Sid Caesar, comic genius of 1950s television, dies
Source: Washington Post
LOS ANGELES — Sid Caesar, the prodigiously talented pioneer of TV comedy who paired with Imogene Coca in sketches that became classics and who inspired a generation of famous writers, died early Wednesday. He was 91.
Caesar died at his home in the Los Angeles area after a brief illness, family spokesman Eddy Friedfeld said.
In his two most important shows, “Your Show of Shows,” 1950-54, and “Caesar’s Hour,” 1954-57, Caesar displayed remarkable skill in pantomime, satire, mimicry, dialect and sketch comedy. And he gathered a stable of young writers who went on to worldwide fame in their own right — including Neil Simon and Woody Allen.
“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. . .
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/sid-caesar-comic-genius-of-1950s-television-dies/2014/02/12/8894f8dc-9425-11e3-9e13-770265cf4962_story.html?hpid=z4
One of the early TV greats. Shirley Temple yesterday, Sid Caesar today.
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prompted the rather-loosely-based-on-fact plot of My Favorite Year 
Mel Brooks, executive producer of the film, was a writer for the Sid Caesar variety program Your Show of Shows, early in his career. Movie swashbuckler Errol Flynn was a guest on one episode, and this real-life occurrence inspired Dennis Palumbo's largely fictional screenplay. Swann was obviously based on Flynn, while Benjy Stone is loosely based on both Brooks and Woody Allen, who also wrote for Caesar.
According to Brooks, the character of Rookie Carroca also was based on a real person, a Filipino sailor in the U. S. Navy who was his neighbor in Brooklyn. Much like Alan Brady on The Dick Van Dyke Show, King Kaiser represented Sid Caesar ("Kaiser" is the German equivalent of the Roman title Caesar). Selma Diamond, another former Your Show of Shows writer (who inspired Rose Marie's 'Sally Rogers' character on The Dick Van Dyke Show), appears as a costume mistress.
Other writers from Your Show of Shows had also made their own use of their experiences. The comic play, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, by Neil Simon included thinly disguised versions of Sid Caesar and his staff, as did The Dick Van Dyke Show, which was created by Brooks' friend and colleague, Carl Reiner (who would later star in Van Dyke's show as Alan Brady).
Brooks acknowledges that most of the movie's plot was fabricated. He says that Flynn's appearance on Your Show of Shows was uneventful, that none of the writers got much of a chance to talk to Flynn, let alone become his friend or take him home to dinner.
RIP Mr. Caesar
outta sight outta mind. shirley and him. time she be a passin. I hope there is peace in our final rest. RIP.
Sid was a great talent I remember watching him in the mid 50s
Thanks 
It's a bad week for the last few remaining great entertainers.
Thank you for all the fun times. My condolences to his family.
Rest in peace, Sid.
