ÆBC

Ernie Kovacs, Aesop Broadcasting Company, 1950s?

I'm new to the work of Ernie Kovacs, the Philadelphia comedian and television pioneer who seemingly invented all the television comedy troupes that persist today (all the funny ones, anyway). In that clip alone Kovacs satirizes the medium, breaks down the fourth wall, and employs an impressive range of textual puns—this, at a time when most television comedians were still doing vaudeville. Even the man's opening and closing credits were radical.

It's distressing to know that there ain't much of his work to see.

Most of Kovacs' early shows, such as the local morning show he hosted in Philadelphia from 1950–52, do not survive as they were done live. Only a few short film clips of these shows still exist. Some, though not all of his later 1950s shows exist in the form of kinescopes. Videotapes of his 1960s ABC specials were preserved, but other videotaped shows such as his quirky game show "Take a Good Look" exist only in piecemeal fashion. After Kovacs' death, his widow Edie was horrified to find that the networks were starting to systematically erase and reuse the tapes of Ernie's shows. At great expense and effort, she managed to buy up the rights to the surviving footage and ensure that future generations would not forget her husband's work.