Page 69 - Sid Caesar News Today

In the corridors of nbc and they would shout out jokes. if sid caesar heard them and used them, he paid them. we heard that story and we were looking for a name of that group, we should call ourselves the kids in the hall. on the outside breaking in. >> the kids already have some great credentials. two have written for saturday night live in new york. the others have worked for second city. but now, theyre trying to create their own brand of comedy. >> one of my favorite sketches, theyre at kind...

It would have a cast of comedians, a cast of dancing girls, maybe a singer or two in there. a lot of the comedians that started in radio in the 30s and 40s started on the broadway stage in revues. >> when i was a kid, my parents loved comedy. it was always on the radio. >> you dedicated your entire life to the accumulation of money. >> yes, yes, my boy. >> its my fond hope when i die ill go to ft. knox. >> all sketch comedy on radio in the 40s was part of a variety program genre. you would have ...

Some of the best writers that ever lived. all they did was look at society and skew it a little bit. you laughed at yourself being ridiculous. >> i want to sing a song for you. its on the other side of our hit record. this side is selling more than the other side. >> the show of shows had comedy geniuses gathered together almost like a manhattan project for comedy. you had carl reiner moving back and forth between acting and writing at this time, and sid caesar who would do all the roles and all...

With four or five sketches, different characters, every week our writers have to sit down to a blank sheet of paper and be funny and its a whole new sketch. >> i wonder if you could come in. >> hello. >> i wonder if -- >> hello. >> mrs. wig -- >> hello, hello. >> i cant tell a joke to save my soul. i was a clown, and also a comedic actress who liked to say things funny. >> a dime. >> a whole dime. >> carol burnett was the ultimate sketch performer. and she had sets and costumes and props. and i ...

People become dentists, and they also become improv artists. >> with sketch comedy its the immediacy of it. its the daring of it. going back to like sid caesar on the beach with imogene coca getting buckets of water thrown in his face or you think "saturday night live" and julia childs bleeding to death or the dead parrot sketch on monty python. >> paulie. >> its very ephemeral, its over quickly, but if it was great and it really worked you get this nice little memory, maybe a little piece of vi...

>> yes, its adolf hitler in a home movie. >> looks like mel brooks. >> in terms of parody and satire, there really is mel brooks and then theres everybody else. when i was a kid, vhs tapes were invented so we had "the godfather" and then we had every mel brooks movie and he was the funniest. >> i would like to get back to your television days because, i mean, you were in television for something like 20 years writing with sid caesar. >> it was very good to be part of "the sid caesar show". >> yo...

Looks like weve got a nice, full group. could you bump up the lights so i could see -- ohh! gorgeous. >> you had an image of a fellow in a tuxedo coming out and doing a monologue, and will they take a woman doing this? and i said, i hope theyll take me at least for 13 weeks, you know? and it worked! it worked for 11 years. i never thought it would go that long. >> i knew i wanted to do musical comedy. i wanted guest stars. i wanted to do sketches. i wanted a rep company the way sid caesar had on...

>> she started on "the gary moore show" and became a big star. people forget just how much she was a part of the culture at one point in time. >> i did not think that i would want to ever or could ever host a variety show. >> welcome to our first show were doing. im real excited and very happy youre all with us. looks like weve got a nice, full group. could you bump up the lights so i could see -- ohh! gorgeous. >> you had an image of a fellow in a tuxedo coming out and doing a monologue, and wi...

>> the husband against wife, always fighting. they had no relationship that you would want to live in. by the way, they didnt. those two people broke up. laura and rob had the relationship my wife and i did. we agreed about most things. i think that came through. people realized he respected his wife, even though they argued about certain things. >> the situations were taken from real life. and from my fathers real life in his working for sid caesar and working on a variety show. >> rob was me. ...

>> i did not think that i would want to ever -- could ever host a variety show. >> welcome to our first show were doing. im real excited and very happy youre all with us. looks like weve got a nice, full group. could you bump up the lights so i could see -- ohh! gorgeous. >> you had an image of a fellow in a tuxedo coming out and doing monologue and will they take a woman doing this? and i said, i hope theyll take me at least for 13 weeks, you know? and it worked! it worked for 11 years. i never...