Your Show of Shows was a live 90-minute
sketch comedySketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
television series appearing weekly in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
(Saturdays, 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time), from February 25, 1950 until June 5, 1954, featuring
Sid CaesarIsaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar is an American comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.-Early life:Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York, the son of Jewish...
and
Imogene CocaImogene Fernandez de Coca was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows.-Early life:...
. Other featured performers were
Carl ReinerCarl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards during his career.-Early life:...
,
Howard MorrisHoward "Howie" Morris was a Jewish American comic actor and director.-Television and film:Morris was born in Bronx, New York. He came to prominence in appearances on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows...
,
Nanette FabrayNanette Fabray is an American film, television and musical theatre actress. She is the aunt of actress/singer Shelley Fabares.- Biography :...
,
Bill HayesBill Hayes is an American actor and singer.-Career:Hayes was a singer on the Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca variety show Your Show of Shows in the early 1950s. During the Davy Crockett craze in 1955, three recorded versions of the Ballad of Davy Crockett were in the top 30...
, Judy Johnson, The Hamilton Trio and the soprano
Marguerite PiazzaMarguerite Piazza is an American soprano and entertainer.A 1940 graduate of Loyola University of the South's College of Music, she then studied at Louisiana State University, where she was a student of the baritone Pasquale Amato. In 1944, Piazza joined the New York City Opera, in its first Spring...
.
José FerrerJosé Vincente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón was a Puerto Rican actor, as well as a theater and film director.-Early life:...
made several guest appearances on the show. The show was telecast from the now-demolished International Theatre (also known as the Park Theatre) at 5 Columbus Circle in New York.
The show was created by
Sylvester "Pat" WeaverSylvester Laflin "Pat" Weaver, Jr. was an American former radio advertising executive, who became president of NBC between 1953 and 1955. He has been credited with reshaping broadcasting's format and philosophy as radio gave way to television as America's dominant home entertainment...
and directed by Max Liebman.
Your Show of Shows was a live 90-minute
sketch comedySketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
television series appearing weekly in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
(Saturdays, 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time), from February 25, 1950 until June 5, 1954, featuring
Sid CaesarIsaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar is an American comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.-Early life:Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York, the son of Jewish...
and
Imogene CocaImogene Fernandez de Coca was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows.-Early life:...
. Other featured performers were
Carl ReinerCarl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards during his career.-Early life:...
,
Howard MorrisHoward "Howie" Morris was a Jewish American comic actor and director.-Television and film:Morris was born in Bronx, New York. He came to prominence in appearances on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows...
,
Nanette FabrayNanette Fabray is an American film, television and musical theatre actress. She is the aunt of actress/singer Shelley Fabares.- Biography :...
,
Bill HayesBill Hayes is an American actor and singer.-Career:Hayes was a singer on the Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca variety show Your Show of Shows in the early 1950s. During the Davy Crockett craze in 1955, three recorded versions of the Ballad of Davy Crockett were in the top 30...
, Judy Johnson, The Hamilton Trio and the soprano
Marguerite PiazzaMarguerite Piazza is an American soprano and entertainer.A 1940 graduate of Loyola University of the South's College of Music, she then studied at Louisiana State University, where she was a student of the baritone Pasquale Amato. In 1944, Piazza joined the New York City Opera, in its first Spring...
.
José FerrerJosé Vincente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón was a Puerto Rican actor, as well as a theater and film director.-Early life:...
made several guest appearances on the show. The show was telecast from the now-demolished International Theatre (also known as the Park Theatre) at 5 Columbus Circle in New York.
The show was created by
Sylvester "Pat" WeaverSylvester Laflin "Pat" Weaver, Jr. was an American former radio advertising executive, who became president of NBC between 1953 and 1955. He has been credited with reshaping broadcasting's format and philosophy as radio gave way to television as America's dominant home entertainment...
and directed by Max Liebman. Writers for the show included
Mel BrooksMelvin "Mel" Kaminsky , better known by his stage name Mel Brooks, is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer, best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. Brooks is a member of the short list of entertainers with the distinction...
,
Neil SimonMarvin Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. His numerous Broadway succcesses have led to his work being among the most regularly performed in the world...
,
Danny SimonDanny Simon was an American television writer and comedy teacher. He was also older brother to acclaimed American playwright Neil Simon....
,
Larry GelbartLarry Simon Gelbart was an American television writer, playwright, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
,
Mel TolkinMel Tolkin, né Shmuel Tolchinsky , was a television comedy writer best known as head writer of the seminal, live TV sketch comedy series Your Show of Shows during the Golden Age of Television. There he presided over a storied staff that at times included Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Danny Simon, and...
, and
Carl ReinerCarl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards during his career.-Early life:...
who, though a cast member, always sat in with the writers. A common misconception is that
Woody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, comedian, writer, musician, and playwright....
wrote for
Your Show of Shows; he in fact wrote for its successor program,
Caesar's HourCaesar'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...
, which ran from 1954 to 1957. Caesar, Coca, and Liebman had worked on
The Admiral Broadway RevueThe Admiral Broadway Revue was a U.S. variety TV series which premiered on 28 January 1949, and was broadcast live simultaneously on both NBC and the now-defunct DuMont network. The show was telecast from the now-demolished International Theatre at 5 Columbus Circle in New York...
from January to June 1949.
Carl Reiner has stated that the time he spent on
Your Show of Shows was the inspiration for
The Dick Van Dyke ShowThe Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom which initially aired on CBS from October 3, 1961 and ran until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. A three-camera/studio audience format was used during production...
.
Your Show of Shows also inspired the 1982 film
My Favorite YearMy Favorite Year is a 1982 comedy film directed by Richard Benjamin which tells the story of a young comedy writer. It stars Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna, Lou Jacobi, Bill Macy, Lainie Kazan, Selma Diamond, Cameron Mitchell and Gloria Stuart. O'Toole was nominated...
, produced by Mel Brooks, and the play
Laughter on the 23rd FloorLaughter on the 23rd Floor is a play by Neil Simon.Inspired by Simon's early career experience as a junior jokesmith for Your Show of Shows, the play focuses on Sid Caesar/Jackie Gleason-like Max Prince, the star of a weekly comedy-variety show circa 1953, and his staff, including Simon's...
written by Neil Simon.
Most of the
kinescopeKinescope – kine for short, also known as telerecording, is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor....
s of the show were discarded by
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
, and so few copies of the show survive. A 1973 theatrical film titled
Ten from Your Show of Shows featured ten sketches from the show edited together. Reruns of surviving kinescopes aired on
Comedy CentralComedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries predominantly comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
in the early 1990s. Sketches from the show which are from Sid Caesar's personal collection are available on
The Sid Caesar Collection DVD set.
Ratings
- 1950-1951: #4
- 1951-1952: #8
- 1952-1953: #19
External links