Your Show of Shows

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Your Show of Shows was a live 90-minute sketch comedy television series appearing weekly in the United States, from 1950 until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Other featured performers were Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Bill Hayes, Judy Johnson, The Hamilton Trio and Marguerite Piazzal.

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 1954-1957.

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.

Albert Einstein was a self-proclaimed fan of the show, even calling up the writers one day to chat.