Can you imagine all the work that went into this classic? the design, the construction of the dress and the dance, and wow, the rehearsals. They did it in the 1960s version of the show with Janet Leigh, and then repeated here in a later show - it's that classic. THIS is the sort of thing we're missing because we don't have variety shows anymore.
Amazingly, I was actually in the studio audience for this! My (then) girlfriend and I were being tourists in LA, and were checking out the Chinese Theater, when someone came around offering tickets, wanting to know if anyone wanted to see a show taping live. My GF, as it happens, was and is a huge Smothers Brothers fan (as am I, but not quite as much as she was!), and we immediately said YES!
@@TheSmothersBrothersShow Very cool! This must be such a blast from the past for you! I remember watching all these variety shows w/my dad on TV when they were popular and the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was one of his faves.
You folks assumed I was referring to her as an American national treasure, which is fine, but speaks more to your bias than mine. Actually she’s a treasure for the entire world, but whatever.
I love that when they dance together, it changes to 5/4 time. Mason Williams is a genius and Tom and Dick show it off flawlessly. Also, I like she manipulated the third leg with her right hand, it looks like it was even articulated as it seemed to bend at the knee.
Her “right” arm is false so she can use the real one to maneuver the 3rd leg. I love Andrea Martin so much! Had no idea she’s been on the Smother’s Brothers Show.
Holy cow! Totally agree w prev comments that this skit was very difficult. Supreme skills/rehearsals needed to pull this puppy off. Excellent, well done, everyone involved! Costume designer was genius....😂
I can't believe it! I saw this when I was about 10 or 11 and never forgot that song, lol. I've been searching online for it for years. And I had no idea it was Andrea Martin! So nice to see it again.
@@davidbethke5463 It was on the Smothers Brothers’ Mom Always Liked You Best album. It was written by Mason Williams and was also on his The Mason Williams Ear Show album which included his recording of Saturday Night At The World.
That was delightful. I was hoping they would explain how they presented this illusion. I guess it's just as much fun to pretend it was real. I can live with that.
@@drmgiverdrmgiver5335 Thanks for the explanation! Now I'm even more impressed with all that Ms. Martin had to focus on and coordinate for the skit to work. And the choreography, while funny, was also very clever and delightful.
My father and mom knew the Smothers Brothers when we lived in California in the late 60s. Only one of my siblings was born bald, and the Brothers liked to rub her head "for luck." They were hilarious.
Bravo! I loved the Smothers Brothers! I love this three-legged lady, too, LOL. I imagine that dance was very difficult to do. It would certainly confuse the heck out of me!
Now most of it is bad reality tv, which no one will be watching in 50 years. But good written skits and classics from the 1950's and 1960 - 1980 will still be being watched and laughed along with 100 or 200 years from now. Can you imagine if you could see a live performance of a William Shakespeare play now? Wouldn't that be marvelous? By the original playwright how he intended it to be done?
@@kfl611 No one is watching most of the TV shows from the 1970s and 80s. Only some of it gets remembered. Carol Burnet is timeless. Donny and Marie was not. Cher is timeless but her variety shows were not really. As for Shakespeare, he’s the only one of his time who is familiar to people today who aren’t scholars. 300 years in the future, people will watch and enjoy performances on El Coastaragua’s Got Talent, as often as they watch skits from the 80s like this. Also, this and Got Talent will seem like the same era to them.
This took me back to my childhood! It totally flummoxed me back then. Even now it took me a moment to realize her right arm is fake and controlling the fake right leg.
@@mlbrooks4066 Obviously there are two people in the dress much like the dancing horse bit. It looks like the actress is exhausted and maybe unable to do the scene again without resting. Hopefully they got the scene in one take.
@@christienelson1437: There isn’t a 2nd person under the dress, the 3rd ‘leg’ is controlled by the woman’s right hand concealed under the dress. The right hand you see outside the dress is fake and does not move on its own.
@@christienelson1437 Huh?! The right arm you see is fake, she’s using her real right arm to operate the fake right leg. There’s no “second person.” SMH
@@TheSmothersBrothersShow My pleasure, thank you for the upload. I was born in 1963 and I have loved watching these guys since I was a kid, they are part of the reason I became a Musician and Entertainer. Peace.
How weird! This song, from my childhood, (almost 60 years ago) was suddenly going through my head yesterday.Today I find it in my RUclips feed! Is AI reading our minds now??? (PS The lyrics on the Smothers Brothers album were slightly different from these.)
I'm confused. The Smothers Brothers Comedy hour was broadcast from 1967 to 1969. Andrea Martin was born in 1947, so she would be at most 22 years old at the time of this show. This is pre-SCTV and at the very beginning of her career, yet she's introduced here more or less as a name star. Was she a known commodity before SCTV?
