So They Were Stars: The Razzle Dazzle Rockin’ Reign of the Hudson Brothers

In September of 1978, they returned to television with Bonkers, a syndicated sketch comedy/variety show that aired in 136 US markets. Bonkers was produced in the UK by ITC Entertainment, the same company that produced The Muppet Show, and featured many of the same guests that charmed and bewildered American Muppet fans (small child to ’70s parent: “Mamma, who’s Juliet Prowse?”)

Perhaps even more slapstick than their earlier shows, the show featured British presenter/comedian Bob Monkhouse (“don’t call me monkey”), sketches, and weekly musical numbers from the boys. In addition to the Marx-meets-Monkees gags, Monkhouse’s curatorial love of silent film brought a regular comic “silent film sketch” to the show. ITC reportedly spent upwards of $200,000 per episode bringing the show to life.

The Hudsons’ team dynamic remained straight out of classic 1930s comedies. Bill Hudson was the “straight man,” Brett played the “fall guy,” and Mark . . . well, Mark had his own comic niche. “Up until Bonkers I was just abused. I had no character,” he told the Associated Press in 1978. “Now I’m into fantasy—flamboyant, crazy and oversexed.” In clips, Mark’s formidable mustache calls forth from the 1970s to emphasize the point. While it lasted only 24 episodes, Bonkers was a great showcase for the Hudsons’ diverse talents, and ranks with their best and funniest work.

In 1980, the boys were back with a new series of half-hour specials on Showtime, Family Tree. The show featured the brothers as three old men in a senior citizen home, reflecting on their ancestry in comic flashbacks throughout history featuring Cher, James Garner, Keenan Wynn, Andrea Marcovicci, and others. 1980 also saw the release of their eighth and final LP as a group, Those Damn Kids.

Bearde directed the Hudsons in their last major Hollywood appearance, the 1983 comedy horror spoof Hysterical. An attempt to capitalize on the success of the Zucker-Abrams-Zucker school of comedy (which, to be fair, the Hudsons and Bearde did first), the low-budget film underperformed at the box office. For all its flaws, it’s ripe for cult-classic rediscovery, as it’s jam-packed with cult faves including Richard Kiel, Julie Newmar, Bud Cort, Charlie Callas, Keenan Wynn, John Larroquette, Robert Donner (best remembered as Exidor from Mork and Mindy), and Gary Owens. They managed a final single for Columbia Records that same year. Brett and Mark later tried their hand at another satirical TV series, 1988’s short-lived syndicated Offshore Television, but the Hudson Brothers as a going concern really came to an end with Hysterical.

The brothers have remained active long past their teen-idol expiration date. Of the three, perhaps Mark has been the most successful. He has written and produced music for Harry Nilsson, Hanson, Ozzy Osbourne, Celine Dion, Bon Jovi, and numerous others. He co-wrote Aerosmith’s hit “Livin’ On The Edge” and numerous other Aerosmith tunes. He produced or co-produced nine albums with Ringo Starr, and has been a highly visible television presence in the UK, as a coach on the reality show The X Factor. Hudson scored his first UK #1 as a songwriter for The X Factor contestant Chico Slimani. Recruited by Sharon Osbourne, Hudson’s appearances on the show have earned him that rarest of honors: an odd, impossible-to-shake UK pop culture nickname (“Weird Beard”). Take that, “Madge” Ciccone.

Brett Hudson is a busy producer and writer of film and television whose work includes documentaries on underappreciated yet influential talents like Chris Montez and Neil Innes. In 2007 Hudson was diagnosed with throat cancer; now clear of the disease, he has produced a film, The Klinik, about his experience with conventional and alternative medicine.

Bill Hudson’s later acting work includes appearances on Doogie Howser, MD; he continues to work in music, composing for film and television. Unlike his brothers, Bill Hudson graduated from Tiger Beat to the tabloids. In the 1970s Hudson was famously married to Goldie Hawn; their daughter Kate Hudson had her own brief moment in the pop-culture sun, notably as the star of one of the best movies ever made about the rock-and-roll ’70s, Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous. His other son with Hawn, Oliver Hudson, now stars on CBS’ Rules Of Engagement. A difficult divorce from Hawn (and later marriage to and divorce from Cindy Williams of Laverne & Shirley fame) kept Hudson in the tabloids’ sights, though he’s been no shrinking violet about his relationships (the official Hudson Brothers DVD website brags that his other “dalliances” included “Jill St. John, Candice Bergen, Ali McGraw, and other Hollywood hotties”). Reportedly estranged from his children with Hawn, Hudson has recently waded into his storied (and stormy) personal history to write a tell-all memoir, 2 Versions: The Other Side Of Fame and Family, which, alas, did little to mend fences with the family members in question.

Still held in high regard by power pop fans and those who remember their anarchic TV shows, the Hudsons are long overdue for rediscovery. There is talk of a Hudson Brothers reunion movie, Apple Pie Heroes, the trailer for which screened at the Chicago Beatle Fest in 2009. Happily, the excellent Razzle Dazzle series is available on DVD. Not so happily, the rest of the Hudson Brothers’ television work is unavailable, including their original variety show and Bonkers. Hysterical has enjoyed home video and DVD releases over the years but is currently out of print. Regrettably, much of their music shares that same fate. It’s a shame; in their best moments on record and on television, the Hudsons show why their Marx Brothers-of-rock appeal lasted as long as it did: these guys were charming, funny, musically gifted, and for one brief, shining moment in the ’70s, impossible to resist.

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