Tom Smothers, half of the groundbreaking comedic duo The Smothers Brothers, died Tuesday at his home in Santa Rosa, California. He was 86.

His name is likely most familiar to those from the Vietnam era, though the influence of his work with brother Dick Smothers is still felt today. Born to a military family in 1937, he began his career at San Francisco's legendary Purple Onion comedy club in 1959 as part of a folk music act called the Smothers Brothers and Gawd. The brothers eventually built their bickering and banter into the act, which evolved into a commentary of the folk music movement.

“We started out in folk music,” Smothers told Guy MacPherson in 2006. “I was fairly funny in high school so I wanted to be a comedian but more I wanted to be a bandleader. I wasn't good enough. I wasn't a good enough musician but I was pretty good. And we sang regular songs and then folk music came in around '58 with the Kingston Trio and some of those groups, and Peter, Paul & Mary. And that's about the time we started having fun with folk music. And it slowly evolved to be a running argument between two brothers who sang but never finished a song.”

A subsequent comedy album and successful appearances on the variety and talk shows of the day attracted the attention of CBS, and by 1967, the Smothers' eponymous show (think monologues, music, and sketch), The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, was on screens across the nation. 

Both brothers were opposed to the ongoing war in Vietnam, and made no secret of it in the show. Guests included anti-war activists such as Pete Seeger, and Tom—who said that he was the more liberal of the brothers—clashed with network execs and censors. The series was canceled in 1970, but is credited by critics as providing the groundwork for shows such as Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show.

The pair sued CBS over the cancellation, a battle detailed in the 2002 documentary Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. They asked for $31 million, and won $775,000.

The duo took their show to ABC in 1970, to NBC in 1975, and back to CBS in 1988-89.

The brothers continued to tour, playing live shows through the aughts. “We used to do about 110 dates a year but now we're getting near kind of the end of our career,” Smothers said in 2006. “We're not on the cutting edge anymore. But we fill our places generally wherever we go.”

The pair eventually retired, but stepped out again in 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of their show's cancellation. “People come up to us and say, ‘We love you guys. I wish you were on television now,’” Smothers told the AP then. “It’s a different world today.”

In 2008, Smothers was awarded an Emmy for his work on the original variety show—as the SF Chronicle reported at the time, his name had been left off the show's writing award entry “fearing the inclusion would draw controversy.” 

“Freedom of expression and freedom of speech aren't really important unless they're heard,” Smothers said from the Emmy stage. "

"The freedom of hearing is as important as the freedom of speaking. It's hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war. There's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action. So I dedicate this Emmy to all people who feel compelled to speak out, not afraid to speak to power, won't shut up and refuse to be silent."