This may have been from the 'new' Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour from the late 80s. The original was 67 to 70, there was a show on 75 just called the Smothers Brothers, then the revival of the comedy hour in 87 I think
@@larskars5835 @larskars5835 I knew there had been a reboot but didn't realize it was that late. Interestingly John Hartford and Mason Williams both came back to write for it, both were talented comedy writers and musicians as well. I don't know if I watched the 1988 series. I wonder of CBS realized how good the original series was or if they owed them a year bc they violated the contract 20 years before. The show had good ratings originally, CBS cancelled it because of Nixon. Funny part is CBS at one point temporarily paused the show bc they were afraid they had offended Johnson. Johnson wrote a letter to the smothers brothers telling them it was important that ppl be able to lampoon and the like,; I believe he also sent a note to Paley about the same thing. I doubt Nixon had a sense of humor.
Can you imagine all the work that went into this classic? the design, the construction of the dress and the dance, and wow, the rehearsals. They did it in the 1960s version of the show with Janet Leigh, and then repeated here in a later show - it's that classic. THIS is the sort of thing we're missing because we don't have variety shows anymore.
Yes! Variety shows were so much fun.
😂🕺 Tommy Smothers & Andrea Martin's skit is pure comedy gold AND talent! 🎵
Amazingly, I was actually in the studio audience for this! My (then) girlfriend and I were being tourists in LA, and were checking out the Chinese Theater, when someone came around offering tickets, wanting to know if anyone wanted to see a show taping live. My GF, as it happens, was and is a huge Smothers Brothers fan (as am I, but not quite as much as she was!), and we immediately said YES!
That is amazing! Pretty cool you found your way to this video. Thanks for tuning in!
This is amazing!
Great - any idea how they did three legs, then?
Edit: Someone kindly elaborated already, I see...
Are you still with your girlfriend?
@@TheSmothersBrothersShow Very cool! This must be such a blast from the past for you! I remember watching all these variety shows w/my dad on TV when they were popular and the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was one of his faves.
It may be called comedy but that was a very difficult skit which required a lot of skill & they both did an excellent job.
Kudos to the costumer, too. Most of the time you can’t tell which leg is the fake.
Especially because Andrea Martin was that age at a vastly different time from this. Time travel, perhaps, @GenerallyGeneralLee?
Andrea Martin was, is and will always be a national treasure and a comedy icon.
I'm not sure but I thought she was Canadian, I could be wrong though.
Either way she's absolutely fantastic!
👍👍
"Moogie!" I've been watching Andrea Martin since her days on SCTV. Fantastic actor and comedian.
You know she's Canadian, eh? 😁
@@kevinangus4848 While she had duel citizenship she was born in Portland, Maine, eh. 😄
You folks assumed I was referring to her as an American national treasure, which is fine, but speaks more to your bias than mine. Actually she’s a treasure for the entire world, but whatever.
I used to have an actual vinyl record album, and this song was on it. I could remember every word, even 40 years later!
I love that when they dance together, it changes to 5/4 time. Mason Williams is a genius and Tom and Dick show it off flawlessly. Also, I like she manipulated the third leg with her right hand, it looks like it was even articulated as it seemed to bend at the knee.
And they incorporated the word “off-beat” in the lyrics during that section.
The fake leg never bends at the knee.
I have always loved Andrea Martin. She can crack me up with just some of her facial expressions.
Her “right” arm is false so she can use the real one to maneuver the 3rd leg. I love Andrea Martin so much! Had no idea she’s been on the Smother’s Brothers Show.
Yes just like Rolf Harris with his character Jake the Peg
Thank you for the explanation.
I was totally convinced. You ruined the magic for me.
Thanks! I was looking only at the legs. Not the arms.
"Unweave a rainbow, as it erewhile made
The tender-person'd Lamia melt into a shade".
- John Keats
They need to rerun these classic shows on TV!
Holy cow! Totally agree w prev comments that this skit was very difficult. Supreme skills/rehearsals needed to pull this puppy off. Excellent, well done, everyone involved! Costume designer was genius....😂
I can't believe it! I saw this when I was about 10 or 11 and never forgot that song, lol. I've been searching online for it for years. And I had no idea it was Andrea Martin! So nice to see it again.
I remembered this song somehow. Was a version of it on one of their albums?
@@davidbethke5463 It was on the Smothers Brothers’ Mom Always Liked You Best album. It was written by Mason Williams and was also on his The Mason Williams Ear Show album which included his recording of Saturday Night At The World.
I have always loved anything Andrea Martin was apart of!! She's awesome.
And I want to add, this Smothers Brothers comedy show hour was awesome too.
I'm amazed at the great talents here.
