Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner & Friends Salute Sid Caesar

"Sid Caesar was a giant—maybe the best comedian who ever practiced the trade. And I was privileged to be one of his writers and one of his friends."  –Mel Brooks

When Sid Caesar passed away earlier this year, he left a creative legacy that both shaped and indelibly transformed television comedy. His admirers, whose ranks included Albert Einstein, compared his comic mastery to the genius of his idol Charlie Chaplin. Caesar’s two groundbreaking variety series of the fifties, Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, kept America laughing on Saturday nights with an unending stream of brilliant monologues, sophisticated movie parodies, and hilarious sketches. The series also produced a “murderers' row” of writers and performers who would carry Caesar’s comic vision into the next decades. His comic protégés included Carl Reiner, Woody Allen, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Imogene Coca, Howard Morris, Lucille Kallen, Mel Tolkin, Nanette Fabray, and staff writer Mel Brooks. In this special Paley Center evening—filled with clips of Sid's work from the Paley Archive—our guests salute the genius who gave them their start, and remember his extraordinary and enduring contributions to the entire comedy world.