Throwback Thursday Comedy Showcase: Sid Caesar in "The Hickenloopers: Poker Game"

It's Throwback Thursday again and today we get another chance to go back to the 1950s and watch Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca as The Hickenloopers on Your Show of Shows.

Caesar and Coca starred in many episodes of the hilarious marital tribulations of Doris and Charlie Hickenlooper. In this sketch, Sid Caesar forgets that he had a date with his wife and joins his friends (including Carl Reiner and Howard Morris) in Reiner's apartment for an evening of poker.

This week's sketch is a tribute on Caesar's centenary. The comedian was born 100 years ago on September 8, 1922.

No date is available for this sketch, which has only been released on very rare out of print VHS/Betamax tapes. We're grateful to a Sid Caesar super fan who found these tapes, had them transferred digitally, and shared them with a poster who made them available on YouTube.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO. 

 

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Showcase: Sid Caesar in The Hickenloopers -- "The Boarder"

It's Throwback Thursday again and today we get another chance to go back to the 1950s and another episode of The Hickenloopers on Your Show of Shows.

Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca starred in many episodes of the hilarious marital tribulations of Doris and Charlie Hickenlooper. In this sketch, Sid Caesar comes home from work to find a strange man sitting in his favorite chair. It's Howard Morris, playing the role of the boarder that Imogene Coca brought into their apartment to live with them for $16 a month.

Sid's reactions upon entering his home and finding another man there are priceless.

No date is available for this sketch, which has only been released on very rare out of print VHS/Betamax tapes. We're grateful to a Sid Caesar super fan who found these tapes, had them transferred digitally, and shared them with a poster who made them available on YouTube.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO. 

Throwback Thursday Comedy Showcase - Sid Caesar in "The Garbage Sketch" on Your Show of Shows

It's Throwback Thursday again, and today we're turning the clock back more than 60 years to revisit the antics of Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris in a performance of The Garbage Sketch, which plays out in a courtroom scene.

No date is available for this sketch, which has only been released on very rare out of print VHS/Betamax tapes. It's from Your Show of Shows, a TV show that was aired from 1950 to 1954.

We're grateful to a Sid Caesar super fan who found these tapes, had them transferred digitally, and shared them with a poster who made them available on YouTube.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Sid Caesar and The Caesaros Flying Circus in the 1950s

It's Throwback Thursday again, and today we're turning the clock back more than 60 years to revisit the antics of Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris as they perform The Caesaros Flying Circus, their deranged version of a circus acrobatics act.

No date is available for this sketch, which has only been released on very rare out of print VHS/Betamax tapes. It's from Caesar's Hour, a TV show that was aired from 1954 to 1957.

We're grateful to a Sid Caesar super fan who found these tapes, had them transferred digitally, and shared them with a poster who made them available on YouTube.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Classics: Sid Caesar in Gallipacci, a Spoof of the Opera Pagliacci

First telecast on Caesar's Hour on October 10, 1955 on NBC, this kinescoped sketch is a take-off on the Italian opera Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Sid plays the role of "Gallipacci" ("Canio" in the real opera) an actor in a traveling Italian comedia dell'arte troupe during the late 19th century. 

His wife "Rosa" ("Nedda" in the actual opera), who is played by singer and comedienne Nanette Fabray, falls in love with fellow actor "Emilio" (the opera's "Silvio" character), performed by Carl Reiner, and they make plans to elope. Sid sings a rendition of songs in a gibberish Italian dialect which he picked up in his youth from waiting tables at his father's 24-hour blue-collar diner in Yonkers, New York. 

Straying off of the real opera's musical score just a bit, we hear hilariously bastardized renditions of Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Cole Porter's Begin the Beguine, and Take Me Out to the Ball Game among others. Howie Morris (Ernest T. Bass from "The Andy Griffith Show") is "Vesuvio" (whose real opera character is "Tonio") and he performs a parody song and dance rountine to the tune If I Know What You Know. 

In one of the most famous "saves" in the history of live television, Sid was supposed to paint a teardrop on his cheek when the mascara pencil broke at the beginning of his nonsense rendition of Just One of Those Things. Not breaking his stride, Sid proceeds to pick up one of Nanette's lip brushes and paints an unscripted tic-tac-toe board on his face.  

The grand finale concluded with a variation of the song The Yellow Rose of Texas after Gallipacci takes care of the situation along the lines of a Mafia hit. Also, in the early days of live television, one time "specials" which pre-empted regular series programs were initially called "spectaculars". Listen for a young Don Pardo introducing the sketch.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.


 
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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Sid Caesar in "The Truck Driver and the Lady"

A lot of the guest hosts on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows participated in sketches. In this sketch the guest host is Paul Douglas, who had a successful career as an actor and announcer. 

No stranger to comedy, he starred with Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday on Broadway. Here he is Imogene Coca's lawyer defending her in a traffic case involving Sid as a truck driver. 

