Entertainment legend Tom Smothers dies at 86

Tom and his brother, Dick, have been household names in the United States since the 1960s, when they launched The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, which made audiences not only laugh, but think critically about important social issues.

"Tom was not only the loving older brother that everyone would want in their life, he was a one-of-a-kind creative partner,” Dick said in a statement, per the Hollywood Reporter. "I am forever grateful to have spent a lifetime together with him, on and off stage, for over 60 years."

Dick, 84, described his relationship with his brother as being "like a good marriage," in that "the longer we were together, the more we loved and respected one another. We were truly blessed."

The pair began performing together at a young age, and formed their own act in 1959. They worked their way up from small venues to eventually headlining a concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 1964, and one year later, they starred in a season of the CBS sitcom, My Brother the Angel.

The duo's most famous television program aired on CBS from 1967 until 1969. Despite receiving rave reviews from the large audience the show garnered, officials at the network were not pleased with the duo's tendency to push the boundaries via political satire, and fired them.

"It was the first show to deal with the White House, Congress, war, counterculture, drugs, civil rights," Dick said in a 2017 interview. "We were the first in and first out. We made comedy for TV relevant and not just escapism. We nailed it."

In the Hollywood Reporter article that accompanied the interview, journalist Marc Freeman argued that the brothers' antics "turned television upside down, blending slapstick humor with political satire, making them comedic heroes."

He suggested they had "blazed the trail followed today by satirists such as Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Samantha Bee," and that "TV comedians remain indebted to the pioneering brothers who sacrificed their careers in support of their belief in questioning authority with laughter and challenging power with humor and satire."