Could someone verify why we lost the brilliance of Cid Caesar for many years, after his live television series was canceled? I am interested in any facts known as to a regretful, violent action that may have occured with one of his writers.
share I'm not aware of a violent incident that caused the show to be cancelled. Sid Caesar himself had a reputation for having a temper. Supposedly, he punched a horse (inspiring a scene 20 years later in the movie 'Blazing Saddles'), and he once dangled Mel Brooks out of a window. But I don't think those were factors in the show being cancelled.
When you ask about the show being cancelled, I'm not sure if you're referring to the end of 'Your Show of Shows' in 1954, or the end of 'Caesar's Hour' in 1957. So let's talk about both.
There's a myth that the show was always enormously popular. It was very popular in the early '50s, but its ratings actually declined the longer it was on the air. By 1954, 'Your Show of Shows' was out of the Top 30. (My theory is that it began to drop in the ratings as TV spread throughout the South and the Midwest. I suspect viewers in the heartland just couldn't relate to an urban-themed, burlesque-type variety show.)
But I don't think NBC cancelled it. Someone -- either NBC or Caesar himself -- felt that separate shows with Caesar and Coca could BOTH be successful. So, in the fall of 1954, both got their own shows. Coca's was a failure and lasted one season. 'Caesar's Hour' ran three years, but it never finished in the top 30.
I don't think there was ever an "incident" that prompted NBC to cancel any of Caesar's shows. I think NBC finally cancelled Caesar because of ratings. He was critically acclaimed and won a slew of awards, but his popularity with the general public has always been overstated. I'm a fan myself, but the numbers tell the story.
I have read that Sid Caesar was popular in the early days of TV when broadcasts only reached NY, LA and a few other cities, but his appeal declined when TV broadcasts reached into "flyover" country. I can believe it. I was born and raised in NYC but moved to the sticks some years ago. No foreign movie, no matter how big a hit it is, has ever made it into a theater here. What did takeoffs of Italian neo-realistic movies, French movies, Japanese movies, operas mean to someone who had never seen the originals? I also wonder if Jewish shtik, taken for granted in big cities, was offputting to middle America. Even Mr. Television, Milton Berle, disappeared as the result of declining ratings by the mid 50s. To this day, there are no Jews in Lake Woebegon. And I suspect audience reaction polls were less favorable to Imogene Coca because she was not a glamor girl. When Nanette Fabray took over, there were frequent references in the scripts to how beautiful she was, which makes me think her beauty was an important factor to the producers of the show. And last but not least, maybe the writers just ran out of steam. Caesar's Hour did occasionally offer retreads of Show of Shows sketches. I quote from Steve Allen's 1956 book "The Funny Men":
"We are in the habit of speaking in hushed, respectful tones of the comedians of yesterday and referrring rudely to those of the present, but it is my contention that we are often unfair and illogical in doing so. There were giants in other times, but often their reputations were based on two or three vaudeville sketches and five or six movies. Television's insatiable appetite for new material means that Sid Caesar in one season will burn up more humor fodder than ten vaudeville comedians would during their entire lifetimes. Every week Caesar is obliged to come up with a new act. Bert Lahr, one of the greatest revue comics, once soberly considered Sid's obligation and flatly announced, 'It's impossible'. Bob Hope, discussing the problem, said, 'How Sid has done what he's done every week I'll never know'."
All good things must come to an end.
The Nielsen Ratings for 1950 onwards are an interesing story. You see things like Sid Caesar and Jack Benny at times struggle with the top 15 or top 25 as new shows come up, or see how the Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits couldnt crack the top 25. Some of the better shows took 1-2 years to gather steam and get a fan base, others were instant hits, and that's probably true today still.
For 1950 Your Show of Shows got 4th in the ratings:
1 Texaco Star Theatre
2 Fireside Theatre
3 Philco TV Playhouse
4 Your Show of Shows
5 The Colgate Comedy Hour
6 Gillette Cavalcade of Sports
7 The Lone Ranger
8 Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
9 Hopalong Cassidy
10 Mama
11 Robert Montgomery Presents
12 Martin Kane Private Eye
13 Man Against Crime
14 Kraft Television Theatre
15 The Toast of the Town
In 1951 you see a bit of a slip, more television shows being made would push the ratings down as well, as well as new ones being more popular.