Smothers Bros are always fun to watch and hear.
She was absolutely awesome! That looked very difficult and I’m sure she worked really hard rehearsing that. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Andrea Martin is great, even with two legs!
Amazing puppetry. It took me a minute to figure out which leg was fake!
:-O Whoever designed that costume for Andrea to use was a genius!
I love this, and I love Andrea Martin. We must accept the Mystery.
That was great! The good ol' days!
Smothers Bros. ....the greatest comedy duo of our time.
With Andrea Martin?
Insanely entertaining.
My wife and are seniors, remembering these old variety shows. We have a few different ones on DVD, glad to see these on RUclips
LOL! I was concentrating so hard on the feet to figure it out, it took me most of the vid to figure out it was the ARM that was fake!
Clever with a nice message.
Thanks for watching!
That was delightful. I was hoping they would explain how they presented this illusion. I guess it's just as much fun to pretend it was real. I can live with that.
Her right arm was tucked into her outfit and controlled a fake leg.
@@drmgiverdrmgiver5335 Thanks for the explanation! Now I'm even more impressed with all that Ms. Martin had to focus on and coordinate for the skit to work. And the choreography, while funny, was also very clever and delightful.
@@drmgiverdrmgiver5335Thanks for explaining to it - fun to watch knowing what she was doing!
I had to rewatch it. You're right! I was always staring at her feet and never noticed what her arms were doing. SO clever. Thanks!
I rewatched it too. Having the information needed to understand it thanks to my fell9w commenter made it even more fun.
My father and mom knew the Smothers Brothers when we lived in California in the late 60s. Only one of my siblings was born bald, and the Brothers liked to rub her head "for luck." They were hilarious.
Bravo! I loved the Smothers Brothers! I love this three-legged lady, too, LOL. I imagine that dance was very difficult to do. It would certainly confuse the heck out of me!
Obviously, a great deal of skill involved on Andrea's part.
I’m here for Andrea Martin
I always liked Tommy best!!!❤❤❤
Now that was great comedy, very funny stuff!!!
👍👍
Tommy was dressed to perfection.
I remember watching this episode when I was a kid. My parents watched The Smothers Brothers when it was on.
True genius clean comedy.
That was funny and cute.
I've always loved Andrea Martin's facial expressions.
Ahhh, they just don't make tv like this anymore 😢.
It's not allowed...
@@stevesmodelbuilds5473 the Smothers Brothers had a history of not being allowed.
Now most of it is bad reality tv, which no one will be watching in 50 years. But good written skits and classics from the 1950's and 1960 - 1980 will still be being watched and laughed along with 100 or 200 years from now. Can you imagine if you could see a live performance of a William Shakespeare play now? Wouldn't that be marvelous? By the original playwright how he intended it to be done?
@@kfl611 No one is watching most of the TV shows from the 1970s and 80s. Only some of it gets remembered. Carol Burnet is timeless. Donny and Marie was not. Cher is timeless but her variety shows were not really.
As for Shakespeare, he’s the only one of his time who is familiar to people today who aren’t scholars.
300 years in the future, people will watch and enjoy performances on El Coastaragua’s Got Talent, as often as they watch skits from the 80s like this. Also, this and Got Talent will seem like the same era to them.
Absolutely darling!! 🦵🦵🦵💗
Wow, that was very real looking. Good job.
12:54 I watched a 3-legged ice skater years ago. Hilarious!
Wow!!Toll!!😊
That was quite a mind-f....pretty cool.
Thanks for watching!
Absolutely astounding.
Brings back memories!❤
Absolutely Love This!!!!
A delightful reminder of how much fun television used to be.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!
I really enjoyed this skit from the past.Time shure goes by quickly
so hilarious and perfect!
This took me back to my childhood! It totally flummoxed me back then. Even now it took me a moment to realize her right arm is fake and controlling the fake right leg.
As usual...Smother Brother's genius afoot....
This routine was done by Rolf Harris in the 1960s in a skit called ’Jake the Peg’.
Love Andrea
Andrea Martin!
Fantastic!! Thank's
This skit was originally on the 1960s Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, featuring a different actress.
I saw that too. I think it was Janet Leigh. They obviously filmed it two different times with two different actors but i don’t know why.
@@mlbrooks4066 Obviously there are two people in the dress much like the dancing horse bit. It looks like the actress is exhausted and maybe unable to do the scene again without resting. Hopefully they got the scene in one take.
@@christienelson1437: There isn’t a 2nd person under the dress, the 3rd ‘leg’ is controlled by the woman’s right hand concealed under the dress. The right hand you see outside the dress is fake and does not move on its own.
@@christienelson1437 Huh?! The right arm you see is fake, she’s using her real right arm to operate the fake right leg. There’s no “second person.” SMH
I think it was Nanette Fabray and Ken Berry.
