Ernie was one of television's earliest innovators. In the days before computers and high tech special effects Kovacs would experiment with the camera and specially designed props to create certain illusions. For instance, by tilting the camera and using a specially built table he could create the effect of pouring milk out of a bottle and have it travel sideways instead of down as if it was defying gravity. In another sketch he showed a woman taking a bath and a succession of characters climbed out through soap bubbles. He would use sound to compliment his visuals. He used music to accompany the movements of office furniture such as filing cabinets opening and closing, typewriter keys being punched, rotating telephone dials (the days before push button dialing) and water bottles gurgling all done to the rhythm of music. Although he died in 1962 (auto accident), Kovacs' influence can still be found these many years after his death. Dan Rowan of Rowan and Martin's Laugh In said many of that show's ideas came from Kovacs. When Chevy Chase received an Emmy for his performance on Saturday Night Live, he thanked Kovacs. Kovacs' The Question Man reappeared as Carnac on the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. David Letterman's routine where he takes the camera backstage and in the halls of the studio was first pioneered by Kovacs back in the days when audiences were normally not permitted to see what goes on behind the scenes of a television show. Ernie was also the first to talk with the camera men and stage crew while on the air. The most extraordinary episode in Kovacs' career was the half hour NBC broadcast, a show without dialogue called the Silent Show. Airing on January 19, 1957 it was the first prime time program done entirely in pantomime using only sound effects and music. Kovacs played the mute Eugene, a character he developed during the fall of 1956 when hosting the Tonight Show. Would there be a place for Kovacs in today's TV market? Probably, but he would be considered too unrestrained and undisciplined. The name of the game today is immediate ratings and Kovacs' unconventional style would most likely give the network executives a case of stomach ulcers. His humor was visual, sometimes bordering on slapstick but it was a sophisticated, thinking person's humor and programs such as that often build an audience over time. Ernie Kovacs was a pioneer who explored the possibilities of the camera while his contemporaries were treating television as an extension of the Vaudeville stage. Those of us who have seen his programs, or those lucky enough to remember the actual broadcasts, know full well the genius of this creative and innovative performer. Those who are unfamiliar with Ernie Kovacs would serve themselves well to examine his collective work in depth. For people who gravitate to this style of humor he is a cause for inspiration as he was only doing a television show, not realizing at the time that his curiosity with the camera would be the great-grandfather of some of the visual effects that we see today. To brush him off as an outdated entertainer from the 1950s does an injustice to one of the greatest pioneers in the world of television entertainment. As I have written in other posts, it was Ernie Kovacs who once said that Television is called a medium because it is neither rare nor well done. Not much has changed in 45 years, has it?
