Ernie Kovacs - Kovacs in Color, The Tilted Table Sketch

[From "Kovacs Corner" on YouTube.com] - In one of his very rare programs shot in color, Ernie performs his "Tilted Table" routine as the character "Eugene" from his 30 minute award winning TV special "The Silent Show". The indicated air date of 1957, and the inclusion of his sidekick Henry Lascoe, would mark the origin of this sketch way before it's better known black and white performance from his ABC Television Network special.

[Updated January 25, 2011] - In 1957, Ernie Kovacs received the Sylvania Award for his work on the NBC special. As a result of the publicity for this show, 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. In 1962, Kovacs and his co-director, Joe Behar, received the Directors Guild of America Award for the second black and white videotaped version of this program shown over the ABC Television Network.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Ernie
• Kovacs
• Classic
• TV
• color
• kinescope
• Henry
• Lascoe
• NBC
• Silent
• Show

[SenorZorrozzz]

Why do I seem to recall Bob Hope being involved in this?

[rolko52]

@SenorZorrozzz - There is a Bob Hope Christmas Special from 1959 in which Ernie is a guest. Other than purchasing it from the Bob Hope estate's website, I have not seen this show anywhere on the net.

[rolko52]

A copy of this show is housed in The Paley Center for Media in New York City.

[hkovacs84]

@rolko52 Thanks for posting videos of my great uncle. It's nice to get to watch some family history in the making.

[rolko52]

@hkovacs84 Thank you! You should feel justifyably proud!

[asawifehasacow]

There's a great story to this, about how Jerry Lewis was offered 90 minutes and only took an hour, so NBC was kind of desperate and gave the rest of the time to Kovacs, who came up with the "Silent Show". Ernie probably got the greatest critical acclaim of his career from this show. The ABC Eugene show from 1961 is more or less a remake of this. Does anyone know if the whole show exists in this form?

Thanks for posting this.

[rolko52]

If it does, and makes it to the Internet, I'll try and grab it.

[SenorZorrozzz]

@SenorZorrozzz I must have watched it in 1959. I remember the set was tilted and Bob was there and things rolled down the table like they do on the Eugene program. I have never seen Eugene in color. I have a B&W film of it. As I remember, the intro on my film is different that the one on Youtube. I bet someone altered it.

[corgitoy]

The complete NBC color version of Eugene will be on the Ernie Kovacs DVD Boxset coming out from Shout! Video in April.

[thevidiotkid]

This is the ORIGINAL "Eugene" sketch.Kovacs had no reservations whatsoever about recycling material as he felt he was "only playing to ten percent of the audience anyway". If the complete color recording of this was posted or otherwise made available, it would be the only surviving color Kovacs appearance.The ABC version from '61 is in B&W as broadcast and does exist on videotape.

[antoniod]

I've never seen a 50s color kinescope before. Was this in the lenticular system?

[yogafan6500]

Great classic moment in TV history.