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The Best of Ernie Kovacs
 
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The Best of Ernie Kovacs (1950)

Starring: Ernie Kovacs Rating: NR (Not Rated) Format: DVD
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)

List Price: $19.99
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The Best of Ernie Kovacs + The Best of Sid Caesar + The Sid Caesar Collection - The Fan Favorites - 50th Anniversary Edition
Total List Price: $62.89
Price For All Three: $53.93

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  • This item: The Best of Ernie Kovacs DVD ~ Ernie Kovacs

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  • The Best of Sid Caesar DVD ~ Sid Caesar

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  • The Sid Caesar Collection - The Fan Favorites - 50th Anniversary Edition DVD ~ Imogene Coca

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The Best of Ernie Kovacs
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Product Details

  • Actors: Ernie Kovacs
  • Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
  • Language: English
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 2
  • Rating: NR (Not Rated)
  • Studio: White Star
  • DVD Release Date: November 28, 2000
  • Run Time: 360 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000056B07
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,880 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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


Product Description

Box Set - Rare Footage of Ernie Kovacs' Quiz Show; Take a Good Look Clues; Edie Adams' Legendary Routine Impersonating Marilyn Monroe; Interviews with Ernie Kovacs' Associates

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Customer Reviews

22 Reviews
5 star:
 (16)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Innovative Beyond His Years, March 12, 2001
By Tom Munroe "deckard_2019" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
This 2-disc set includes all of the 1977 PBS Series that re-introduced this television pioneer to a new audience. Seeing this material again for me after almost twenty years was like visiting an old friend and catching up on great times. I would caution those just discovering Kovacs, however, that some of this DVD is not side-splittingly funny in a conventional sense; rather, much of it is gently humorous and cerebral. Mostly, it is fascinating - incredibly surreal (still the most surreal stuff EVER seen on television) and way, WAY ahead of its' time; much of Kovacs work remains indescribable and uncategoriazable. Having said that, characters such as Percy Dovetonsils and the Nairobi Trio will have even the most jaded viewer chuckling, if not laughing out loud at the sheer outrageousness of these images. Keeping in mind when these shows were made (late 50's/early 60's) Kovacs' body of work remains among the most subversive ever done for network television. By the way, Kovacs solemnly intoning a scene from Julius Ceaser, dressed in full Roman centurian regalia, and then breaking into a tap-dance is still one of the funniest things that I have ever seen. Highly recommended.
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45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful material, but..., March 4, 2002
By Mark Pollock "educator" (Davis, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
These videos are taken from tv shows compiled in the late 70's. We get to see the genius of Kovacs, his great skits, bizarre antics, wild characters, and ingenious visual gags.

But...

We sometimes see the same clip three or four times. The clips are edited together in ways that don't necessarily complement each other. And if I hear that version of "Mack the Knife" again, ...[I'll go insane].

Kovacs is deserving of a new survey of his works. A better job of compiling his work can be done than this, and we don't need to hear the same Jack Lemmon introduction repeatedly. (I do worry that some of this archival material may have deteriorated over the years, hopefully it's still preserved.)

This set is worth your time, and worth your money. It's reasonably priced, and contains a variety of good material. It would just be nice to have a better assembled, more thought-out collection.

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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Demand More Ernie Kovacs!, April 9, 2001
I, like the majority of the reviewers for this DVD have great things to say about it. But more that that, I think that people need to see more of Ernie Kovacs' genius. Here was a man with more savvy about what television could do to entertain -- and an understanding of what it could and would become -- than any network programming executive, ever! Most of what's on the DVD is timeless. Unless you only think what's on the WB is actually funny, then get this. Now having said that, I want to make a request. Pester the studios for more of Ernie's work. Write to distributors and demand that for every "Sleazy Coeds in Toxic Appartments of Death" they release that they should also release a "Wake Me When It's Over" or an "Operation Mad Ball" with Ernie Kovacs. The second one, BTW, also stars Jack Lemmon: a double treat. Even Kovacs; "Sail a Crooked Ship" one of his final performances, is a hoot as is "Five Golden Hours," his last movie. Sure, these movies aren't his writing, but he brought an irreverance to the roles that make them a joy to watch, much more so than "Beat Billy Jack to Death with a Bat, Part 7!" And as for this DVD, I think it's as important as The Sid Ceasar Collection as a great TV history lesson we all could use.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars the comic genius, that few know about..
the first time I ever saw Ernie Kovacs, I was impressed by the simple, pure limitless imagination of this man, who left us far to early. Read more
Published 1 month ago by paul f..makee

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of Ernie Kovacs
It's classic television that was the incubator to so many other comedians. He was the best and died far too early. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Howard M. Henze

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of Ernie Kovacs
Great collection of Ernie's comedy. It brings back good memories.
The Nairobi Trio is my favorite.
Published 6 months ago by William R. Phillipson

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic 50's Comedy
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.
Published 13 months ago by Frank Aaron Jr.

5.0 out of 5 stars For fans of comedy and vintage television...
This collection was my first encounter with Ernie Kovacs as PBS first aired this series during the late seventies. Read more
Published 14 months ago by John

4.0 out of 5 stars Percy Dovetonsils sez buy you must!
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. Read more
Published 18 months ago by imapony

5.0 out of 5 stars A TIRE COVERED IN WHIPCREAM A GLASS FULL OF SAWDUST....AND FOR DESSERT
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... Read more
Published 20 months ago by CLINT BRONSON

5.0 out of 5 stars The man who opened the TV toybox
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... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mark Schildberg

5.0 out of 5 stars Ernie Kovacs...a true television genius!
It's been 45 years since his death but the legend of Ernie Kovacs lives on in this DVD retrospective. Read more
Published on August 25, 2007 by PATRICK J.POWERS

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful stuff
I grew up on Laugh-In and after discovering Ernie Kovaks, I realized that all those silly Super8 skits I made as a teen in the 1970's were unwitting rip offs of his short gags... Read more
Published on July 9, 2007 by K. Triplett

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