy pulled off Harry's mustache, and of course it came off, with Harry demanding "PUT MY HAIR BACK, WHITE BOY!", and this caused Tom, Dick, and Harry to break character for a brief moment. The Smothers Brothers were cancelled, when a skit featuring a preacher making fun of the Bible was the "last straw" for CBS.
Ok, so we don't veer too far off topic, what game shows were the Smothers Brothers on?
Tommy was on the pilot for Talking Pictures
Both brothers appeared on Davidson and Bergeron Squares (and possibly the Marshall version, but I don't know)
Dick Smothers was on Match Game and Hollywood's Talking (and appeared quite bored on both shows)
I think both brothers also appeared on I've Got A Secret, wearing paper bags so they couldn't be recognized.
