HOLLYWOOD, CA -- (NBC NEWS) Sid Caesar, a comedy television pioneer and the king of live TV sketch comedy in the 1950s, died early Wednesday in his Beverly Hills home, a family spokesman told NBC News. He was 91.
With his remarkable skills in pantomime, satire, mimicry, dialect and sketch comedy, Caesar inspired a generation of famous writers, including Neil Simon and Woody Allen.
"Undoubtedly and hands down the greatest single sketch comedian and monologist that television has ever known," his friend and collaborator Carl Reiner told NBC News. "He set the template for all comedians that came after him. I was no more than a foot a way to watch his performance — more honest performances I have never seen from any other comic actor."
Sid Caesar used his TV shows to display his skills.
"He was one of the truly great comedians of my time and one of the finest privileges I've had in my entire career was that I was able to work for him," Allen said in a statement.
While his career spanned six decades, Caesar will be best remembered for his work with comedienne Imogene Coca on "Your Show of Shows," which aired on NBC from Feb. 1950 to June 1954, and "Caesar's Hour," which followed it on NBC and ran until 1957. Your Show of Shows" aired every Saturday night for 39 weeks a year and is considered the prototype for ever U.S. TV sketch comedy series that followed, including NBC's "Saturday Night Live."
"The one great star that television created and who created television was Sid Caesar," said critic Joel Siegel on the TV documentary "Hail Sid Caesar! The Golden Age Of Comedy," which first aired in 2001.
Coca and Caesar performed skits that satirized the everyday — marital spats, inane advertising, strangers meeting and speaking in clichés, a parody of the Western "Shane" in which the hero was "Strange."
"The chemistry was perfect, that's all," Coca, who died in 2001, once said. "We never went out together; we never see each other socially. But for years we worked together from 10 in the morning to 6 or 7 at night every day of the week. What made it work is that we found the same things funny."
On Wednesday, other members of the comedy community and celebrities turned to Twitter to express their condolences.
With his remarkable skills in pantomime, satire, mimicry, dialect and sketch comedy, Caesar inspired a generation of famous writers, including Neil Simon and Woody Allen.
"Undoubtedly and hands down the greatest single sketch comedian and monologist that television has ever known," his friend and collaborator Carl Reiner told NBC News. "He set the template for all comedians that came after him. I was no more than a foot a way to watch his performance — more honest performances I have never seen from any other comic actor."
Sid Caesar used his TV shows to display his skills.
"He was one of the truly great comedians of my time and one of the finest privileges I've had in my entire career was that I was able to work for him," Allen said in a statement.
While his career spanned six decades, Caesar will be best remembered for his work with comedienne Imogene Coca on "Your Show of Shows," which aired on NBC from Feb. 1950 to June 1954, and "Caesar's Hour," which followed it on NBC and ran until 1957. Your Show of Shows" aired every Saturday night for 39 weeks a year and is considered the prototype for ever U.S. TV sketch comedy series that followed, including NBC's "Saturday Night Live."
"The one great star that television created and who created television was Sid Caesar," said critic Joel Siegel on the TV documentary "Hail Sid Caesar! The Golden Age Of Comedy," which first aired in 2001.
Coca and Caesar performed skits that satirized the everyday — marital spats, inane advertising, strangers meeting and speaking in clichés, a parody of the Western "Shane" in which the hero was "Strange."
"The chemistry was perfect, that's all," Coca, who died in 2001, once said. "We never went out together; we never see each other socially. But for years we worked together from 10 in the morning to 6 or 7 at night every day of the week. What made it work is that we found the same things funny."
On Wednesday, other members of the comedy community and celebrities turned to Twitter to express their condolences.