Tune Tuesday

Today’s Tune Tuesday feature some silliness.

It was on this day in 1950 that the face of television changed forever and a blueprint for shows like Saturday Night Live was born. The first broadcast of Your Show of Shows happened 75 years ago.

The show starred Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. It featured Carl Reiner and the talented Howard Morris. It was a 90 minute show that was broadcast live every week. The show’s writers included Mel Brooks, Selma Diamond, Neil Simon, and Mel Tolkin (just to name a few).

The show has been featured in several lists of the greatest television series. Carl Reiner has stated that the time he spent on Your Show of Shows was the inspiration for The Dick Van Dyke Show. Most of the series has been preserved to some extent, but only some sketches have been released on home video.

The show featured several regular musical sketches. In 1955, Rock and Roll was hitting the radio. One of the musical sketches was the mock rock group The Three Haircuts (Caesar, Reiner, and Morris). They were a vocal trio who always sang in unison and usually bellowed the lyrics. After this bit aired on TV, RCA rushed the guys into the studio to record a studio version of You Are So Rare To Me and released it.

This clip is the first time You Are So Rare to Me aired. They follow it with an even crazier song called Flippin’ Over You. Sit back and enjoy the lunacy that was Your Show of Shows with The Three Haircuts.