About
Mel Brooks wrote for Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows from 1950-1954, where he contributed sketches for the variety program. This was the begining of Mel's 'serious' comedy career. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the show:
Your Show of Shows was a live 90-minute sketch comedy television series appearing weekly in the United States on NBC, from 1950 until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Other featured performers were Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Nanette Fabray, Bill Hayes, Judy Johnson, The Hamilton Trio and the soprano Marguerite Piazza. José Ferrer made several guest appearances on the show.
Writers for the show included Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Danny Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, and Carl Reiner who, though a cast member, always sat in with the writers. A common misconception is that Woody Allen wrote* for Your Show of Shows; he in fact wrote for its successor program, Caesar's Hour, which ran from 1954 to 1957.
Carl Reiner has stated that the time he spent on Your Show of Shows was the inspiration for The Dick Van Dyke Show; Your Show of Shows also inspired the 1982 film My Favorite Year, produced by Mel Brooks, and the play Laughter on the 23rd Floor written by Neil Simon.
Most of the kinescopes of the show were discarded by NBC, and so few copies of the show survive. A 1973 theatrical film titled Ten from Your Show of Shows featured ten sketches from the show edited together. Reruns of surviving kinescopes aired on Comedy Central in the early 1990s. Sketches from the show which are from Sid Caesar's personal collection are available on The Sid Caesar Collection DVD set.
* It is also a misconception that he wrote the that show, he was the typist.
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