The funniest woman alive. I used to look forward to SCTV every week mostly for her.
This same act appeared on Pen & Tellers fool us show, and I knew I recognized it prior to now.
Ha!! I was wondering how on earth …. Then read below about the false right arm 🤣
Perfect!
Thanks for watching!
@@TheSmothersBrothersShow My pleasure, thank you for the upload. I was born in 1963 and I have loved watching these guys since I was a kid, they are part of the reason I became a Musician and Entertainer. Peace.
@@DarylBark That's so great! All the best 🎶
Tommy is really a suave dancer
Smooth 🕺
How weird! This song, from my childhood, (almost 60 years ago) was suddenly going through my head yesterday.Today I find it in my RUclips feed! Is AI reading our minds now??? (PS The lyrics on the Smothers Brothers album were slightly different from these.)
Dang, Andrea Martin is so good
Smooth.
THat was brilliant.
I miss variety shows.
Hilarious!
Tom was/is the best.
How innovative!
A waltz is in a time signature of 3 so 3 legs is fitting lol
😂
Brilliant! Innocent fun! You can't get that anymore, alas.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Impressive.
OMG! Funny!
Showing anyone can be great at their desired craft
I can't figure out which leg is fake.
I too have been referred to as a three legged dancer. That and “Tripod”.
I'm confused. The Smothers Brothers Comedy hour was broadcast from 1967 to 1969. Andrea Martin was born in 1947, so she would be at most 22 years old at the time of this show. This is pre-SCTV and at the very beginning of her career, yet she's introduced here more or less as a name star. Was she a known commodity before SCTV?
This may have been from the 'new' Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour from the late 80s. The original was 67 to 70, there was a show on 75 just called the Smothers Brothers, then the revival of the comedy hour in 87 I think
I looked it up, this was on the late 80s series, like 1988.
@@njlauren Yeah, I see now, I hadn't realized there was a 1988 season. With an incredible list of guests, BTW…
@@larskars5835
@larskars5835
I knew there had been a reboot but didn't realize it was that late. Interestingly John Hartford and Mason Williams both came back to write for it, both were talented comedy writers and musicians as well. I don't know if I watched the 1988 series. I wonder of CBS realized how good the original series was or if they owed them a year bc they violated the contract 20 years before. The show had good ratings originally, CBS cancelled it because of Nixon.
Funny part is CBS at one point temporarily paused the show bc they were afraid they had offended Johnson. Johnson wrote a letter to the smothers brothers telling them it was important that ppl be able to lampoon and the like,; I believe he also sent a note to Paley about the same thing. I doubt Nixon had a sense of humor.
Janet Leigh did it in 1967 with Tommy Smothers. It's posted on RUclips as The Last Great Waltz.
That was very clever.
She’s quite adept with that 3rd leg!
This raises a anatomical question………..🤔😳
Don’t ask 🫢
Jake the Peg _(deedle leedle leedle lee)_ called. Rolf Harris wants his bit back.
Hahaha, Tommy is so blue dan ub e. lol
Martin’s always been phenomenal but that had to be insanely complicated to rehearse and pull off.
Music and lyrics by Mason Williams, of ‘Classical Gas’ fame.
She needed to do a dance off with Jake the Peg…
American version of the Australia 'Jake the Peg' from 1965.
A certain (now disgraced) Rolf Harris did just as well with a song about 3 legged “Jake the Peg”.
Hah! :D
I'm still trying to figure out how they did that.
RIP Tommy
How they do the 3rd leg?
Outside right leg I think is fake, operated by her real right hand. Fake right hand is also just a prop.
Her right arm controlled the third leg
Tommy is so cute dressed in formal clothes.
Tommy was an absolute hunk under the suits, an athlete in college, and he still kept in shape.
@mlbrooks4066
I have a couple of pix I pulled off of the internet of high school boy Tommy performing gymnastic feats.
Buff, hotty!
The added outside Right leg is controlled by her false right arm
Not only did she have 3 legs, I think she also had a broken arm.
Jake the peg character by Rolf Harris was around in the early 60s in the up, so this looks like a bit of a copy of that act
She should have done the texas two step
You don't see this any more
I'd love to know how she controller that third leg!
It looks like she has a false right arm and she's using her actual right arm under the costume to control the extra leg.
@@lmoore3rd Yeah, you can actually see her real right arm under the back of her dress.
Tommie was a talented Actor ……….
Dancing the waltz in 5/8 is not that easy…
Flashbacks to Jake the Pake anyone ?😱
OH yeah everybody's laughing now but when I do the three-legged dance, I get the cops called on me.
Ah, so Rolf Harris wasn’t the one to start the three leg craze.