First broadcast on The Wayne and Shuster Hour on CBC Radio in 1954, it was reenacted for their British television debut in 1957 and their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958.
Several lines from the sketch became popular catchphrases, including Flavius's order of a "martinus" (a single martini) in a Roman bar, and the repeated lament of Caesar's widow Calpurnia in a thick Bronx accent, "I told him, 'Julie, don't go!'"
Supporting players included Don Ewer, Jacob Reinglass, Ed McNamara, Johnny Shapiro, Peggi Loder, and Sylvia Lennick as Caesar's widow Calpurnia.
[15] Meanwhile, Caesar's widow Calpurnia walks around lamenting over her dead husband in a thick Bronx accent, "I told him, 'Julie, don't go!
[13] Like other sketches by the comedy duo, the script requires audience familiarity with history, the classics, and even Latin for an appreciation of its humour.
[12] Jack Gould of The New York Times declared Wayne and Shuster to be "the harbingers of literate slapstick on TV".
[12] The line that received the biggest laugh was the lament of Caesar's widow Calpurnia, played by Toronto actress Sylvia Lennick.
[19] The enthusiastic response to that line both in rehearsals and during the live broadcast surprised Lennick, who had been hesitant to put on the accent in front of a New York City audience.
[6] Sullivan had signed Wayne and Shuster to appear 26 times in the 1958–59 season, but due to the positive feedback to "Rinse the Blood Off My Toga", he invited them to return the following week, on May 11, to perform their sketch "The Brown Pumpernickel" (a spoof of The Scarlet Pimpernel ).
[8][24] A radio recording of the sketch from June 18, 1959,[25] was chosen for special preservation in 2000 and restored as part of the Masterworks program of National Archives Canada.
In the 1980s, a colour version of "Rinse the Blood Off My Toga" and other material from Wayne and Shuster's CBC programs was included in 80 half-hour episodes[28] which were syndicated internationally to two dozen countries.
[37] The working script for "Rinse the Blood Off My Toga", along with other donated Canadian entertainment memorabilia, was sealed in a time capsule placed under the cornerstone for Toronto's Performing Arts Lodge (PAL) in a ceremony on May 5, 1992.
[41][42] The sketch was screened at the Royal Ontario Museum in 2016, as part of a Toronto Jewish Film Festival event which posthumously honoured the duo and their work.