1 Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
2 Texaco Star Theatre
3 I Love Lucy
4 The Red Skelton Show
5 The Colgate Comedy Hour
6 Arthur Godfrey and His Friends
7 Fireside Theatre
8 Your Show of Shows
9 The Jack Benny Show
10 You Bet Your Life
11 Mama
12 Philco TV Playhouse
13 Amos n Andy
14 Gangbusters
15 Big Town
In 1952 onwards, the show is off the radar
1 I Love Lucy
2 Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
3 Arthur Godfrey and His Friends
4 Dragnet
5 Texaco Star Theatre
6 The Buick Circus Hour
7 The Colgate Comedy Hour
8 Gangbusters
9 You Bet Your Life
10 Fireside Theatre
11 The Red Buttons Show
12 The Jack Benny Show
13 Life with Luigi
14 Pabst Blue Ribbon Bouts
15 Goodyear TV Playhouse
The other thing to realize is when you only had 3-4 networks competition is brutal. Your Show of Shows from Feb 1950 to June 1954 ran NBC Sat night 9:00pm -10:30pm
What you had to compete in 1950 Sat night 9pm was
ABC Roller Derby
CBS Frank Sinatra Show + Sing It Again
Dumont Madison Square Garden - various sports usually Basketball
NBC Your Show of Shows
What you had to compete in 1951 Sat night 9pm was
ABC Lesson In Safety +America's Health
CBS Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town + Show Goes On
Dumont Pro Wrestling From Chicago
NBC Your Show of Shows
What you had to compete in 1952 Sat night 9pm was
ABC Feature Playhouse
CBS Jane Froman's USA Canteen + Meet Millie
Dumont Pro Wrestling From Chicago
NBC Your Show of Shows
What you had to compete in 1953 Sat night 9pm was
ABC Saturday Night Fights + Fight Talk + Madison Square Garden Highlights
CBS Two For the Money + My Favorite Husband + Medallion Theatre
Dumont Pro Football [7pm-11pm]
NBC Your Show of Shows
In 1954 The Imogene Coca Show took that timeslot and Sid's show went to 8pm Monday's with a deathslot against the Burns and Allen show...
I'm not certain but i think both thought they could do shows on their own, Sid got more control with the new show than the old show, and despite popular opinion his work was pretty solid 1950 right to 1957 when Caesar's Hour ended in 1957. Most just think his first show was 'just' that much better, and anything else would be hard to beat. Others think the new show was way more imaginative than anything else on. Coca's show was tinkered with and lost its audience going from sitcom to a comedy-variety show.
It's hard to compete against Football, Burns and Allen, and the Nielsen Ratings. Lucy ruled the nielsens from 1951 to 1957 and then 57 to 61 were the westerns. In 1958 alone the top shows were
1 Gunsmoke
2 Wagon Train
3 Have Gun Will Travel
4 The Rifleman
5 The Danny Thomas Show
6 Maverick
7 Tales of Wells Fargo
8 The Real McCoys
9 Ive Got a Secret
10 The Life and Legend of Wyatt Ear[
11 The Price Is Right
12 The Red Skelton Show
13 Zane Grey Theatre
14 Father Knows Best
15 The Texan
16 Wanted Dead or Alive
17 Peter Gunn
18 Cheyenne
19 Perry Mason
20 The Ford Show
21 Sugarfoot
22 The Ann Sotherns Show
23 The Perry Como Show
24 Alfred Hitchcock Presents
25 Name That Tune
Sometimes wanting to try something new and when a duo wants to try out two independent careers it doesnt work out. in that 1958 Nielsen's list, you dont see the Naked City show up, and Peter Gunn isnt as high as you'd expect. 77 Sunset Strip took off in the second year and struggled thereafter, and the season before you only had 4 months of the show - Sid Caesar Invites You. Only to have Sid do a slightly different version of the show for the BBC later in the year. So Sid did pretty good for 1950-1957, with two minor shows for 1958 one here and one in the UK. Hopefully all existing shows will make it to DVD. Full seasons if possible, no best ofs...
Didn't Ms. Coca also tire of the grind of doing a live, 90-minute variety show three times a month? If I recall, she did more than comedy, she also danced and sang, so I figure that played into the demise of YSOS. Also, didn't Max Liebman get his own series of specials to produce?
shareThey were both canceled for ratings.
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