Smothers Brothers ended two years before Laugh-In aired its pilot episode. So I’m not sure what kind of “competing comedy variety TV shows” you think was happening there.
And, sure, having Nixon on was a dumb thing. As with Trump on SNL it probably handed him the election. But to argue that it was “pathologically centrist” is, I think, to miss the overall bent of the show.
That is not true. Laugh-In started in January 1968 and the The Smothers Brothers ended in June 1969.
The Tommy even appeared on Laugh-In as a publicity stunt following the cancellation of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
Ah pardon me. I was thinking of the Smothers Brothers Show, different from the Comedy Hour.
Oh, there was definitely some experimentation going on. No doubt about that.
Parts of this remind me of No Soap, Radio which was less controversial, thus not as well-remembered, but still very experimental. And it made it to five full episodes.
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