Ernie Kovacs & Early TV Comedy: Nothing in Moderation

Synopsis

Among the pioneers of television, Ernie Kovacs was one of the most original and imaginative comedians. His zany, irreverent, and surprising humor not only entertained audiences throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, but also inspired a host of later comedies and comedians, including Monty Python, David Letterman, much of Saturday Night Live, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, Captain Kangaroo, and even Sesame Street. Kovacs created laughter through wildly creative comic jokes, playful characterizations, hilarious insights, and wacky experiments. “Nothing in moderation,” his motto and epitaph, sums up well Kovacs’s wholehearted approach to comedy and life. In this book, Andrew Horton offers the first sustained look at Ernie Kovacs’s wide-ranging and lasting contributions to the development of TV comedy. He discusses in detail Kovacs’s work in New York, which included The Ernie Kovacs Show (CBS prime time 1952–1953), The Ernie Kovacs Show (NBC daytime variety 1956–1957), Tonight (NBC late-night comedy/variety 1956-1957), and a number of quiz shows. Horton also looks at Kovacs’s work in Los Angeles and in feature film comedy. He vividly describes how Kovacs and his comic co-conspirators created offbeat characters and zany situations that subverted expectations and upended the status quo. Most of all, Horton demonstrates that Kovacs grasped the possibility for creating a fresh genre of comedy through the new medium of television and exploited it to the fullest.

Copyright:

2010

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

140 Pages

ISBN-13:

9780292779624

Related ISBNs:

9780292728868

Publisher:

University of Texas Press

Date of Addition:

07/17/23

Copyrighted By:

University of Texas Press

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Entertainment, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Biographies and Memoirs

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.