Tom Smothers

His father, Major Thomas Bolyn Smothers Jr., was a West Point graduate who was a POW in World War II and was thought to have died during the infamous Bataan Death march. In fact, he survived that experience but died later on a Japanese POW ship. He was buried at sea.

[11/28/02, interview in Chicago Tribune] I'm watching television and I'm not seeing anything. I watch all the cable shows where you should see some looseness and you're not hearing anything . . . There's a general dumbing down of everybody in this country . . . It just kept going and going until it's gotten to the point where it's all mean-spirited and vulgar. It not only affects comedy, it affects film. It affects literature. It's pervasive on radio. There's that guy Howard Stern and all that smart ass, vulgar, sexual pretending like they're expanding freedom of speech. They ought to put an amendment to the First Amendment that says there shall also be freedom of hearing.