Ernie Kovacs

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Ernie Kovacs bigraphy, stories - Comedian, actor

Ernie Kovacs : biography

January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962

Ernie Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was an American comedian, actor, and writer.

Kovacs’ uninhibited, often ad-libbed, and visually experimental comedic style came to influence numerous television comedy programs for years after his death in an automobile accident. Many iconic and diverse shows have been influenced by Kovacs, such as Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, Saturday Night Live, The Uncle Floyd Show, Captain Kangaroo, Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and TV hosts such as David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, and Craig Ferguson.Chevy Chase, "The Unique Comedy of Ernie Kovacs," TV Guide, April 9, 1977, p. 39-40. Chevy Chase acknowledged Kovacs’ influence and thanked him during his acceptance speech for his Emmy award for Saturday Night Live.Hofer, Stephen F.(2006). TV Guide: the official collector’s guide, Bangzoom Publishers. Chase appeared in the 1982 documentary called Ernie Kovacs: Television’s Original Genius, speaking again of the impact Kovacs had on his work.

On or off screen, Kovacs could be counted on for the unexpected, from having marmosets as pets to wrestling a jaguar on his live Philadelphia television show. When working at WABC (AM) as a morning-drive radio personality and doing a mid-morning television show for NBC, Kovacs disliked eating breakfast alone while his wife was sleeping in after her Broadway performances. His solution was to hire a taxi driver to come into their apartment with his own key and whose job was to make breakfast for them both, then take him to the WABC studios.

While Kovacs and his wife Edie Adams received Emmy nominations for best performances in a comedy series in 1957, his talent was not formally recognized until after his death. The 1962 Emmy for outstanding electronic camera work and the Directors’ Guild award came a short time after his fatal accident. A quarter century later, he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. Kovacs also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in television. In 1986, the Museum of Television & Radio (now the Paley Center for Media) presented an exhibit of Kovacs’ work, called The Vision of Ernie Kovacs. The Pulitzer Prize winning television critic, William Henry III wrote for the museum’s booklet:Kovacs was more than another wide-eyed, self-ingratiating clown. He was television’s first significant video artist. He was its first surrealist… its most daring and imaginative writer. He was… television’s first and possibly only auteur. And he was a genius. In commercial terms, a genius is any entertainer… who finds a new way to make money. Kovacs never fit that description. Kovacs’ genius lay in the realm of art. There, a genius is someone who causes an audience to look at the world in a new way.

Visual humor and characters

Kovacs’ cast of characters: Wolfgang Von Sauerbraten, Percy Dovetonsils, Pierre Ragout, Magician Matzoh Hepplewhite, Nairobi Trio member, Auntie Gruesome, and Chef Miklos Molnar. At WPTZ, Kovacs began using the ad-libbed and experimental style that would become his reputation, including video effects, superimpositions, reverse polarities and scanning, and quick blackouts. He was also noted for abstraction and carefully timed non sequitur gags and for carefully allowing the so-called fourth wall to be breached. Kovacs’ cameras commonly showed his viewers activity beyond the boundaries of the show set—including crew members and outside the studio itself. Kovacs also liked talking to the off-camera crew and even introduced segments from the studio control room. Ernie frequently made use of accidents and happenstance, incorporating the unexpected into his shows. One of Kovacs’ Philadelphia broadcasts was "enlivened" by a homeless man who sought shelter inside the TV studio; Kovacs invited him onto the set, where he slept for the duration of the telecast, but nonetheless was introduced on camera to the audience as "Sleeping Schwartz." He was once knocked out when a pie in the face still had the plate under it.