ULTRA RARE: May 1949, Sid Caesar’s First Series

‘The Admiral Broadway Review’

Caesar began his television career when he made an appearance on Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater. In early 1949, Sid and producer Max Liebman met with Pat Weaver, president of television at NBC (and father of Sigourney Weaver), which led to Caesar’s appearance in his first series, ‘The Admiral Broadway Revue’ which also included Imogene Coca.

Above is a photo of Sid on stage at NBC’s first television converted theater, The International at 5 Columbus Circle. When NBC first began to use the theater with the “Admiral Broadway Revue” show, it was a three camera show done with a mobile unit feeding the show back to 30 Rock on an AT&T line. By the time YSOS debuted, NBC had installed a control room and four permanent RCA TK30 camera chains.

The Friday night show was simultaneously broadcast on NBC and the DuMont network. Odd, but it was done so the show to be carried on the only TV station then operating in Pittsburgh, DuMont’s WDTV. The show was an immediate success, however, its sponsor, Admiral, an appliance company, could not keep up with the demand for its new television sets, so the show was cancelled after 26 weeks. According to Caesar, an Admiral executive later told him the company had the choice of building a new factory or continuing their sponsorship of Revue for another season.

On February 23, 1950, Caesar appeared in the first episode of ‘Your Show of Shows‘, a Saturday night 90-minute variety program also produced by Max Liebman.

Source