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Blazing Saddles) — the comedian is
taking a break from the world of
one-liners.
"Work? Nah, I don't want to work
anymore," says Caesar, whose Your
Show of Shows — 90 minutes of live
"one-take" television for a now
unheard-of 39 weeks a year —
showed the way for so many comedi-
ans. It set the standard for decades
of TV satire to come.
The man who perfected the comic
skit isn't skittish about getting up on
stage; he just doesn't want to, or
need to. He'd rather let the VCR
work the room for him.
And it's doing just that, showcas-
ing the work Caesar and his society
of sarcastic sidemen — and women
— successfully brought to TV.
Saturday night live? Your Show of
Shows was the original, broadcast
Saturday nights for a five-year spin

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with a make-believe shotgun or a
Howitzer."
There was constant yelling of
ideas, and competition for Sid's
attention and affection. "The quieter
writers would get help: Neil would
whisper ideas into Carl's ear, and
Woody would whisper into Larry's
ear. Neil and Larry wrote hilarious
dialogue, and Mel was just off the
wall," recalls Caesar. "The show was
loaded with geniuses."
Included in the tapes are such skits
as the washed up lovers of "From
Here to Obscurity"; the cacopho-
nous case of a contentious couple
arguing to the tunes of Beethoven's
Fifth Symphony; and the hibernating
humor of the Hickenloopers in "The
Sleep Sketch." Other classic
vignettes include Caesar as "the
Professor," the self-proclaimed expert
on everything, and musical numbers,

RON CODEN

including Caesar jamming with
Benny Goodman.
The DVD version includes addi-
tional sketches and interviews,
including Woody Allen talking
about having to write naked and
Caesar's Friars Club roast ("he is
known by millions, and has enter-
tained hundreds").
And now, the sleeping giant that is
Caesar has something else to add to
his slapstick slumber party: A cache
of 137 scripts from Your Show of
Shows has just showed up in a closet
at New York's City Center. The once
shelved scripts have been donated to
the Library of Congress.
Would their playful humor play
today? "Nah, not the way they are,
concedes Caesar. "They're pristine
scripts, no markings on them, before
the changes were made."
But it is those changes that could
change a reader's appreciation of the
raucous and roaring riffs that helped
make Your Show of Shows a show-
and-tell of brilliant comedy. The
scripts "would be interesting for stu-

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beginning February 1950.
Just how funny was it? "See for
yourself," says the original Mr.
Saturday Night.
The Sid Caesar Collection, on
video and DVD, is culled from clas-
sic comedy shtick from Your Show of
Shows (1950-1954) and the subse-
quent Caesar's Hour (1954-57). The
trilogy of rib-ticklers includes "The
Magic of Live TV," "Creating the
Comedy" and "Inside the Writers'
Room."
Caesar offers insight into the writ-
ers' room, in which he cavorted and
created with a dream team of dialo-
gists, including Reiner, Mel Brooks,
Neil Simon, Woody Allen, Larry
Gelbart, Mel Tolkin and two of the
first female comedy writers for tele-
vision, Lucille Kallen and Selma
Diamond.
"I showed them what I wanted,"
recalls Caesar. "We wrote together,
page by page, note by note. I tried
everything on to see if it felt good. I
would nod at good ideas, and shoot
down bad ones with a vengeance,

►

CHARLIE LATIMER

We Take HighM
Pride In Our
Kilchen!

I

Imogene Coca and Sid
Caesar in a skit from
"Your Show of Shows."

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