It’s funny how these things all pop up at once: Last week, I rented The Best of Ernie Kovacs, a collection of clips from pioneering TV comedian Kovacs. The collection is okay—a lot of the scenes are duplicated and the picture and sound quality could use some work—but I’m a big fan of the man’s work. Sometimes, he wasn’t so much a comedian as a scientist with a sense of humor, playing with all the cameras and sound equipment that made his shows possible. I like to imagine what he’d be able to do with the internet or computer effects. Today, I found a Kovacs game show clip on The Best American Poetry blog:
Clearly, we are at the beginning of a thrilling Kovacs revival. If you’re interested in the man and his work, there’s a great book called Kovacsland that describes it in great detail.
kovacs is a fricken genius. i haven’t even watched the clip and know i am going to fall down laughing.
guy knew how to sport a mustache too.
Can’t help comparing Zsa Zsa to Ariana Huffington. Kudos to Huffington.
I inherited that box set from my grandpa who had a great sense of humor. There was some rumor that Kovacs had a drug problem but can’t find anything about that. We might try to show some of those at Vermillion when i round up a projector.
Paul, your taste continues to excel. Kovacsland is a great read. My dad introduced me to Kovacs’ work when I was a kid and I think he’s a fascinating guy.
I always thought Kovacs was Letterman’s biggest influence…I tell people that and they say “who?”
Seriously Funny says Ernie Kovacs was to television what Spike Jones was to music. Damn!
And that Jacques Tati was a Kovacs hero. Kudos to Sambar!
Great. Got the tune to Nairobi Trio running through my head now!
Spot on about Kovacs’ fascination with the technology of the medium; he was like a jazz instrumentalist, always looking for ways to get new effects out of the materials at-hand, always pushing the range of his instrument beyond what it was designed to produce. He literally exploded the possibilities of television, both in form and substance, stretching it in directions no one ever thought of before.
And his accomplishments are even more remarkable when one considers most of his work was performed live, without the benefit of tape editing, and thus required a level of technical precision that few have equaled since.
Seriously, more people should get to know Kovacs and his work – I think a lot of people would be surprised at just how much the medium owes to his inventiveness and willingness to experiment.
I received a Kovacs novel a few years ago as a gift – Zoomar. It was a very fun read.
“A Sophisticated Novel About Love and TV.”
A Madison Ave ad man blows a big account and gets fired. While drinking his sorrows away, he bumps into an old friend who is a TV Executive. Our hero cons his way into a job at the network, and plays “sink or swim” in a whole new pond.
It is dated, and a bit misogynistic – think Mad Men meets The Barefoot Executive, minus the monkey.
Zoomar was published in the late Fifties. Lots of cheap copies over at ABEbooks –
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchRe…