Friday, May 17, 2013

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - ERNIE KOVACS


ERNIE KOVACS
 
AS SEEN IN:
'The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour'
"Lucy Meets The Mustache"
 
From Wikipedia:
Ernie Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was an American comedian, actor, and writer.

Kovacs' uninhibited, often ad-libbed, and visually experimental comedic style came to influence numerous television comedy programs for years after his death in an automobile accident. Many iconic and diverse shows have been influenced by Kovacs, such as 'Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In', 'Saturday Night Live', 'The Uncle Floyd Show', 'Captain Kangaroo', 'Sesame Street', 'The Electric Company', and TV hosts such as David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, and Craig Ferguson.  Chevy Chase acknowledged Kovacs' influence and thanked him during his acceptance speech for his Emmy award for Saturday Night Live.  Chase appeared in the 1982 documentary called "Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius", speaking again of the impact Kovacs had on his work.

On or off screen, Kovacs could be counted on for the unexpected, from having marmosets as pets to wrestling a jaguar on his live Philadelphia television show.

When working at WABC (AM) as a morning-drive radio personality and doing a mid-morning television show for NBC, Kovacs disliked eating breakfast alone while his wife was sleeping in after her Broadway performances. His solution was to hire a taxi driver to come into their apartment with his own key and whose job was to make breakfast for them both, then take him to the WABC studios.

While Kovacs and his wife Edie Adams received Emmy nominations for best performances in a comedy series in 1957, his talent was not formally recognized until after his death. The 1962 Emmy for outstanding electronic camera work and the Directors' Guild award came a short time after his fatal accident. A quarter century later, he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. Kovacs also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in television.

SYNOPSIS (from Wikipedia):
Kovacs and Edie Adams were the guest stars on the final installment of the one-hour 'I Love Lucy' format, known in network airings as 'The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show' and in syndication as 'The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour'. Kovacs and Adams appeared in the episode, "Lucy Meets the Moustache," which filmed March 2 and aired April 1, 1960. It was the last time Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz appeared together before the breakup of their marriage. According to Adams, Lucy and Desi barely talked to each other in between scenes, and divorce proceedings began March 3, the day after the show's filming.

BCnU!

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