INNOVATORS: Ernie Kovacs broke the fourth wall

Sid Ceasar and Milton Berle may have brought audiences to television throughout the dawn of the 1950s, but Ernie Kovacs was a one-man band.

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INNOVATORS: Ernie Kovacs broke the fourth wall

POSTED: Friday, April 15, 2011, 3:45 PM

Filed Under: Comedy | Movies

Sid Ceasar and Milton Berle may have brought audiences to television throughout the dawn of the 1950s, but Ernie Kovacs was a one-man band, acting as producer/director/writer and visual presence whose creations inspired sketch comedies like Saturday Night Live and beyond.

This month, those innovations can be found in the Shout Factory’s newly released six-DVD release, The Ernie Kovacs Collection. Kovacs’ primary collaborator and wife, Edie Adams, gets her due, too, with the re-release of her autobiography, Sing a Pretty Song, most of which discusses her wild times on air and off with Kovacs.

Kovacs was a dapper, mustachioed Trenton newspaper columnist with a comically rubbery face. With a cigar crammed into his mouth and his rat-tat-tat patter, he would’ve made the best sports commentator (which he did for wrestling in Trenton) or a perfect ad man (which he did when he shilled Dutch Master cigars on TV). Famously for Philadelphia, Kovacs’ initial bold experiments occurred during the wildly experimental morning show for WPTZ-TV (now KYW-TV), Three to Get Ready.

Kovacs broke the fourth wall by producing segments from inside the studio control room and engaging viewers, often in manners that inexpensively tested the limits of the then-young and still-raw medium. He created the homeless man from Philly who fell asleep on their soundstage (“Sleeping Schwartz”), who quickly became part of the troupe’s running gags.

This level of improvisation brought them beyond the Philly affiliate to the NBC network, as well as to ABC with games shows (Take a Good Look) and half-hour spectaculars where Kovacs cheaply created everything, from silly characters (cheeseball magician “Matzoh Heppelwhite,” foppish boozy poet "Percy Dovetonsils," whose drinks often contained live fish) to kaleidoscopes made from toilet tissue rolls.

Most famous was his recurring sketch "The Nairobi Trio," where three derby-wearing men in gorilla suits mimed mechanically and rhythmically while Robert Maxwell's "Solfeggio" played on. Meanwhile wife Edie — Kovacs’ sexy siren, collaborator and muse, a dame in the very best sense of the word — writes about all of their wild times at home (including parties at the Kovacs' with a pre-Rat Pack crew and Hollywood’s elite) and on the air.

It’s a good month to be a Kovacs fan.

Posted by A.D. Amorosi @ 3:45 PM Permalink | 1 comment

1 comments

Comments (1)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:06 AM, 04/16/2011

Just an alert to buyers. If you pre-order direct from Shout factory at their site, you get an exclusive 7th DVD with over 2 hours of Kovacs (including two ultra rare "Tonight" shows. Price is approx that for other places. And the bonus only comes from SF. The set is great - I've reviewed it elsewhere - and is a Must Have IMHO.

— Steve-Ramm

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