- Your Show of Shows
"Your Show of Shows" was a live 90-minute
sketch comedy television series appearing weekly in theUnited States onNBC , from1950 untilJune 5 ,1954 , featuringSid Caesar andImogene Coca . Other featured performers wereCarl Reiner ,Howard Morris ,Nanette Fabray ,Bill Hayes , Judy Johnson, The Hamilton Trio and the sopranoMarguerite Piazza .José Ferrer made several guest appearances on the show.Writers for the show included
Mel Brooks ,Neil Simon ,Danny Simon ,Larry Gelbart ,Mel Tolkin , andCarl Reiner who, though a cast member, always sat in with the writers. A common misconception is thatWoody Allen wrote for "Your Show of Shows"; he in fact wrote for its successor program, "Caesar's Hour ", which ran from 1954 to 1957.Carl Reiner has stated that the time he spent on "Your Show of Shows" was the inspiration for "
The Dick Van Dyke Show "; "Your Show of Shows" also inspired the 1982 film "My Favorite Year ", produced by Mel Brooks, and the play "Laughter on the 23rd Floor " written by Neil Simon.Most of the
kinescope s of the show were discarded byNBC , 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 onComedy Central 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: #19External links
*imdb title|0042173
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069663 "Ten From Your Show of Shows" (1973) at IMDB]
* [http://sidcaesar.com/ "The Sid Caesar Collection"]
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