# Sid Caesar has died **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 12, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184 "2014-02-12T20:23:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/1 "2014-02-12T20:23:16Z")
Comedy pioneer Sid Caeser has died at 91. > **[Sid Caesar, Master of TV Comedy, Dies at 91](https://variety.com/2014/tv/news/sid-caesar-master-of-tv-comedy-dies-at-91-1201100019/)** > > Sid Caesar, one of the first stars created by television via his weekly live comedy program “Your Show of Shows,” died Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills after a brief illness. He was 91. A two… ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/2 "2014-02-12T20:39:16Z")
RIP. [One](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNbT9Lf9xZo) of many great **Your Show of Shows** skits. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/3 "2014-02-12T20:41:32Z")
Another great one passes. RIP, Sid. You paved the way for so many. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/4 "2014-02-12T20:59:30Z")
he made a great salad. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/5 "2014-02-12T21:00:29Z")
Where’s the crying smiley? ---
**Author:** ![Eugene\_of\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@Eugene\_of\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eugene_of_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/6 "2014-02-12T21:03:05Z")
Sad news. A long life. A true pioneer. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/7 "2014-02-12T21:06:43Z")
Wow sad news. Especially since I thought he died about 20 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/8 "2014-02-12T21:37:36Z")
I loved him in Grease. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/9 "2014-02-13T00:06:33Z")
My very sad thought about this was that now Mickey Rooney is the only living person left of the people in the original four cars in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. RIP. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/10 "2014-02-13T00:26:57Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > he made a great salad. His pizza’s really dropped off in quality the last decade or so, though. ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/11 "2014-02-13T00:42:35Z")
Sid Ceasar JUST died?? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/12 "2014-02-13T00:44:58Z")
Sid Caesar [quotes] ([Sid Caesar Quotes - BrainyQuote](http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/sid_caesar.html)). ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/13 "2014-02-13T01:10:19Z")
He did a live, hour and a half show for 39 weeks/year for four years. Tell that to any modern tv actor. Couldn’t happen. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/14 "2014-02-13T01:20:41Z")
One of my favorite anecdotes told by Sid in an interview– > [@](#): > > CAESAR: Oh, sure. I mean, it’s altogether different. You see, live was a different animal. When you’re live, you’re in charge, because there’s nobody going to go clip, clip, clip, clip. So, you’re in charge, and that gives you a chance to get a rapport with the audience. You know what I mean? Because you don’t have to stop every three or four minutes to take a different shot and take a different shot. This was done live. > > I’ll give you a little example. I once gave a lecture in Columbia University about television, and everybody in the audience was a producer or a director or this or that, or an actor. And I talked for an hour about, you know, 90 – or an hour and a half show live. And I said – I answered question and answer. And the first guy that stood up said, Mr. Caesar, we understand the show was done live, and it was an hour and a half long. But could you tell me, how long did it take to shoot the hour and a half? > > PHILLIPS: Oh, gee. And you said? > > CAESAR: Ninety minutes. Because they had no idea of what live was. He said, supposing it didn’t get a laugh. I said, then we go a little slower. That’s all. And then you want to do this, you want to do that. Everything can be done, because you’re in charge. And you don’t have to stop every four minutes, or five minutes, however long the shot takes. > > But it was – and we had no cue cards, no teleprompter. The teleprompter wasn’t invented. But we had no cue cards, because the cue cards take away the eye, you know, if I’m saying. I want to tell you want I want. You’re right there. And you tell me what I’m going to say to you, because I’ve got this and I’m reading the cards. > > You know, even in a sketch, you have to be a good actor. An actor is a man, a good actor is a man who watches and listens. You watch the other person and you watch their eyes, because that’s what’s telling you everything. You watch the eyes. And then you listen to the person, not just be a cue. You listen for the information and how they modulate their voice. And then you can go right in and modulate back. And because that’s what gives you the push-off. You know, comedy is not the joke, it’s the reaction. “How long did it take to shoot the hour and a half?” “Oh, about ninety minutes.” Genius. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/15 "2014-02-13T01:53:49Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > My very sad thought about this was that now Mickey Rooney is the only living person left of the people in the original four cars in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. > > RIP. I know. It wasn’t that long ago that a bunch of them were alive. Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters, Buddy Hackett. Now all of them are gone and we lost Sid Caesar. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/16 "2014-02-13T07:44:15Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > he made a great salad. Funny, though, the way he was born. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2014, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/17 "2014-02-13T08:23:12Z")
Sid Caesar was a musician as well as an actor and comedian. He played clarinet and saxophone for a number of important bandleaders, including Claude Thornhill, Charlie Spivak and Benny Goodman. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/18 "2014-02-14T00:24:53Z")
RIP, Sid. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/19 "2014-02-14T01:52:42Z")
Somebody on a talk show once told of sharing a cab with CS, after which they had an argument with the driver after they’d gotten out. CS interrupted to as him “do you remember being born?” then reached in through the wing vent window and grabbed the driver by the little leather bow tie they wore, and pulled with all his fury. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@Hermione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2014, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184/20 "2014-02-14T04:21:05Z")
Jeez, is somebody up there mad at the entertainment world these past couple weeks?! Rob Reiner (whose dad Carl worked with Sid on YSOS) tells of how, as a kid, he’d come home and find the likes of Sid, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and Woody Allen as his dad’s afternoon guests. Then he’d visit friends’ houses and wonder why they weren’t as _funny_ as his. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sid-caesar-has-died/681184.md?page=2)