Hail Caesar! A Few More Words on the Career of a Comedy Giant

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Sid Caesar, a comedic powerhouse of stage and screen passed away at the age of 91.

When Sid Caesar joined a fledging Saturday night sketch comedy series called Your Show Of Shows on a new medium called television, the entertainment landscape would be forever changed. It also served as the blueprint of some of the most dynamic TV shows, plays, and films ever produced.

With Your Show Of Shows and Caesar’s Hour, Caesar would lead, push and encourage an ensemble that reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of post-war World War II comedy: Imogene Coca, Howard Morris, Carl Reiner and Nanette Fabray were his on screen foils. His writing staff was quite simply the greatest ever assembled: Reiner, Neil and Danny Simon, Mel Brooks, Mel Tolkin, Sheldon Keller and Larry Gelbart. When Caesar did a series of TV specials in the early 60s, one of his writers was a young kid from Brooklyn named Woody Allen.

It was also the first show to have recurring sketches

Both incarnations of the show set the gold standard for the television sketch comedy series. Everything was subject to satire: Hit movies, other TV shows, opera, foreign films, and ‘The Roving Reporter’ news segments. It was also the first show to have recurring sketches: They predated The Honeymooners by a few years with ‘The Hickenloopers’, TV’s first bickering couple. When urbanites began moving out to the suburbs, the writers came up with ‘The Commuters’ with Caesar, Reiner, Morris dealing with surburban life hang ups. On Caesar’s Hour, they did longer, more elaborate sketches that could take up almost half of the show, sometimes longer. All done live. No cue cards, no teleprompters, no safety net.

The pressures were enormous: Caesar’s demand for perfection and the writers fierce competition to get their pieces into the show led Caesar to becoming more dependent on alcohol and prescription pills. Caesar was known to punch out walls, set pitches on fire, rip out sinks and one occasion, dangled Brooks out of the 18th floor window. Its no wonder that the bulk of his staff ended up in therapy. Yet Caesar and his crew delivered timeless, sophisticated comedy week after week.

Ironically, it was Caesar’s brand of smart, cutting edge comedy that would end his reign as a ratings powerhouse. It played well on cities like New York and Los Angeles, but did not go over well in the South and the Midwest. Viewers wanted something more of their speed. The show that ended Caesar’s run? Lawrence Welk. Caesar would do several highly rated specials featuring several of the Your Show Of Shows alumni, but sadly, Caesar would never have another TV series that reached a mass appeal audience.

Caesar would continue to make notable appearances on stage and in the movies including memorable turns in the Neil Simon-penned musical Little Me (for which Caesar was nominated for a Tony), It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Grease. Mel Brooks featured his old boss in the films Silent Movie and History Of The World, Part 1.
Caesar would also add author to his resume, publishing two best selling memoirs, Where Have I Been? and Caesar’s Hours. Both books addressed looked back on his career, his approach to comedy but also candidly addressed his battles with drug and alcohol dependency. Caesar also oversaw the restoration of Your Show Of Your Shows kinescopes that he had (NBC lost and/or destroyed most of those vital tapes) and went on to release them on DVD.

Caesar’s presence was – and continues to be – being felt in every facet of entertainment.

Caesar’s presence was – and continues to be – being felt in every facet of entertainment. CARL REINER created, wrote and co-starred in the successful series The Dick Van Dyke Show, in which Reiner played Alan Brady, the star of a hit TV series and drew heavily from Caesar. Reiner would later direct several films including several classics with Steve Martin. Reiner also had notable appearances in the Ocean’s Eleven films.

LARRY GELBART went on to create, write and direct the TV adaptation of the film M*A*S*H, which became one of the most celebrated TV series of all-time. Gelbart also co-wrote the Broadway classic A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Tootsie.

NEIL SIMON became one of the most iconic playwrights in Broadway history writing among other hit plays, Barefoot In The Park, The Odd Couple, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues and Lost In Yonkers, for which he won The Pulitzer Prize For Drama. Simon would also revisit his years with Caesar in the hit play Laughter On The 23rd Floor with Nathan Lane playing a character closely resembling Caesar.

Simon’s older brother DANNY SIMON would write for shows such as Make Room For Daddy, My Three Sons and a show that draw heavily from Your Show Of Shows, The Carol Burnett Show.

MEL TOLKIN would become a writer and story editor for All In The Family, the show that changed the face of situation comedy.

The works of Caesar disciples MEL BROOKS and WOODY ALLEN speak for themselves.

They all owe a HUGE debt to Sid Caesar because he set the sketch comedy bar high.

Think about some of the best sketch comedy series of all-time: The Carol Burnett Show, Monty Python & The Flying Circus, Laugh-In, Saturday Night Live, SCTV, Kids In The Hall, In Living Color, Chappelle’s Show, The Larry Sanders Show, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm. They all owe a HUGE debt to Sid Caesar because he set the sketch comedy bar high. Very high. When Caesar hosted Saturday Night Live in 1983, he received a standing ovation at the beginning of the show and received a plaque proclaiming him an honorary member at the show’s end. He’s the only SNL host to ever receive such an honor.

Mel Brooks was the Executive Producer of the the hit 1982 film My Favorite Year, which was loosely based on his days as a writer for Your Show Of Shows. When they needed a name based on Sid Caesar, writer Dennis Palumbo gave him a fitting name:

King.

Sid Caesar was – and is – a comedy King.

Hail Caesar!

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Earl Douglas is a writer/photographer based in New York City. A frequent contributor to The Interrobang, Earl is also Executive Director for the New York chapter of The Black Rock Coalition. Earl worked in radio for nearly two decades at WNEW-FM and XM Satellite Radio, which included being the on-air producer for Carol Miller, Scott Muni and Ron & Fez, and a contributor to Opie & Anthony. Earl has also independently published a number of books including Black Rock Volume 1, Urban Abyss, Mobile Uploads, and For Shimmy. His latest project is the photojournalism magazine PRAXIS, which is available exclusively through Blurb.com.
Earl Douglas
Earl Douglas
Earl Douglas is a writer/photographer based in New York City. A frequent contributor to The Interrobang, Earl is also Executive Director for the New York chapter of The Black Rock Coalition. Earl worked in radio for nearly two decades at WNEW-FM and XM Satellite Radio, which included being the on-air producer for Carol Miller, Scott Muni and Ron & Fez, and a contributor to Opie & Anthony. Earl has also independently published a number of books including Black Rock Volume 1, Urban Abyss, Mobile Uploads, and For Shimmy. His latest project is the photojournalism magazine PRAXIS, which is available exclusively through Blurb.com.