Classic comic Sid Caesar gets tribute
By Frazier Moore
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Milton Berle, of course, holds the title "Mr. Television."
Associated Press
A half-century ago, he commandeered the first TV screens with his explosive, go-for-broke brand of burlesque. Repurposed from his vaudeville days for this wondrous new technology, Berle's wisecracks and cavorting were a wildly comfortable throwback to the past. No wonder he became a symbol of the future.
Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca pose in a 1953 sketch from "Your Show of Shows."
Then a couple of years later, the future arrived: A strapping lad invariably described as "rubber-faced," whose comedy style, while antic, was rooted in reality.
Sid Caesar staged 90 minutes of live comedy every week: skits, revues, pantomime and satire that his audience found not only hilarious, but also vividly relatable. With "Your Show of Shows" and his other series, Caesar brought observational comedy to TV before Jerry Seinfeld was even born.
"The one great star that television created and who created television was Sid Caesar," says critic Joel Siegel on the documentary "Hail Sid Caesar! The Golden Age Of Comedy." Hosted by Rob Reiner (whose father, Carl, was a member of Caesar's troupe), it airs at 9:30 p.m. tomorrow on Showtime.
Beforehand, at 8 p.m., Showtime premieres the film version of Neil Simon's 1993 Broadway comedy "Laughter On the 23rd Floor," a thinly disguised account of his experiences as one of the loopy young lions on Caesar's writing staff. Unfortunately, the film, with Nathan Lane as '50s TV star Max Prince (prince, caesar — get it?), is a dreary derivation of the real thing. Now 78, Caesar is a frail, goateed shadow of that long-ago performer. The athleticism may be gone, but he still has the moves, along with his peppy eyebrows and the trademark mole on his left cheek.
Comedy shows
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"Laughter on the 23rd Floor," 8 p.m. tomorrow, Showtime
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"Hail Sid Caesar! The Golden Age of Comedy," 9:30 p.m. tomorrow, Showtime
In a recent interview, he recalled how in his heyday, Saturday after Saturday, he and his co-stars Carl Reiner, Imogene Coca, Nanette Fabray and Howard Morris, Caesar put a humorous spin on married life, intellectuals, dating, working and what would someday be called pop culture.
But the pressure got to him. He was working to exhaustion yet couldn't sleep. And stardom only fueled his self-doubts. "I never believed in myself," he says, "even at the height of my success." Thus began a barbiturate and alcohol habit he wouldn't kick until the late 1970s.
Links
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www.sidvid.com
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www.showtimeonline.com
"If it wasn't for her," says Caesar, pointing to his wife, Florence, "I wouldn't be here. She held the whole thing together. She held me together."
"People wonder if I laughed a lot," she says. "Not exactly."
