Rating: 
Summary: Where's Imogene Coca?
Review: Caesar was and still is a genius at comedy. But neither he nor his partners in the "Show of Shows" has to tell us that. This set is a true public service. Anyone who has seen 'The Show of Shows" will get a kick out of this selection. But there's one thing missing: some of the side-spliting skits in which Imogene Coca appeared. I remember one in which Sid and she were "Cave-men" which should have been included. My only reservation of this collection is just that: not enough Imogene and too much self-praise in the interviews collected for this issue.
Rating: 
Summary: The Perfect Gift
Review: I don't know much about "Your of Shows", but I bought a set for my grandmother's birthday, and she hasn't stopped talking about it. This is the first time I've EVER bought a gift for one of my Grandparents that they ACTUALLY LIKED. Thanks for the brownie points, Sid!
Rating:
Summary: Sid Caesar, the first and the best.
Review: I wasn't much of a Sid Caesar fan until I saw parts of "The Sid Caesar Collection" as a fund-raiser for PBS. I had never watched his shows in my childhood, but after seeing several sketches this time around, I absolutely had to have the whole set!
A few months later I bought the second boxed set, called "The Fan Favorites." I play a tape every day -- a great mood lifter.
It is said that Sid Caesar owns probably 400 sketches from "The Admiral Broadway Revue," "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour" in kinescope (thank heaven they were preserved!) and I hope someday they will all become available. (Admiral, by the way, was an early TV manufacturer, and the story is that their "Broadway Revue" was so successful they had to cancel it in order to save their financial resources for supplying the huge new demand for TV sets.)
The Caesar sketches are the first of their kind and have many descendents but no equals. For example, check out "The Five-Dollar Date" (dated January 1949, when he was 26), a solo masterpiece from this first collection. What comedian does such virtuoso work today?
Rating:
Summary: Sid Caesar, the first and the best.
Review: I wasn't much of a Sid Caesar fan until I saw parts of "The Sid Caesar Collection" as a fund-raiser for PBS. I had never watched his shows in my childhood, but after seeing several sketches this time around, I absolutely had to have the whole set!
A few months later I bought the second boxed set, called "The Fan Favorites." I play a tape every day -- a great mood lifter.
It is said that Sid Caesar owns probably 400 sketches from "The Admiral Broadway Revue," "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour" in kinescope (thank heaven they were preserved!) and I hope someday they will all become available. (Admiral, by the way, was an early TV manufacturer, and the story is that their "Broadway Revue" was so successful they had to cancel it in order to save their financial resources for supplying the huge new demand for TV sets.)
The Caesar sketches are the first of their kind and have many descendents but no equals. For example, check out "The Five-Dollar Date" (dated January 1949, when he was 26), a solo masterpiece from this first collection. What comedian does such virtuoso work today?
Rating:
Summary: Sid Caesar, the first and the best.
Review: I wasn't much of a Sid Caesar fan until I saw parts of "The Sid Caesar Collection" as a fund-raiser for PBS. I had never watched his shows in my childhood, but after seeing several sketches this time around, I absolutely had to have the whole set!
A few months later I bought the second boxed set, called "The Fan Favorites." I play a tape every day -- a great mood lifter.
It is said that Sid Caesar owns probably 400 sketches from "The Admiral Broadway Revue," "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour" in kinescope (thank heaven they were preserved!) and I hope someday they will all become available. (Admiral, by the way, was an early TV manufacturer, and the story is that their "Broadway Revue" was so successful they had to cancel it in order to save their financial resources for supplying the huge new demand for TV sets.)
The Caesar sketches are the first of their kind and have many descendents but no equals. For example, check out "The Five-Dollar Date" (dated January 1949, when he was 26), a solo masterpiece from this first collection. What comedian does such virtuoso work today?
