The program starred, among others, Sid Caesar, Nanette Fabray, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Janet Blair, and Milt Kamen, and featured a number of cameo roles by famous entertainers such as Joan Crawford and Peggy Lee.

Caesar's Hour expanded on the format of Your Show of Shows with many sketches running a half-hour or more, including musical parodies such as "There's No Business" and "Towers Trot", and genre parodies such as "Bullets over Broadway" (a gangster film takeoff) and "Aggravation Boulevard" (with Caesar as a Rudolph Valentino/John Gilbert character who fails to make the transition from silents to talkies).

Many of the sketches are centered on a domineering star who flames out, prefiguring Caesar's post-series personal and career troubles.

[2] From July to September 1956, NBC ran The Ernie Kovacs Show as a summer replacement series for Caesar's Hour.

[3] The reunion featured Caesar with Mel Tolkin (head writer), Neil Simon, Danny Simon, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Woody Allen, Larry Gelbart, Sheldon Keller, Aaron Ruben, and Gary Belkin.