Carl Reiner is the judge and Howie Morris a hapless witness. When Douglas swings his cane in a stirring summation, watch for Carl and Sid's masterful reactions. 

No date is available for this sketch, which has only been released on very rare out of print VHS/Betamax tapes. We're grateful to the anonymous devoted collectors of Sid Caesar originals who found these tapes, had them transferred digitally, and shared them on YouTube.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO. 




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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca in "The Good Investment"

It's Throwback Thursday again and today we get another chance to go back 67 years to 1951 and another episode of The Hickenloopers on Your Show of Shows.

Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca starred in many episodes of the hilarious marital tribulations of Doris and Charlie Hickenlooper.

In this sketch, Doris Hickenlooper (Imogene Coca) invests $2200 of their savings in the stock market. Charlie (Sid Caesar) castigates her for squandering his life savings. The stock rises and falls and so do their emotions as they watch the roller coaster value of Consolidated U&M change by the minute.

Although the skit was performed in 1951 on Your Show of Shows, well before digital technology ruled Wall Street, it shows that investing hasn't really changed that much as we watch the stock market rise and fall in its current roller coaster ride.

Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers.

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO. 



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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca in "The Sewing Machine Girl"

Silent film parodies were an important part of Your Show of Shows, the 90 minute weekly live TV show pioneered by Sid Caesar in the early 1950s. These parodies were also tributes to the acting skills needed to convey plot and emotion in the absence of spoken words.

Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris all had a special talent to bring these early films to life in hilarious takeoffs. This video, The Sewing Machine Girl has the classic elements of this genre: The mean shop owner, the poor overworked, underpaid girl, and her beleaguered co-worker who emerges as her hero.

This is a rare sketch just made available to a mass audience as one of the "Ten from Your Show of Shows" now available as part of the five DVD set Sid Caesar: The Works.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO. 




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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Sid Caesar At the Movies

It's another Throwback Thursday and time for another comedy special from the past. Today we're going back 67 years to 1951 when Your Show of Shows was the weekly show you just had to watch. 

The regulars on the show were Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris. All four of them appear in this comedy sketch. 

Sid goes to the movies and settles into his seat. Before long he finds himself embroiled in an argument between a bickering couple played by Imogene Coca and Carl Reiner. Then the sparks fly.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.



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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca in The Bus to Riverdale

Today's nostalgia trip takes us back 64 years to 1954 and a classic episode from Your Show of Shows, the 90 minute weekly sketch comedy series featuring Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, and Howard Morris.

This episode shows the talent of Howard Morris, who is less well remembered today than the rest of the cast of Your Show of Shows, but only because he stood in the company of giants like Sid Caesar,  Imogene Coca (and Carl Reiner, who is not in this sketch).

In this episode, Sid and Imogene are waiting for their bus in a bus station when Howard approaches them and asks which bus goes to Riverdale. The ensuing chaos is a prime example of the ensemble comedy that made the program a must to watch every week.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.


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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray in "Marriage is Fun"

When Your Show of Shows was canceled in 1954, Sid Caesar started a new show called Caesar's Hour. The popular series of sketches called The Hickenloopers, about a bickering married couple, was recast as The Commuters, with Nanette Fabray playing Sid's wife as Imogene Coca had played in The Hickenloopers.

In this episode of The Commuters, "Marriage is Fun', Sid and Nanette go to a dance but have different ideas about how they will spend the evening. Sid's sidekicks Carl Reiner and Howard Morris are also in the sketch.

We have previously posted other episodes of both shows. We don't have a date for this very rare video, but it was shown between 1954 and 1957 and is available because two Caesar fans found these treasures and transferred them into a digital format.

Sid Caesar died in 2014. Nanette Fabray is 97 and lives in San Diego. We plan to share some of their other sketches with you in the coming months.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.


 

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: The Three Haircuts (Caesar, Reiner, Morris) Spoof Rock 'n Roll

In 1955, Rock 'n Roll was coming into its heyday, making it the perfect target for spoofing by Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris on Caesar's Hour.

And spoof it they did. The funny threesome went at it with great enthusiasm as they parodied The Crew Cuts, the Chords, The Four Lads, and many other groups that were popular before the Beatles invasion.

In this video, the boys sing You Are So Rare and Flippin' Over You and perform a frenzied dance number to the delight of their studio audience.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.



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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris in "The Principal's Office"

Some of the best classic skits from Caesar's Hour are finding their way back to the Internet and we're always glad to share them with you. Today we're reminiscing about one of the rare skits titled The Principal's Office. It features Howard Morris as the principal of an elementary school and Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner as the fathers of two 8-year-old-boys who were involved in a hallway fight.

The fathers exchange pleasantries in the office while waiting for the principal to arrive, not arguing about which boy was to blame as the bully, and saying that "boys will be boys."

Once the principal arrives, the situation takes a more sinister turn with each father defending his son and demonstrating what one boy did to the other by pummeling the poor, helpless principal.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.



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