Caesar's Hour


The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Presents

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About

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

Highlights
Performer/writer Carl Reiner on how Carol Burnett would watch the rehearsals of Caesar's Hour
00:49
Performer/writer Carl Reiner on working with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows and on Caesar's Hour
02:55
Performer/writer Carl Reiner on the end of Your Show of Shows and the beginning of Caesar's Hour
08:27
Sid Caesar on the "dream team" of writers who worked on Caesar's Hour
01:22
Sid Caesar on the Caesar's Hour sketch "The Commuters"
02:03
Sid Caesar on the Caesar's Hour sketch "The Three Haircuts"
01:03
Who talked about this show

Charlie Andrews

View Interview
Charlie Andrews on being hired to write for Caesar's Hour starring Sid Caesar
05:04
Charlie Andrews on the writing staff of Caesar's Hour
01:44
Charlie Andrews on the writing sessions of Caesar's Hour
02:09
Charlie Andrews on leaving Caesar's Hour
02:33

Beatrice Arthur

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Beatrice Arthur on her small roles on Caesar's Hour
02:38

Sid Caesar

View Interview
Sid Caesar on the experience of "live TV" and his insistence that no cue cards be used on his shows
00:46
Sid Caesar on the Caesar's Hour parody of On the Waterfront
00:50
Sid Caesar on the cancellation of Your Show of Shows and the start of Caesar's Hour
01:41
Sid Caesar on the lengthening of sketches from Your Show of Shows to Caesar's Hour
00:50
Sid Caesar on the "dream team" of writers who worked on Caesar's Hour
01:22
Sid Caesar on the Caesar's Hour sketch "The Commuters"
02:03
Sid Caesar on the Caesar's Hour sketch "The Three Haircuts"
01:03
Sid Caesar on the Caesar's Hour  silent film star sketch Aggravation Boulevard (take off of Sunset Boulevard)
00:58
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
01:36
Sid Caesar on the Caesar's Hour sketch "A Drunk There Was"
02:11
Sid Caesar on falling asleep from exhaustion when he out to dinner with the writers
01:50
Sid Caesar on the end of "live TV" with the introduction of videotape in the mid-to-late 1950s
01:33
Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows /Caesar's Hour writer Neil Simon (and Simon's later play "Laughter on the 23rd Floor")
00:50
Sid Caesar on Caesar's Hour writer Larry Gelbart
00:35
Sid Caesar on working with Caesar's Hour co-star Nanette Fabray
00:32

Hugh Downs

View Interview
Hugh Downs on on-camera announcing for Caesar's Hour
03:54

Nanette Fabray

View Interview
Nanette Fabray on appearing on Caesar's Hour with Sid Caesar
07:15
Nanette Fabray on being compared to Imogene Coca on Caesar's Hour, and on working with Sid Caesar
06:11
Nanette Fabray on the format of Caesar's Hour and on the music of the show
04:51
Nanette Fabray on working with the writers of Caesar's Hour, and on an on-air mishap where she was injured
04:15
Nanette Fabray on live, on-air mishaps during Caesar's Hour involving Sid Caesar
03:45
Nanette Fabray on various sketches she performed in with Sid Caesar on Caesar's Hour, including doing pantomime with Caesar
06:59
Nanette Fabray on the kind of fan mail she got while on Caesar's Hour, and on the end of the show
02:16
Nanette Fabray on the legacy of Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour
01:06

Larry Gelbart

View Interview
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
00:55
Larry Gelbart on the famous writers to come out of Caesar's Hour: Mel Tolkin, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks and Neil Simon
04:42
Larry Gelbart on the writer's room of Caesar's Hour as orderly disorder
01:22
Larry Gelbart on the rigorous schedule and work ethic of the writers on Caesar's Hour and the subsequent celebrations; on his relationship with Sid Caesar
03:09
Larry Gelbart on the various writers of Caesar's Hour and their contributions
00:40
Larry Gelbart on his favorite Caesar's Hour sketches, and how Sid "allowed us to be hip"
02:32

Garry Marshall

View Interview
Garry Marshall on the influence of Caesar's Hour on his writing career
00:48

Howard Morris

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Howard Morris on various sketches of Caesar's Hour
01:52
Howard Morris on appearing on Caesar's Hour
00:47
Howard Morris on the end of Caesar's Hour
00:35

Tony Mottola

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Tony Mottola on playing music on Caesar's Hour
01:36

Don Pardo

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Don Pardo on working on Caesar's Hour with Sid Caesar; on being replaced by Hugh Downs
01:19

Carl Reiner

View Interview
Performer/writer Carl Reiner on how Carol Burnett would watch the rehearsals of Caesar's Hour
00:49
Performer/writer Carl Reiner on working with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows and on Caesar's Hour
02:55
Performer/writer Carl Reiner on the end of Your Show of Shows and the beginning of Caesar's Hour
08:27
Performer/writer Carl Reiner on how Carol Burnett would watch the rehearsals of Caesar's Hour
00:49

Aaron Ruben

View Interview
Aaron Ruben on working on Caesar's Hour with Sid Caesar, other writers on that show
09:50

Mel Tolkin

View Interview
Mel Tolkin on splitting up with Lucille Kallen when she went to write for The Imogene Coca Show and he went to write for Caesar's Hour
02:06
Mel Tolkin on the writing staff of Caesar's Hour, and on being the show's head writer
05:18
Mel Tolkin on Mel Brooks writing for Caesar's Hour
02:02
Mel Tolkin on the Caesar's Hour writers Sheldon Keller, Selma Diamond, Gary Belkin, and Mike Stewart
04:32
Mel Tolkin on Caesar's Hour writers Larry Gelbart and Woody Allen
01:55
Mel Tolkin on the talent of the writing staff of Caesar's Hour, and on comparing it to Your Show of Shows
02:21
Mel Tolkin on writing for Nanette Fabray on Caesar's Hour, and comparing her to Imogene Coca
01:54
Mel Tolkin on classic sketches from Caesar's Hour featuring Sid Caesar
07:54
Mel Tolkin on the end of Caesar's Hour
03:12

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