Sid Caesar - "Gallipacci" with Nanette Fabray, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris

[From "Kovacs Corner" on YouTube.com] - First telecast on "Caesar's Hour" on October 10, 1955 over NBC, this kinescoped sketch is a take-off on the Italian opera "Pagliacci" by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Sid plays the role of "Gallipacci" ("Canio" in the real opera) an actor in a traveling Italian comedia dell'arte troupe during the late 19th century. His wife "Rosa" ("Nedda" in tha actual opera), who is played by singer and comedienne Nanette Fabray, falls in love with fellow actor "Emilio" (the opera's "Silvio" character), performed by Carl Reiner, and they make plans to elope. Sid sings a rendition of songs in a jibberish Italian dialect which he picked up in his youth from waiting tables at his father's 24-hour blue-collar diner in Yonkers, New York. Straying off of the real opera's musical score just a bit, we hear hilariously bastardized renditions of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", Cole Porter's "Begin The Beguine", and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" among others. Howie Morris (Ernest T. Bass from "The Andy Griffith Show") is "Vesuvio" (whose real opera character is "Tonio") and he performs a parody song and dance rountine to the tune "Fine and Dandy". In one of the most famous "saves" in the history of live television, Sid was supposed to paint a teardrop on his cheek when the mascara pencil broke at the beginning of his nonsense rendition of "Just One of Those Things". Not breaking his stride, Sid proceeds to pick up one of Nanette's lip brushes and paints an unscripted tic-tac-toe board on his face. The grand finale concluded with a variation of the song "The Yellow Rose of Texas" after Gallipacci takes care of the situation along the lines of a Mafia hit. Also, in the early days of live television, one time "specials" which pre-empted regular series programs were initially called "spectaculars". Listen for a young Don Pardo introducing the sketch.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Sid
• Caesar
• Nanette
• Fabray
• Carl
• Reiner
• Howard
• Morris
• Gallipacci
• Classic
• TV
• NBC
• kinescope
• Pagliacci
• Ruggero
• Leoncavallo
• Italian
• opera
• Pagliaccio
• Canio
• Tonio
• Taddeo
• Nedda
• Beppe
• Colombina
• Arlecchino
• Silvio
• Enrico
• Caruso
• clown
• commedia
• dell'arte
• Mel
• Brooks
• Tolkin
• Larry
• Gelbart

[orqsilva]

Great parody. Of course in those days, apparently people knew something about opera and the story of "Pagliacci." This would definitely not fly today.

[rolko52]

@orqsilva - Agreed. Today the topic would have to be surrounding the program "Glee".

[jaskatube16]

Non rovinate queste opere sacre...levatela da Yuo tube

[rolko52]

@jaskatube16 - "Non rovinate queste opere sacre...levatela da Yuo tube (Do not ruin this sacred works ... Take it away from yuo tube)

You are about 55 years too late. You need to develop a sense of humor. (Sei di circa 55 anni troppo tardi. È necessario sviluppare un senso di umorismo.)

[ishouldntbeyoutubing]

And Gallipacci sings a patter song that sounds a lot like Holiday for Strings.

[rolko52]

@ishouldntbeyoutubing - Thanks for identifying that song! That 's a tune that I can recall hearing on television since childhood, but I never knew it's title.

[AbuseDaForce]

I basially died laughing at those high notes at 5:55

[mvies77]

Real comedy, much missed. How wonderful they all were and the original Imogene Coca. Truly a series of masterpieces of comedy.

[Jaybird196]

LOL, I watched this once as kid. Ahhh, still takes me back :) .

[ATsarIsBorn]

Back in the great days when Broadway divas had operatic training and could put this sort of thing over!



[GuinnevereB]

What a brilliant sketch! It's as funny today as I remember it from years ago. Maybe funnier.

There's another parody that I've only seen once, long ago, and would love to see again: Sid Caesar and Carol Lawrence spoofing an old fashioned musical, in which she played straight, singing Shadow Waltz, while he played a silent, accident-prone "hero" who inadvertently demolished the set around her as he tried earnestly to support her performance. He was even funnier without words, sometimes!