Ernie Kovacs - "Eugene" Part 1

[From "Kovacs Corner" on YouTube.com] - This was one the last video productions completed by Ernie before his death in 1962. "Eugene" was a character from his 1957 Emmy Award winning 30 minute NBC special "The Silent Show". By drawing together gags from his previous live shows, like the "Tilted Table", and combining them with new production techniques, like video superimpositions, Ernie left a final artistic work which could be reasonably classified alongside Charlie Chaplin, Marcel Marceau, and Buster Keaton. Way before chroma key, green screen, and CGI, Ernie tested the artistic elements of the new medium and it's primitive, by today's standards, video special effects. His early career in radio also made him open to the complimentary effects of sound and music, and not just the visual side of the medium. He no doubt gave many of today's on and off screen television and internet based talent the inspiration for their current work. The fact that Kovacs could take whatever shoestring budget he had, and make the best out of it, proves that imagination and talent have no limitations.

[Updated December 12, 2010] - Eugene introductory music is Dmitri Shostakovich's "The Age of Gold Suite, Op. 22a, Polka".

[Updated January 25, 2011] - In 1957, Ernie Kovacs received the Sylvania Award for his work on the 1957 NBC special. As a result of the publicity for this TV special, Kovacs received a movie offer from Columbia Studios (which resulted in his role in the film Operation Mad Ball), and appeared on the cover of the April 15, 1957 issue of LIFE magazine.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Ernie
• Kovacs
• Classic
• TV
• Joe
• Mikolas
• Bobby
• Lauher
• Jolene
• Brand
• Maggi
• Brown
• Eugene
• silent
• movie
• mime
• men's
• club
• library
• Dmitri
• Shostakovich
• The
• Age
• of
• Gold
• Suite
• Polka

[143AC]

I think that Mr.Kovacs work in his last tv comedy special comes much closer to the cartooney surrealisim of Buster Keaton than to the pathos like work of Charlie Chaplin.

[rolko52]

@143AC Perhaps, but Chaplin could also perform similarly comedic scenes with equal ease. Ernie will be known for his broad comedy, but some of his sketches did attempt a more serious and "film noir" appearance.

[rolko52]

I wonder if there is any "official" name or term assigned to Ernie's technique of drawing images on the background "flat" and have then suddenly animated. That would also include cutting the flat to make the doorways, wall safes, etc that he illustrated in many of his blackouts and sketches.

[143AC]

The background music being played to accompany Ernie's silent character

"Eugene"here is "The Golden Age Poka"by Shostakovitch.

[rolko52]

@143AC Thank You very much for identifying the background music! My knowledge of classic works is not a great as a would like it to be, so i appreciate any info from our Kovacs fans.

[rolko52]

What kills me is that when I walk across my ceramic tile floor while I am wearing my Crocs I sound just like him!

[JeffW77]

This is so cool. I SAW this. I was six years old. The scene of Eugene walking toward us, then turning around and having the wall right behind him was absolutely mystifying. Over time, the memory of that scene somehow became linked to another bit done by Terry-Thomas--totally unrelated; well, both have mustaches, did one man sketches and are very funny. Glad to know at last this is Ernie Kovacs. Thank you, Rolko52.

[Madhatter1903]

Love the tickle scene at 9:00

[4thekidsTV]

What a wonderful way to honor Ernie..to watch him at his most inventive and funniest in this surreal pantomime tv show.

[TheStanbabe]

I find Ernie's work funnier and more inventive that Keaton..He was a truly unsung sight gag and pantomimic genius.

[pylgrym]

Ernie was a surrealist from the Felix the Cat School of Pat Sullivan - whom see elsewhere on the grandest medium of the century - if not the Millennium: YOUTUBE!

[WSenator1]

@spacart1 - About the same with me. I was getting ready to celebrate my 10th birthday (January 27, 1962) when I saw this show. I think there was only one more show of EK's before they stopped coming on TV (due to his death, of course), and at the time wondered what happened to him. Thank the stars for YouTube!

[fromthesidelines]

This originally aired on November 24, 1961 [8:30-9pm(et)]- pre-empting, of all shows, "THE FLINTSTONES"....