The Ernie Kovacs Show (1961– ) User Reviews

Arguably tv's first comedian

[nickenchuggets · 10/10 · 3 May 2021]

Ernie Kovacs was a monumental figure in the history of television, but in spite of this, hardly anyone seems to know his name. Without him, who knows how long it would take for comedy to become a viable genre on american programs. He was a radio talk show host for quite a while so when this show started to be broadcast out of Philadelphia, people who were familiar with his voice on the radio immediately felt at home. After seeing this show for the first time, I was amazed at the sheer uniqueness and innovation he employs in his various jokes. Each episode of the show consists of a beginning section in which he essentially gives a rundown of what will happen in the coming minutes, but it is all mostly random. Ernie had many incarnations throughout the shows run which he would later reuse in the various clues for his unusual game show series "Take a Good Look". The show was not a great hit, and was only watched mostly by Ernie's fans. Regardless, he has many memorable characters that he would play in these various episodes, including Percy Dovetonsils, a cross eyed poet who reads the audience strange poems with a lisp while sipping a martini. The subjects of these poems range from praising houseflies to explaining the importance of electricity. Another character would be Miklos Molnar, a hungarian chef with a substantial accent who often misunderstands the world around him and suffers because of it. Ernie was also an avid user of puppets and would use them on an ongoing skit called The Kapusta Kid In Outer Space, which ran throughout many episodes. The reason why these skits and acts are so impressive is because Ernie existed at the right moment in history, and he was basically tv's first real comedian. Also on the show frequently (but not in every episode) is Edie Adams, his second wife. On Take a Good Look, she would frequently appear as one of the panelists who would try (and almost always fail) to guess the meaning of the clues Ernie would present. Many of these clues were simply recycled from this show. In all, it is sad that hardly anybody knows about this program, and even more sad that Ernie died so early in tv history, since we will never find out what things he had in store for us had he kept working on surreal comedy.