Why Sid Caesar Mattered (1922-2014)
A small collection of performers truly ushered in comedy during the birth of television. Lucy and Desi, Burns and Allen, Steve Allen, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason and Sid Caesar. The last of these Godfathers of television’s first Gold Age is gone.
The New York native started his career training as a musician (and was an accomplished saxophonist) before eventually became a comedy sketch writer and theater actor (including stage and screen musicals). It was his success on Broadway, displaying his musical, dance, and comic timing that earned him a spot on television, as the host of Admiral Broadway Revue.
This 19 week series partnered him for the first time with comedian Imogene Coca, who would become his first comic partner. With her, he started Your Show of Shows in 1950, a live show which incorporated the best of high culture with a signature comic sensibility completely new to television. While Coca would always be the comic partner best remembered, supporting actors Carl Reiner (television and film writer/director) and Howard Morris (who would become an accomplished director) also became known stars for their work on the series.
But it was the writing staff that Caesar’s Your Show of Shows will always be remembered. On staff for the entire 139 episode run were Mel Brooks, novelist and playwright Lucille Kallen, sitcom writer Mel Tolkin, and Danny and Neil Simon. Apprentices of the writers room included Larry Gelbart (MASH), Woody Allen, Sam Denoff, Selma Diamond, Bill Perksy, Joseph Stein, and Tony Webster.
A brief study of Caesar’s shows, and the roots of the modern talk show and television variety comedy is evident. From the moment he walked on stage, in a suit and slick backed hair, there was a sophisticated anarchy on display which made room for refined, silly, and sometimes even random bits of humor to work in one, well-made show. Despite his brilliant sketches, it always seemed unexpected to be coming from a man who seemed more like a businessman than comic. He drew inspiration from the vaudeville, but his style was uniquely his own.
Young people probably don’t know his comic work, but they certainly know his face…most notably as Coach in the film Grease (and the less iconic Grease two). But if you ever watched that movie with parents or grandparents who laughed at his mere appearance, this is what they were thinking of.
Because Your Show of Shows was live, many didn’t survive the early TV oversight about preservation. Caesar himself saved a few copies of his show, and those were eventually released on DVD as a series of Best Ofs.
For that, and all the rest, we thank and say goodbye to the King of Comedy.
And now, The Clock Sketch
“This Is Your Story”. Sid Caesar’s hysterical parody of “This Is Your Life”
Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca doing a pantomime set to Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture”
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