Rating:
Summary: Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, the King and Queen of Comedy
Review: Sid Caesar was the most talented comic performer of the live television era with his classic programs "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour." Caesar also had the greatest ensemble cast of all time headed by the late Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, and others. Add to that a writing staff that included, at various times, Reiner, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Neil Simon and Larry Gelbart and how could it not be the best Comedy Variety show of all-time? The three volumes in this DVD collection include some of the best comedy sketches from both shows, digitally remastered from the original kinescopes. Caesar picked the sketches personally and interviews with the cast members and writers are used as introductions. Sketches included on this first volume, "The Magic of Live TV," includes "The Commuters in '7 Dwarfs Bet,'" "The Professor in 'Board Rooms of hollywood,'" "The Five Dollar Date," "Sid Plays Sax with Benny Goodman," "The Clock," "A Fella Needs a Girl," "The Haircuts--'So Rare' and 'Flippin','" and my favorite, "This Is Your Story." The second volume, "Inside the Writer's Room" has the Hickenloopers in "The Sleep Sketch," "Boy at First Dance," "The German General," and "Aggravation Boulevard." The final volume, "Creating the Comedy" includes the immortal sketch "From Here to Obscurity," as well as "The Cobbler's Daughter" and "Argument to Beethoven's 5th," along with the "Commuters" in "The Fur Coat" and Progress Hornsby in "People to People." Milton Berle was Mr. Television, but Sid Caesar was Mr. Comedy. I have waited decades for these treasures to be available, my appetite whetted by seeing that infamous "From Here to Obscurity" clip of Sid and Imogene getting hit by all that water. Thank goodness these priceless shows have been preserved. They deserve to be as well known as episodes of "I Love Lucy" and "The Honeymooners." Besides, just look at all the bonus stuff that comes when you get all three DVDs instead of picking them up separately. The Sid Caesar Collection establishes a standard for how classic television should be preserved on DVD. Hopefully we can expect similar collections for Berle, Bob Hope, Ernie Kovacs, Nat King Cole. Arthur Godfrey and similar giants from the first era of network television programming.
Rating:
Summary: Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, the King and Queen of Comedy
Review: Sid Caesar was the most talented comic performer of the live television era with his classic programs "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour." Caesar also had the greatest ensemble cast of all time headed by the late Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, and others. Add to that a writing staff that included, at various times, Reiner, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Neil Simon and Larry Gelbart and how could it not be the best Comedy Variety show of all-time? The three volumes in this DVD collection include some of the best comedy sketches from both shows, digitally remastered from the original kinescopes. Caesar picked the sketches personally and interviews with the cast members and writers are used as introductions. Sketches included on this first volume, "The Magic of Live TV," includes "The Commuters in '7 Dwarfs Bet,'" "The Professor in 'Board Rooms of hollywood,'" "The Five Dollar Date," "Sid Plays Sax with Benny Goodman," "The Clock," "A Fella Needs a Girl," "The Haircuts--'So Rare' and 'Flippin','" and my favorite, "This Is Your Story." The second volume, "Inside the Writer's Room" has the Hickenloopers in "The Sleep Sketch," "Boy at First Dance," "The German General," and "Aggravation Boulevard." The final volume, "Creating the Comedy" includes the immortal sketch "From Here to Obscurity," as well as "The Cobbler's Daughter" and "Argument to Beethoven's 5th," along with the "Commuters" in "The Fur Coat" and Progress Hornsby in "People to People." Milton Berle was Mr. Television, but Sid Caesar was Mr. Comedy. I have waited decades for these treasures to be available, my appetite whetted by seeing that infamous "From Here to Obscurity" clip of Sid and Imogene getting hit by all that water. Thank goodness these priceless shows have been preserved. They deserve to be as well known as episodes of "I Love Lucy" and "The Honeymooners." Besides, just look at all the bonus stuff that comes when you get all three DVDs instead of picking them up separately. The Sid Caesar Collection establishes a standard for how classic television should be preserved on DVD. Hopefully we can expect similar collections for Berle, Bob Hope, Ernie Kovacs, Nat King Cole. Arthur Godfrey and similar giants from the first era of network television programming.
Rating:
Summary: FUNNY!!
Review: The comedy is timeless! The new interviews with Caesar, Woody Allan, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks etc. put the tapes in perfect context. My favorite sketch was the parody of "this Is your Life" when Harry Morris literally swung from Caesars body for half the sketch. I also loved the Three singing Haircuts! Gimme more tapes. Gimme Gimme Gimme. (And by the way, I'm not of that generation, I'm 27 years old.)
Rating:
Summary: Comic Genius!
Review: TV's Golden Age of comedy is lovingly preserved on these digitally remastered videos, and they're as hilarious today as they were in the '50s. What a welcome change from what passes as "comedy" today...no edginess, vulgarity or racy innuendo...just laugh out loud funny stuff delivered with superb timing. The "foreign language" skits are masterpieces of doubletalk, and Caesar's solo "Five Dollar Date" is a marvel of rapid-fire patter to rival anything that Danny Kaye ever did. This collector's set is a keeper!
Rating:
Summary: Comic Genius!
Review: TV's Golden Age of comedy is lovingly preserved on these digitally remastered videos, and they're as hilarious today as they were in the '50s. What a welcome change from what passes as "comedy" today...no edginess, vulgarity or racy innuendo...just laugh out loud funny stuff delivered with superb timing. The "foreign language" skits are masterpieces of doubletalk, and Caesar's solo "Five Dollar Date" is a marvel of rapid-fire patter to rival anything that Danny Kaye ever did. This collector's set is a keeper!
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