The Best of Ernie Kovacs This two DVD set came out a couple of years ago, but it missed my radar so maybe it missed yours as well. Ernie Kovacs was an early television comedy pioneer in the late 50s and early 60s. There was a TV movie, which you may have seen, Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter, made about his fight to find his children from his first marriage after his first wife, who had not been awarded custody of the children after their divorce, kidnapped them. This set, of some of his TV shows, is relatively cheap (18 bucks on Amazon currently), and is a goldmine if you are a serious comedy fan. The set is almost five hours long, and it gives you a very good feel for Kovac's particular brand of humor. Most of the material comes from the PBS series that ran a long time ago, and hasn't seen much since then.
Watching these shows, it actually reminded me of how much I love Bob and Ray, the NY radio comedians. Many of the targets which Ernie took aim at were the same as Bob and Ray. He took potshots at the commercials, westerns, and TV shows of the day. Ernie had a really good aim. Watching these shows by Ernie Kovacs is almost like watching the early 60s Mad magazines come to life. In fact Ernie wrote for Mad Magazine from time to time. The quality of the image is variable, these are early 60s black and white TV shows, but very acceptable and doesn't distract too much.
 Instead of letting me tell you what is in this set, I suggest you go buy it. This is the work of genius, pure and simple. The writing is incredibly sharp in skit after skit. His shows were way ahead of their time. Ernie always was trying to stretch the envelope of what TV could do, and he succeeded. The shows are awe inspiring in how creative they are. Good ideas just flow and flow. We have gorillas dancing to" Swan Lake", monkeys playing along with the "1812 overture", Mr. Question Man, tons of short blackout skits, and Percy Dovetonsils with his angelic music, weird glasses, and goofy poems. And they are really funny. Did you ever wonder what Maryln Monroe would have sounded like if she had sung "The Ballad of Davy Crockett". If there is a downside to this set, it is that there is some minor repetition of some of the scenes, but this is a very minor problem. I hope someday the powers that be will see fit to release a complete Ernie Kovacs set of his TV shows on DVD. There is a need for one, but thank goodness we still have this. One of my favorite jokes, I actually don't know if Kovacs wrote or not, was from a Mr. Question Man skit that I first heard on a record of Ernie Kovacs shows that came out many years ago. The announcer asks Mr. Question Man, since the world is round why don't people fall off. Ernie, as Mr. Question Man in absolute deadpan, responds that this is a common misconception among the more uneducated people of the world, that in fact people are falling off all the time. It doesn't get any better. Go buy this set. |
