THE JACKIE TALENTED STORY

THE JACKIE TALENTED STORY
MAD #55, June 1960
w: Sid Caesar
a: Wallace Wood

I don't think this was actually written by Sid Caesar. He's credited, but he never actually wrote his own material on his own shows, so it's doubtful he would write something especially for MAD. I doubt it was someone like Mel Brooks or Woody Allen or Neil Simon either. More than likely, it was Gary Belkin, who wrote for MAD and Caesar's Hour at the same time. In the first few years as a magazine, they used material from famous comedians, and if it wasn't reprints of routines those people had done before, the original material was often by their writers.

It should be noted one person was the star of an hour and a half comedy show 39 weeks out of the year (though it was reduced to an hour when it became Caesar's Hour) as opposed to a sketch comedy show now like Saturday Night Live with an ensemble cast of 15, most of whom aren't on every week, 22 weeks out of the year, and 15 minutes more of commercials.