"Your Show of Shows" lived up to its name...
For 4 side-splitting seasons of comedy in glorious black and white, "Your Show of Shows" contained the best comedy ensemble in television history. Led by the genius of Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, the show cracked the top 10 right after its debut in February of 1950...
Caesar who could make you believe that he was actually speaking in Italian, German or whatever dialect he decided to tackle, had great facial expressions to enhance that portrayal, terrific comedic timing and most of all, he always made you laugh. Most of the material he used was ad-libbed brilliantly. Coca was the perfect foil, often playing Caesar's wife and she too had the facial expressions and timing that produced skits that still remain classics over 50 years later. The Doris and Charlie Hickenlooper characters they made famous were always frustratingly funny and usually revolved around the couple on a car trip or together at home and always involved Doris getting Charlie so close to the boiling point that you expected to see steam coming out of Charlie's ears. Some of the characters Caesar made famous were Progress Hornsby, Somerset Winterset and Guiseppe Marinara. Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca didn't work alone on "Your Show of Shows". Carl Reiner and Howard Morris complemented Caesar and Coca with their immense talent and by the way, they had some fair comedy writers by the name of Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and "M*A*S*H*" creator Larry Gelbart. No comedy show has ever had as much comedic genius on one staff...
"Your Show of Shows" made its farewell appearance on June 5, 1954. During its 4-year run it won a Best Variety Show Emmy in 1951 and '52 and won Best Actor and Actress Emmy's for Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca in 1951. More on Caesar, Coca, Reiner and Howard in my commentary...
More June 5 Memories...
1752] Benjamin Franklin flies a kite for the 1st time to demonstrate that lighning was a form of electricity (he also opens an electrolysis clinic)...
1851] Harriet Beecher Stow publishes the 1st installment of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in the National Era...
1947] Secretary of State George C. Marshall outlines the Marshall Plan at Harvard...
1954] "Your Show of Shows" bows out (feature story)...
1956] Elvis sings "Hound Dog" on Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theatre...
1956] Gene Vincent releases "Be-Bop-A-Lula"...
1957] "Susie Q" is released by Dale Hawkins...
1959] Robert Zimmerman a.k.a. Bob Dylan graduates from Hibbing High School in Minnesota...
1960] After a run of 6 years "The George Gobel Show" ends...
1967] Murderer Richard Speck is sentenced to death in the electric chair...
1967] The 6-Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan begins...
1968] Senator Robert F. Kennedy is shot and mortally wounded after claiming victory in the California Democratic Presidential Primary. Gunman Sirhan B. Sirhan is immediately captured...
1974] Sly Stone a.k.a. Sylvester Stewart marries Kathy Silva on stage at Madison Square Garden prior to a concert by Sly & The Family Stone (the marriage, not the concert, lasts all of 5 months)...
1981] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 5 men come down with a rare kind of pneumonia. These are the 1st recognized cases of what became known as AIDS...
1984] Cyndi Lauper is #1 with "Time After Time"...
1989] The last original Islander, goalie Billy Smith, retires...
1993] Singer Mariah Carey and SONY CEO Tommy Mottola get married in a church on 5th Avenue...
1993] Conway Twitty ruptures a stomach vessel after collapsing on his tour bus after a show in Branson, MO. Twitty dies at 59 (Conway had 39 #1 Country hits)...
1993] 29-year old Julie Krone becomes the 1st female jockey to win a Triple Crown race when she takes Colonial Affair to a win in the 125th running of the Belmont Stakes...
1998] C-Span reports the death of Bob Hope to which Hope replies "but I wanna tell you, ladies & gentlemen, a funny thing happened on the way to my death..." The false report ran in an obituary on the AP website...
1999] The Velvet Fog, Mel Torme dies from complications of a 1996 stroke. Torme was 73...
2002] 14-year old Elizabeth Smart is kidnapped from her parent's home in Salt Lake City...
2002] Ramones bass player Dee Dee Ramone is found dead in his Hollywood home at 50 (Ramone's real name was Douglas Glenn Colvin)...
2004] Ronald Wilson Reagan, our 40th President dies in Los Angeles at 93 after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
"Where Are They Now"...
Sid Caesar who will be 84 on his next birthday (9/8/06) doesn't watch much comedy on television. "I don't like to watch sitcoms because I don't enjoy them". He went on to add, "I stop to analyze them. I don't want to but I automatically do". Caesar dramatically turned his life around when he gave up drinking, lost weight and is now in great shape...
Carl Reiner who's already 84 took a lot of what he learned on "Your Show Of Shows" to become an Emmy Award-winning actor, writer and director, directing such successful films as "Oh God!" (1977) and "The Jerk" (1979). His son is Rob Reiner...
Imogene Coca lived to the ripe old age of 93 in Westport, Connecticut where she lived before passing away in 2001 and Howard Morris died of a heart ailment at 85 in 2005...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday"...
1934] Broadcast journalist Bill Moyers...
1949] "Eye of the Needle" author Ken Follett...
1950] Slightly askew singer Laurie Anderson...
1956] Jazz saxophonist (is that what that instrument is ?) Kenny G...
1971] (Marky) Mark Wahlberg...
[Today is the 156th day of 2006 with 209 days remaining in the year and 29 days until July 4th]
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