“The influence of the Ernie Kovacs shows-has been extensive. Dan Rowan, one of the hosts of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In said many of that show’s ideas came from Ernie Kovacs. On Saturday Night Live, another show directly influenced by the earlier comic, sight gags were so much a staple that when Chevy Chase received an Emmy for his performance on SNL, he thanked Kovacs. And Kovacs’ character “The Question Man,” who supplied questions to answers submitted by the audience, reappeared as “Carnac” on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The Ernie Kovacs shows were products of the time when television was in its infancy and experimentation was acceptable. It is doubtful that Ernie Kovacs would find a place on television today. He was too zany, too unrestrained, too undisciplined. Perhaps Jack Gould of The New York Times said it best for Ernie Kovacs, “the fun was in trying.”
— by Lindsy E. Pack in essay at The Museum of Broadcast Communications Website
There’s a new six-DVD set of early TV comedy pioneer Ernie Kovacs. “The Ernie Kovacs Collection.”
When I was a kid, I marveled at all the trick photography Kovacs would do. He had a dozen people come out of a bathtub, paintings would come to life, gravity didn’t work quite right. He goes from high-brow to low-brow. Some of those sketches were confusing for a kid, and some still are. The Nairobi trio sketch, which Kovacs kept coming back to, is so ridiculous, and that music is so catchy. It’s some weird, wonderful comedic Theater of the Absurd.
Here’s “The Musical Office” an innovative, now timeless, short by Kovacs, enjoy.
Here’s an excellent LA Times article titled, “From the mind of Ernie Kovacs.”
David Bianculli, of NPR’s Fresh Air writes about this box set on his blog.
http://www.tvworthwatching.com/blog/2011/04/ernie-kovacs-collection-a-dvd.shtml
Here’s a nice Ernie Kovacs fan site.
And here’s the best site at which to purchase the DVD. Amazon site only has the 6-disc set, but if you order from Shout (the link below) you will receive a bonus disc of über rare stuff.
http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-4295796-10858371
– Randy Rendfeld
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“I will never forget Ernie Kovacs. His show was an oasis in a wasteland, and his humor was a send-up of television itself. Inventive, surreal, even cruel at times, but always funny and always strange. There was no one on the air like him. And you must include a clip of Percy Dovetonsils, Poet Laureate. [Dovetonsils clip is above.]
If you ever get a chance, I recommend his performance as the menacing Captain Segura in Our Man in Havana. [Trailer and clip of Tropicana Scene are below.] It’s now out on DVD after having been unavailable for ever. Alec Guiness, Noel Coward, Maureen O’Hara, Ralph Richardson, and Burl Ives in the performance of his career. Screenplay by Graham Greene, from his novel. Directed by Carol Reed. All the exterior scenes filmed in Havana in 1959. For bittersweet entertainment, you can’t beat it with a stick.”
[Updated July 2, 2011] Weekend Edition Saturday did a segment today on these Ernie Kovacs tapes (link is below) and revealed that Edie Adams (Kovacs’ widow) had cashed in her life insurance to buy the tapes, which otherwise would’ve ended up as landfill. Landfill! In retail that’s known as the Moldavian Cow Gambit. You pay me in cash at the price I want or I’m going to kill it and bury the corpse. (Why let you have it if its worthless to me?). Of course they should have given her the tapes outright. She deserves a medal.
Here’s the segment – Comedy Veterans Remember TV Pioneer Ernie Kovacs
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