I have nice memories of Sid and Imogene during his TV show, even though I was preteen then. My parents were obviously fans.
He was a television pioneer & a true legend.
Sid Caesar was hilarious in the old shtick style of slapstick, facial contortions, and just plain old fun. If I remember accurately, he had as both actors and writers Rose Marie, Howie Morris, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, (Woody Allen, he’s in the photo), and maybe Morrie Amsterdam (I might be confusing Rose Marie and Amsterdam from another show, not including Hollywood Squares etc).
Imogene Coca. One funny lady, the Joanne Worley of the 50’s, and the “Aunt” in National Lampoon’s “Vacation” to Wallyworld.
If you wrote a book entitled “When Comedy Was King” (different than the movie) it would included such royalty as the Sid Caesar Show, Milton Berle, Red Buttons, Red Skelton, Sam Levinson, Groucho Marx ( and the Marx Brothers), Buddy Hackett Show; Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, George Gobbels, etc.
The humor was clean, sharp, and very funny. It was laughs for the whole family. It was, also, America. The great humorists got together to make the country laugh by being Americans, made from a melting pot of immigration and hard times, WW2, and TV.
My son, daughter and now granddaughter all laughed their young heads off at the Three Stooges, Abbot and Costello, and Laurel and Hardy (as repeats on TV). I’m sad that they never got to see those comedians I’ve listed above. Hopefully they will, in the future.
Meanwhile, a new crop of comedians came in and actually did homage to the old guys and gals by incorporating a lot of their style and acts into their 1980’s and 90’s shows, esp. “Seinfeld”.
I can also see a lot of that in Rodney Dangerfield, Jackie Mason, Flip Wilson (Uncle Milty’s cross-dressing, nu!), Red Foxx, Slappy White, Jay Leno, Johnny Carson, and the early works of Roseanne Barr, Rita Rudner, and Phyllis Diller (and Selma Diamond if you remember Mrs. Gravelly Voice who was one helluva comedian).
If you are old enough to remember Sam Levenson, the NY City teacher turned TV comedian, raconteur, and writer, you can see him reincarnated in Glenn Beck’s use of the blackboard and exhibits to teach America about what is going on in the world.
Norman Lear had it right when he created “Those Were The Days” but I’m not sure he knew it in the context of the “Sid Caesars” of the past, who made us laugh until we cried.
There is one helluva joke-telling session going on in Heaven right now. Oh to be a fly on the wall with a videocamera!
From a kid of the fifties, RIP Sid.
My high school friend is/was a fan. She posted this video on her FB page tonight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNbT9Lf9xZo&;
One of my favorite sketches from "Show of Shows". Brilliant.
Sid Caesar was a giant among men, in his early TV days.
Sid Caesar, can still be seen, in the Mel Brooks movie, “The History of the World, Part 1”, as the caveman whom the others laugh at, as he hurts hmself, in the demonstration of man’s first recorded bouts of humor.