WAY TOO HOT TO HANDLE

At the end of the tumultuous '60s, the entertainment world seemed to be loosening up in a big way. Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy were bringing drugs, four-letter words, and nudity into movie theaters; Hair was bringing the same to Broadway; and Jim Morrison was exposing himself on stage to rock fans. But traditional values were reasserting themselves too: Morrison was arrested for lewd behavior and Cowboy earned the first X rating. It was in this highly charged atmosphere-about midway between conservative Richard Nixon's first presidential win and the wildness of Woodstock, on April 4, 1969-that CBS gave the Smothers Brothers the ax for being too freewheeling. Tom and Dick Smothers had hit it big with The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, beginning in '67. It pushed the envelope, but gently. ''We stand out (on TV),'' said Tom, ''because nothing is being said.'' Starting in the late '50s as folkies, they had become singing satirists: Dick was the straight man and Tom the ''dumb one,'' whose ''Mom always liked you best!'' became a catchphrase. By the early '60s they had a huge, hip following and nine hit albums. CBS decided this might be just the act to attract young viewers. A Smothers CBS sitcom failed in 1965, but the Comedy Hour was a smash-sometimes besting NBC's cash cow Bonanza-mocking everything from religion to politics, and addressing draft-dodging viewers in Canada. This wasn't what CBS had in mind. The network censors cut skits, and CBS demanded the show be prescreened for affiliates. The brothers often threatened to quit. Then, in March 1969, CBS replaced a heavily censored Comedy Hour with a * rerun. Fed up, Tom went to Washington on a fruitless mission to probe TV censorship. CBS, also fed up, fired the brothers, alleging repeated tardiness in delivering tapes for prescreening. Despite an outcry from fans, the series ended in June. ''They had gone up against the system,'' says Comedy Hour head writer Mason Williams, ''and were frozen out.'' They did get some satisfaction: Their show later won an Emmy, and a court awarded them $766,300 from CBS for breach of contract. They've resurfaced as pitchmen, vintners, and nightclub performers. But a handful of subsequent Smothers TV series were short-lived, and their 1988 20th-anniversary show on CBS, while well received, provided an ironic footnote: This time, says Williams, ''CBS asked us to be controversial.''