Sid Caesar
Comedian / Performer
About This Interview
Sid Caesar emphasizes the challenge of doing live TV in the early days of the medium: “Doing a show live on television is a different animal altogether than doing TV today. I mean on tape, that's like relaxing. That's like going on vacation!” Caesar is a seminal figure in early TV comedy and one of the first recipients of the Emmy Award for Best Actor (in 1952). In his Archiev interview, he recounts his early years as a performer, including his time writing and acting in shows for the Armed Forces. He notes how his first series, Admiral Broadway Revue was launched, that gave way to the now classic Your Show of Shows. He speaks about the phenomenon of “live” TV and the pressures and rewards of helming an hour-and-a-half weekly variety series. Caesar speaks about NBC’s decision to separate the network’s Your Show of Shows commodities by having producer Max Liebman do TV “spectaculars” and giving Caesar and co-star Imogene Coca their own shows. He expresses how surprised he was that Your Show of Shows was ending: “I said we've got a winning combination. What are you breaking things up for? Four years. That's it?” Caesar then discusses his next successful venue, the variety series Caesar’s Hour, with Nanette Fabray filling the void left by Imogene Coca. From both Your Show of Shows and Caesar’s Hour, Caesar chronicles such famous sketches as “The Professor,” “The Hickenloopers” and “The Haircuts.” He also humorously recounts many of the gaffes that occurred on “live” television, including the time he forgot the name of the guest star during the show’s introduction, when he was dressed in the wrong costume seconds before going on, and when his make-up pencil broke during his Pagliacci take-off (leading to one of his most-famous ad-libs). He then frankly discusses his bout with alcoholism and his decision to get sober. Lastly, he give his impressions of the many talented collaborators he worked with over the years, including: writers Larry Gelbart and Mel Brooks, and performers Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris. Sid Caesar was interviewed in Beverly Hills, CA on March 14, 1997; Dan Pasternack conducted the three-hour interview.
Related To This Video
Featured Content
Video: Sid Caesar guest-stars on the season four opener of The Hollywood Palace (in color) on September 17, 1966 (from the Internet Archive). Look for the sketch he does with Joyce Jameson at 32:44, which Variety said "...had the air of exaggerated truth. It had funny moments and excellent execution."
Sid Caesar is an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame inductee.
Embeddable video: Sid Caesar Interview Selects:
Resources
Links:
Book: Caesars Hours: My Life in Comedy, with Love and Laughter
Book: Where Have I Been? (autobiography)
DVD: The Sid Caesar Collection: The Magic of Live TV
IMDb entry on Sid Caesar
Wikipedia entry on Sid Caesar
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Highlights
Sid Caesar on his classic Your Show of Shows character "The Professor" (01m 51s)
Sid Caesar on accidentally being dressed in the wrong costume in a sketch "live" on Your Show of Shows (02m 16s)- Sid Caesar on forgetting Basil Rathbone's name while introducing him as the guest star on Your Show of Shows (00m 43s)
- Sid Caesar on the writing talent of Larry Gelbart and his sketch idea of hip musician "Progress Hornsby" on Your Show of Shows (01m 31s)
- Sid Caesar on his comedic influences and the importance of being "prepared" when your break comes along (01m 02s)
Sid Caesar on how the pressures of television led to alcoholism (01m 16s)- Sid Caesar on his Pagliacci take-off ("Galipacci") on Caesar's Hour and an ad lib he did "live" when his make-up pencil broke (01m 33s)
Sid Caesar on getting cleaned up after an incident in the late 1970s when he forgot his lines completely while doing "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" (01m 01s)- Sid Caesar on advice he has for aspiring performers (00m 34s)
Chapters
- Chapter 1
- On his background; on becoming a musician (playing saxophone)
- On performing at the Catskill Mountains; on his first sketch; on writing an Armed Forces show; on performing in "Tars and Spars"
- On appearing in the movie version of "Tars and Spars"; on his first professional jobs as a comic; on being asked by producer Max Liebman to do television
- Chapter 2
- On the creation and format of Admiral Broadway Revue; on working in "live" television
- On NBC's popular Saturday night comedy line-up in 1950; on the big budget given to Your Show of Shows; on his insistence that no cue cards be used on his shows; on a workweek of Your Show of Shows; on how the writer's used their personal experiences to create sketches
- On the camaraderie and mutual respect between the cast and crew ; on accidentally being dressed in the wrong costume in a sketch during the "live" performance; on the show's ensemble; on some of the show's sketches, including a parody of From Here to Eternity ("From Here to Obscurity") that became the source of a lawsuit
- Chapter 3
- On Your Show of Shows movie parodies of The Story of Vernon & Irene Castle and The Lost Weekend; on TV standards & practices in the 1950s; on the rehearsal schedule; on forgetting guest star Basil Rathbone's name while introducing him
- On the writing talent on Your Show of Shows (and Caesar's Hour); on classic characters and sketches from Your Show of Shows ("The Professor," "The Hickenloopers")
- On pantomimes; on opera parodies; on foreign film parodies with foreign language double-talk (such as The Bicycle Thief); on parodies of Shane, On the Waterfront, and High Noon
- Chapter 4
- On winning the Emmy Award in 1952 on the same day his son was born; on being uncomfortable in front of an audience while not in character; on how the pressures of TV led to alcoholism; on a typical workweek of Your Show of Shows; on a fight he had to get a monitor installed when the show changed venues
- On losing his temper, once dangling Mel Brooks outside a window; on his philosophy of keeping a creative flow during the writing process; on the cancellation of Your Show of Shows and the start of Caesar's Hour; on the Caesar's Hour's writing staff as a "dream team"
- On several Caesar's Hour sketches including: "The Commuters," "The Haircuts," Aggravation Boulevard, Pagliacci take-off "Galipacci," and "A Drunk There Was"
- Chapter 5
- On the end of "live TV" with the introduction of videotape in the mid-to-late 1950s; on his lack of immediate career plans following Caesar's Hour; on his BBC series Sid Caesar Invites You (briefly); on the failure of his ABC series (also called) Sid Caesar Invites You; on overextending himself with his work in the 1960s; on his salary in his heyday
- On the success of the 1967 special The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special; on getting cleaned up after an incident in the late 1970s when he forgot his lines completely while doing "Last of the Red Hot Lovers"; on his self-therapy (which he arrived at recording his own voice into a tape recorder) in the late '70s/early 80s; on his feelings about being inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences "Hall of Fame"; on shows influenced by his work in comedy-variety
- On advice he has for aspiring performers; on how he'd like to be remembered (in six words); on his collaborators including performers Imogene Coca and Carl Reiner and writers Mel Tolkin, Neil Simon, and Larry Gelbart
- Chapter 6
- On his collaborators Mel Brooks, Howard Morris, and Nanette Fabray; on some of his contemporaries, including Ernie Kovacs; on his brother and his wife
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Thank you so much for interviewing this brilliant man. He is an American treasure, and I wish so much that he was well-known by the mainstream today. HIs comedy was class and it was hilarious. It feeds my soul.
I hope he is well. I wanted to see a clip of his receiving the TCA Award in Dec. 2011, but I cannot find it.
A brilliant man. But, I repeat myself.
Kristen Esbensen
kristen.esbensen71@yahoo.com
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