"Laughter is the release of pain. It'll take your mind off of it. It's like a pain pill, only better. Cause you forget about the pain and you start to laugh."

--Sid Caesar

Sid Caesar was one of American television's first real superstars, a sensational comedian who delighted sixty million viewers in the nineteen-fifties with his live weekly programs "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour." And he assembled a stable of zany writers and performers including future stars Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner and Larry Gelbart. A master of slapstick, funny faces, doubletalk and pseudo-languages, Sid Caesar was inventing modern comedy. Those hilarious and heady days on primetime network television eventually faded, leaving the brilliant Sid Ceasar trapped in a crisis of self-doubt, depression and addiction to pills and alcohol. He fought his way back to sobriety and emotional health, as described in his moving memoir, "Where Have I Been?" Since then, Caesar has battled a series of physical ailments: a fractured hip, a prostate condition and an inoperable hernia. Even when the chips are down he has always returned to the wellspring of humor -- for energy and hope.