Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9781561275601
Format: Box set
ISBN: 1561275603
Label: Kultur Video
Languages: Array
Manufacturer: Kultur Video
Number Of Items: 5
Publisher: Kultur Video
Release Date: 1992-04-29
Running Time: 300
Studio: Kultur Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1950

For anyone interested in the history of television comedy, The Best of Ernie Kovacs is indispensable. This five-part series, originally broadcast on PBS, is a six-hour guided tour through Kovacsland, and a more surreal or cockeyed landscape has never been broadcast over "the orthicon tube." The best cigar-mustache combo since Groucho, Kovacs, who perished in a car wreck in 1962, was one of the fledgling medium's pioneers. He turned staid television convention on its ear and satirized the medium itself (David Letterman is a kindred spirit). The Best of Ernie Kovacs offers a generous sampling of more than 100 blackouts, musical diversions (including a simian version of "Swan Lake"), sketches, and technological dalliances. The macabre game show "Whom Dunnit," in which a panel must determine the identity of the mystery guest who has wounded an unfortunate studio audience member, would not be out of place on "Saturday Night Live." Another highlight is "Eugene," a 1961 broadcast in which not a word is uttered. And let's not forget the musical gorilla-costumed Nairobi Trio, one of Kovacs's signature creations. The DVD edition has a few noteworthy additions, including a clip from Kovacs's 1959 quiz show, Take a Good Look. In another memorable clip, Edie Adams, Kovacs's wife, performs her definitive impersonation of Marilyn Monroe (singing "The Ballad of Davy Crockett"). Though this footage dates back to television's early days, this is no antiquated museum piece. Some of it is dated, but much of what Kovacs unleashed on an unsuspecting public is fresher, funnier, and more original than most of what passes for prime-time programming. Boy, do we need him now. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Rating:
Summary: Classic 50's Comedy
Comment: Ernie was one of the comic minds that defined zany & funny.
He stood tall in the company of many 40's thru 60's comic
giants.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: For fans of comedy and vintage television...
Comment: This collection was my first encounter with Ernie Kovacs as PBS first aired this series during the late seventies.

"The Best of Ernie Kovacs" is a collection of skits and gags from Ernie's various television shows and specials that aired on early television from the early fifties to 1962 (the year of his accidental death.) Even though some of the tape is badly faded and some of comedy is predictable and dated, this man was a true television pioneer -- especially with trick camera shots and studio effects. He also gave us some great characters like Percy Dovetonsils (a swishy drunk poet) and the Nairobi Trio -- three people dressed in disturbingly grotesque monkey costumes who were simply hilarious. This collection is narrated by Ernie's great friend (and poker partner) Jack Lemmon, and is also a great study of vintage television.

Also worth a look is a made for cable movie entitled "Between the Laughter" starring Jeff Goldblum, which chronicles Kovacs real-life search for his two young daughters. One will appreciate this especially if you are a parent

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Percy Dovetonsils sez buy you must!
Comment: If you've gotten any laughs out of TV over the years, you've probably seen his disciples: Monty Python, Mad TV, Laugh-In, Johnny Carson's Carnak, etc., etc. Ernie Kovacs hasn't been on the planet for some 45 years, so there aren't too many opportunities to see the real thing in action. Other than going to NY's Museum of Radio and TV, this is your shot. That mobile, expressive face--watch him pantomime laughter and you'll swear you can hear him roar--the way he tosses props around with total abandon, his never-ending supply of breakable floors/walls/furniture, his semi-obsession with the Old West (which was, of course, early TV's obsession for real), those loony Eastern European characters with their equally improbable accents, the Nairobi Trio and their ballet-dancing cousins, the dancing office supplies, and oh, those puns ("And now a word from our alternate sponsor--Alternates!")--all here, by the (exploding) truckload.

All the caveats our fellow Amazonians point to? Guilty as charged--unnecessary repetition (although the old PBS logo is comforting somehow), no notes, program list that doesn't always match the program, a truncated bio at the end of Disc 1 (someone hasn't accepted the big guy's demise, apparently), and editing done by the Nairobi Trio with their trusty mallets. And if you're at all familiar with this stuff, you'll tsk because some of your favorites are missing (mine: the singing suit of armor, Edie Adams as weather sexpot Cloudi Faire, and various commercial spoofs). But NO BIGGIE, 'cause there are things you've never seen that'll slay ya (mine: Nairobi Duo in space, Twilight Zone-style Western, Edie camping it up as Marilyn Monroe, and Ernie flirting with an elderly lady in the audience). (Incidentally, a couple of legit ads are included, too, for a comedy special with Henny Youngman and Mary Martin's Peter Pan.)

That there's nearly SIX (count 'em, six) HOURS of Kovacism on these two DVDs is enough to transcend any limitations of editing, picture quality, and/or packaging. Leave us face it, kids: if you still dream after fifty years of owning Sandy Becker's version of A Christmas Carol--which is still non-existent, according to the SB website--and a disc appeared with snowy reception and a piece or two cut or missing, wouldn't you go for it?

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A TIRE COVERED IN WHIPCREAM A GLASS FULL OF SAWDUST....AND FOR DESSERT
Comment: If your saying "HUH" To my title you are absolutely correct!
Though I came up with the title myself I think it is the best way
to complement the genius ERNIE KOVACS. He did on T.V. things
that had never been seen before(and sometimes since) and would
be so off the wall you'd think about the show hours after and start
chuckling to yourself. He started the blackout on a skit and was
way ahead of his time for sketches. His three piece gorilla
band would play and the audience would just sit there blank
face not knowing what they just watched. His tilting of the
camera was unique and new for the time. Ernie's humor is not
appreciated by everyone but those with a open mind can see
the jewel behind the madness. Ernie influenced such comedy
shows like LAUGH IN & SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and some of his
biggest fans of his work our David Letterman Jim Carrey and of course
the late Andy Kaufman. Ernie is/was a comic genius.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The man who opened the TV toybox
Comment: Ernie Kovacs did what no one on TV had done before and precious few have done since. He recognized TV has its own criteria for what works, just like any other form of expression. He set out to experiment with what could be done on the tube, and he often succeeded brilliantly, with sketches or mood pieces that defy description. Watch this set and see how Ernie pioneered music videos by choreographing office furniture to a couple of Esquivel records. This is a kinder, gentler sort of humor than we see on TV today, and more's the pity it isn't being done anymore. There are more ideas in 30 minutes of Ernie Kovacs than in a whole season of Saturday Night Live.

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