he practically invented television comedy and his writers became giants themselves starting with melbrooks, neil simon and carl riner, who tonight called his old partner, sid caesar, the great est single sketch comedian that television has ever known. >> reporter: it is safe to say there would be no saturday night live, no carol burnett show, and way fewer people taking chances if there had never been a sid caesar. it was called "your show of shows." no one had seen anything like it. television was brand-new, sid caesar understood it early on, his co-host, imogene coca, was fresh on the scene and fresh towards the host. it was 90 minutes of live and often improv tv, good enough to make people stay home on saturday nights. >> i think sid caesar's legacy will be changing what comedy means on television, from more of a vaudeville radio style medium to the tv comedy that we know today. >> reporter: sid's parents were from poland and russia, and given the last name of caesar, at ellis island. they ran a restaurant in new york, and that is where sid learned to mimic and speak in cadences of immi