Ernie Kovacs NBC Morning Show 12/19/1955 1/3

[altfactor]

This program aired exactly four days before I was born..........LOL!!

[altfactor]

It's very interesting that there is a studio audience, considering that most of Kovacs's work after 1956 was done without one (and for that matter, without canned laughter).

[altfactor]

@altfactor I think an exception was his "Take A Good Look" game show, but his later comedy specials were without an audience.

[zerobeat18]

I have the 6-DVD box set and it's sad that they edited out most of the music (couldn't afford the rights). This exact show is on a DVD and it's nice to see it here WITH the music!!! The show flows way better.

[WSenator1]

Among my earliest memories was hearing "Oriental Blues," Ernie Kovacs' theme song, around my house. (But not when THIS cliip was first on TV - I was three then!) I didn't know enough, being a boy, to get most of the jokes, but what I could get I laughed at. What a genius! Thankfully, enough of those shows exist so that those who were as young as I was then, and later generations could enjoy, and laugh loud and long.

[rolko52]

@fromthesidelines Your observation is true. The amount of advertising dollars that Godfrey drew against that of Kovacs has no comparison...he pounded Ernie into the ground! In terms of critical and artistic acclaim, in addition to personal class, Kovacs has Godfrey beat. In this comparison, Godfrey's big sponsor dollars didn't necessarily equate to Ernie's proud and memorable legacy.

[fromthesidelines]

Yes, 'rolko', but Godfrey was still an "attraction" in 1955 (even though his ratings and popularity were slowly declining after the "LaRosa incident"), and advertisers waited in line to sponsor HIS six daily quarter-hours on radio [four of them simulcast on TV]. Ernie was known around advertising circles as an "eccentric", and sponsors rarely, if ever, sustained his daily NBC-TV series.

[rolko52]

Arthur Godfrey had to be an egotistical load by firing Julius LaRosa on the air and it cost him dearly. He was a powerhouse in the broadcast industry at that time, and it's pathetic that after 50 years Arthur Godfrey is virtually unknown. Even his sad decline and death by lung cancer could not turn the public's attitude. There are no Arthur Godfrey tribute sites on YT that I know about.

[fromthesidelines]

Ernie was on LIVE, weekday mornings at 10:30am(et) [mostly unsponsored], right after "DING DONG SCHOOL". He had the same kind of audience that David Letterman was to have for HIS daytime comedy/variety show in the summer and fall of 1980- in both of their cases, not enough to stay on. How'd YOU like to be on opposite the viewers' favorite, "ARTHUR GODFREY TIME"?

[wmbrown6]

Some segments of this show had their audio excerpted for "The Ernie Kovacs Album" (Columbia PC 34250) in 1976.

[431516020205]

fantastic bud!! thanks for uploading this classic!!