Ernie Kovacs - Miklos Molnar hosts "The Howdy Deedy Show"

[From "Kovacs Corner" on YouTube.com] - Here Kovacs spoofs the grand daddy of all children's programming, "The Howdy Doody Show". Instead of Buffalo Bob Smith, we have Buffalo Miklos Molnar hosting the show, which also includes his on camera commercial plugs for his "Miklos Bor". (For those of you who are not aware, "bor" is Hungarian wine). Again, the stagehand's laughter clues us into the inside prank of spiking Ernie's bottle of "bor" with something along the lines of hard whiskey. The Clarabelle-type clown character is none other than Kovacs' and NBC staff announcer Bill Wendell. Bill later became the first studio announcer for "Late Night with David Letterman" and followed him to his current CBS gig before retiring in 1995. He passed away April 14, 1999. Kovacs takes dead aim at the early to mid 20th Century characterization of the eastern European immigrant type of personality. Their humor at that time was much less sophisticated and much more simple then that of the American norm, and their thinking processes and problem resolution skills were sometimes brutal and to the point. The Howdy Deedy puppet in this clip can attest to that! It has been suggested on other Kovacs web sites that Miklos is Ernie's loving spoof of his father Andrew. The voiceover for Howdy in this clip happens to be the late voice artist Dayton Allen, who was the voice of the character "Double Doody" in the orginal series. He later went on to work with Steve Allen and voicing characters for Hanna-Barbera Productions.

[Updated April 18, 2010] I just had the opportunity to watch the YT video seqments from "TV Legends" with Buffalo Bob Smith. Bob indicated that during The Howdy Doody Show run in the mid 1950's he suffered a severe heart attack, after which a series of guest hosts filled in during his recovery. They included character actor Gabby Hayes, New York City disc jockey Ted Brown, and none other than Ernie Kovacs himself. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYQuia2tLpA&p=FC72371438CA8653&index=5 ). Although Bob does not indicate if Ernie performed as Miklos Molnar, what would any Kovacs fan give to view kinescopes of those shows?!

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Ernie
• Kovacs
• Classic
• TV
• Howdy
• Doody
• Deedy
• Bill
• Wendell
• NBC
• Miklos
• Molnar
• Hungarian
• bor
• wine
• children's
• tv
• show
• Clarabelle
• Clown
• puppet

[WSenator1]

My poor colleagues saw me viewing this clip and thought I had lost my mind, I was laughing so much! If you have any more, let my coworkers think I'm STILL crazy!

[rolko52]

@WSenator1 - It's great to know of your appreciation for Ernie's work. Enjoy the reset of the vidoes on the channel.

[rolko52]

I updated this video's informatin concerning Kovacs actually hosting the REAL Howdy Doody Show. Click on the video's link for more info!

[143AC]

Dear Rolko, Mr.Dayton Allen was not the voice of"Howdy Doody"..

"Buffalo Bob"Smith was "Howdy's"voice on the show. The only other VO actor..who did "Howdy's"voice..when

"Buffalo Bob'was recuperating from his heart attack was

Allen Swift.

[rolko52]

@143AC I stand corrected, sort of. According to The Museum of Broadcast Communications, Dayton Allen was the voice of "Double Doody" and a character name "Traveling".

[zerobeat18]

My father was Hungarian and came to Canada in 1956 at age 18. I was born in 1962 and hence never saw this stuff as a child that I can remember (would have been reruns obviously if I did). Ernie's mannerisms here remind me TONS of my father. Even the phrase "Howdy Deedy" is EXACTLY how my father would have mispronounced "Howdy Doody". Kovacs Ernie brought öröm a világnak!!!

[chaplin4me]

One of many favorite clips and a hilarious spoof on a show that I watched in my childhood. Many thanks for allowing us to see it.

[tallpaul521]

Thank you for bringing this cip back to You Tube. It was banned before.