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Caesar’s Hour

Music Shows & Variety Shows/Specials

About This Show

From Wikipedia:

Caesar's Hour was a television program that aired on NBC from 1954 until 1957. The program starred, among others, Sid Caesar, Nanette Fabray, Carl Reiner, and Milt Kamen, and featured a number of cameo roles by famous entertainers such as Joan Crawford and Peggy Lee.

Widely considered a continuation of Caesar's earlier program, Your Show of Shows, Caesar's Hour included most of the same writers and actors, with the notable addition of Woody Allen in the latter show. The writing staff of the show was legendary, and was reunited in 1996 for an event at the Writers Guild Theater in Los Angeles called Caesar's Hour Revisited excerpts of which were broadcast on PBS under the title Caesar's Writers.

A much more complete edit of the evening was made available on VHS tape, but has never been reissued on DVD. It featured Caesar with Mel Tolkin (head writer), Neil Simon, Danny Simon, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart, Sheldon Keller, Aaron Ruben, and Gary Belkin. The moderator and researcher was Bob Claster.

 Like Your Show of Shows, most of the original recordings of Caesar's Hour were destroyed by NBC, so few copies remain. Over 40 fragments from the series survive at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Directed by Clark Jones

Starring

Sid Caesar

Bea Arthur

Nanette Fabray

Milt Kamen

Howard Morris

Carl Reiner

Composer(s)

Sid Caesar

Bernard Green

No. of seasons 3

Production

Running time 60 min.

Broadcast

Original channel NBC

Original run September 27, 1954 – May 25, 1957

Resources

Sid Caesar Caesar's Hour

DVD: The Sid Caesar Collection - The Fan Favorites - 50th Anniversary Edition

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  • Highlights

Highlights

  • Sid Caesar on performing comedy live in front of an audience when taping a showSid Caesar on performing comedy live in front of an audience when taping a show
  • Beatrice Arthur on her small roles on <i>Caesar's Hour</i> (02m 38s)Beatrice Arthur on her small roles on Caesar's Hour (02m 38s)
  • Larry Gelbart talks about the writer's room of <i>Caesar's Hour</i> as orderly disorder (01m 22s)Larry Gelbart talks about the writer's room of Caesar's Hour as orderly disorder (01m 22s)
  • Aaron Ruben on working on <i>Caesar's Hour</i> with Sid Caesar, other writers on that show (09m 50s)Aaron Ruben on working on Caesar's Hour with Sid Caesar, other writers on that show (09m 50s)

People Talking About This Show

  • Beatrice Arthur
    • Beatrice Arthur on her small roles on Caesar's Hour (02m 38s)
  • Sid Caesar
    • Sid Caesar on the experience of "live TV" and his insistence that no cue cards be used on his shows (00m 46s)
    • Sid Caesar on the Caesar's Hour parody of On the Waterfront (00m 50s)
    • Sid Caesar on the cancellation of Your Show of Shows and the start of Caesar's Hour (01m 40s)
    • Sid Caesar on the lengthening of sketches from Your Show of Shows to Caesar's Hour (00m 49s)
    • Sid Caesar on the "dream team" of writers who worked on Caesar's Hour (01m 22s)
    • Sid Caesar on the Caesar's Hour sketch "The Commuters" (01m 56s)
    • Sid Caesar on the Caesar's Hour sketch "The Three Haircuts" (01m 03s)
    • Sid Caesar on the Caesar's Hour  silent film star sketch Aggravation Boulevard (take off of Sunset Boulevard) (00m 58s)
    • 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 the Caesar's Hour sketch "A Drunk There Was" (02m 11s)
    • Sid Caesar on falling asleep from exhaustion when he out to dinner with the writers (01m 50s)
    • Sid Caesar on the end of "live TV" with the introduction of videotape in the mid-to-late 1950s (01m 33s)
    • Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows / Caesar's Hour writer Neil Simon (and Simon's later play "Laughter on the 23rd Floor") (00m 50s)
    • Sid Caesar on Caesar's Hour writer Larry Gelbart (00m 35s)
    • Sid Caesar on working with Caesar's Hour co-star Nanette Fabray (00m 19s)
  • Nanette Fabray
    • Nanette Fabray on the format of Caesar's Hour and working with Sid Caesar (01m 46s)
    • Nanette Fabray on co-starring on Caesar's Hour; and suffering a concussion during one telecast; on some of the live TV mishaps; on her favorite sketch "The Shadow Waltz" (10m 43s)
    • Nanette Fabray on some of the memorable sketches she appeared in on Caesar's Hour;  final thoughts on the show (10m 20s)
  • Larry Gelbart
    • Larry Gelbart on the pressures of working for Caesar's Hour, which carried the pedigree of the famous Your Show of Shows as its predecessor (00m 55s)
    • Larry Gelbart talks about the famous writers to come out of Caesar's Hour: Mel Tolkin, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks and Neil Simon (04m 42s)
    • Larry Gelbart talks about the writer's room of Caesar's Hour as orderly disorder (01m 22s)
    • Larry Gelbart on the rigorous schedule and work ethic of the writers on Caesar's Hour, and the subsequent celebrations; his relationship with Sid Caesar (03m 09s)
    • Larry Gelbart on the various writers of Caesar's Hour and their contributions (00m 40s)
    • Larry Gelbart on his favorite Caesar's Hour sketches, and how Sid "allowed us to be hip" (02m 32s)
  • Garry Marshall
    • Garry Marshall on the influence of Caesar's Hour on his writing career (00m 48s)
  • Howard Morris
    • Actor Howard Morris on the "German General" sketch on Caesar's Hour (00m 40s)
  • Don Pardo
    • Don Pardo on working on Caesar’s Hour with Sid Caesar; he was later replaced by Hugh Downs (01m 21s)
  • Carl Reiner
    • Performer/writer Carl Reiner on how Carol Burnett would watch the rehearsals of Caesar's Hour (00m 49s)
    • Performer/writer Carl Reiner on working with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows and on Caesar's Hour (02m 55s)
    • Performer/writer Carl Reiner on the end of Your Show of Shows and the beginning of Caesar's Hour (08m 27s)
  • Aaron Ruben
    • Aaron Ruben on working on Caesar's Hour with Sid Caesar, other writers on that show (09m 50s)
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From the Collection

  • Your Show of Shows link

    When Your Show of Shows went off the air, Sid Caesar returned in Caesar's Hour. Visit the Archive's Your Show fo Shows page for personal recollections from that program's cast and crew.

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