Posted on 02/12/2014 2:11:15 PM PST by Impala64ssa
Comedy legend Sid Caesar has died at the age of 91 after a brief illness, family spokesman Eddy Friedfeld said.
His former colleague Carl Reiner's assistant told FOX411 that Caesar "passed away at his home this morning."
Caesar hosted 'Your Show of Shows' with partner Imogene Coca in the early 1950s, and did "Caesar's Hour" solo from 1954-57. The shows were huge hits, and became breeding grounds for young comedy writers, including Reiner, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and Neil Simon.
"The one great star that television created and who created television was Sid Caesar," said critic Joel Siegel on the TV documentary "Hail Sid Caesar! The Golden Age Of Comedy," which first aired in 2001.
While best known for his TV shows, which have been revived on DVD in recent years, he also had success on Broadway and occasional film appearances, notably in "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Sid Ceasar did the funniest sketch I’ve ever seen. Dressed as a pre-hippie progressive-jazz musician, “Progress Ormsby,” he and his partners invented a new musical instrument: meat. They all played roasts and chops with great abandon. Hysterical FOTF comedy. Heaven will be better with him in it. God needs a laugh too.
He was a genius. RIP.
It’s available on DVD boxed sets, tow of them, I think.
A prototype for sit coms and variety also certain comedy Broadway and film.
His writing team was a starting point for brilliant writers we take for granted, the boxed wet includes much commentary.
Mel Brooks, Sid, Howard Morris, the Simon Brothers, Carl Reiner, for instance.
Sid did not break into movies, though Mel Brooks begged him to as he went on to Hollywood, so we don’t know who he is, where everyone knows Mel because of his films. He says his “Spaceballs”, a parody on Star Wars has a very young adoring audience.
But he said, in the American Classics interview, that he though Sid Caesar was a great comedic talent and that is was terrible that he hadn’t gone into movies.
My parents and their contemporaries loved Sid Caesar. Now it looks a little dated, some of it great still. Sophisticated - using opera, drama, world events and literature for references.
Most kids will have never heard of him.
I was just watched “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World” for about the 50th time last night. He is hysterical in that though not as funny a Milton Beryl and Ethel Merman
That’s Cesar Romero.
Cesar Romero?
Ooops, possible spelling glitch. Progress Ormsby is listed as Progress Hornsby, “hepcat and be-bop daddy,” at this site: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/caesarburied.php
I looked on youtube but cannot find that “meat” performance, but other Sid Caesar bits are there.
That’s Cesar Romero.
Yep, too funny. I’m sure he is dead as well, RIPS Cesar’s
The name has been familiar all my life but I don’t think I have ever seen him perform or seen his show.
That’s what I remember too.The flying scene in the old Curtiss jenny was so funny to me as he is telling his wife that sure its safe to fly in.I met the real pilot who did the flying scenes in that movie when I was a kid.The hardware store scene was great stuff.Man what a movie.
No matter, he laid the prototype for most classic comedy, and employed many of the writers and creators of classic comedy, much of which has carried into contemporary comedy.
Most kids don’t know who writes and produces the stuff they read, watch, play, anyway. What comedian do they look to?
No one as good as Caesar, or the people around him, were. Not at the moment.
RIP Gilligan
A brilliant comic. I remember reading somewhere that he was considered for the role of “Coach” Ernie Pantusso on “Cheers.”
Oops, I’m to damn old for this memory stuff.
I remember he had a small part in The Cheap Detective.
...unlike so many of today's "laugh track" (so-called)comedians...R.I.P.
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