When did the worship of Joseph Smith start? Was he defied during his lifetime or after his death by Brigham Young? Do TBM's believe he is the fourth member of an expanded Trinity?

Started during his life. Worshiped is a good way of putting it. People thought he could cast out demons (he supposedly did this on the day TSCC was organized) and he also was thought to have healed a blind person.

Some members thought he was the Holy Ghost incarnate.

In the early 1970's when I was in Jr. Sunday school we had bibles. There were no Book of Mormons. Most of the focus was on the Utah pioneers, New Testament Jesus stories, and the occasional Old Testament story thrown in. Joseph Smith was only mentioned during the First Vision story. The only thing Book of Mormon was the Book of Mormon Stories song. It was pretty basic.

Joseph Smith worship seemed to come in with Ezra Taft Benson and his whole flood the world with the Book of Mormon program. Things started to get nuts and got even worse under Gordon B. Hinckley. The church even started to change the way Joseph looked from the guy with the Donald Trump hair and big nose to Fabio in short hair. Look at the new Joseph pictures in the Ensign. He looks like a chiseled super model. Joseph became GQ.

I think the whole focus on Joseph came from the correlation program's desire to standardize the church worldwide. The whole Utah pioneer and bible stories program I grew up on was replace by Super Joe and follow the prophet. Jr. Sunday School and Primary are pretty whacked now compared to when I went through it. There was no follow the prophet or Super Joe. It was Give Said the Little Stream and what would Jesus do?

In another 20 years it will be something else. Maybe they will get off their Joseph Smith fixation and go back to Families are Forever, Just Do It, or pickles or something. Whatever it is, I don't care. It will be carrying out some program or a desperate attempt to keep the organization going in changing times.