Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Cooking Up Some "Hammes" With Miklos: Trivia!!

Good evening my fellow Kovacsians.

The Ernie Kovacs My Space Fan Page is up to 741 friends and as always we thank everyone who requested an add or accepted a request from us. I'd love it to hit 1,000 members by the end of the summer if possible; we're up 16 from our last post so we're on the way, albeit a small way.

Our fellow Kovacsian, friend and trivia buff, John Hammes of The UGA Science Library at The University Of Georgia, has sent us yet another fantastic trivia quiz. You may remember the last one which involved Ernie and Jack Benny; this promises to be even MORE difficult and of course I'm grateful to John as it means that I don't have to think of a new one myself! Thank you John!
This trivia involves that classic Kovacsian character, master Hungarian chef "Miklos Molnar" who, contrary to popular belief, did not always appear as a chef in Ernie's sketches. Here are John's questions:

1. Miklos Molnar was not restricted to a cooking show...name another genre "lucky" enough to claim him.

2. What then current show was Ernie lampooning?

3. Miklos kept a pair of shears handy; how did this help him interact with the show's co-star?

For Extra Credit: Give Miklos' version of this show's title and describe in what state Miklos interacted with members of the show's audience.

Here's a hint in case your having trouble; John saw this on the A&E Biography which was done on Ernie and broadcast almost exactly ten years ago; June 23, 1988 to be exact. The link will bring you to the one page I found where you can purchase the VHS which is Amazon; A&E's website was no help. Hopefully you have a copy.

You can submit answers to the questions in any one of the following ways:

1. Post your answers here in the comments section.
2. Send your answers to me through the Ernie Kovacs My Space Fan Page.
3. Email your answers to me by clicking HERE.

I'll announce the winner in a future post so get to it!

Before I leave you today I'd like to share a very interesting video clip I found of Ernie on a 1957 episode of the game show "What's My Line?"; Ernie was a frequent panelist and actually used to do his own spoof called "Where Do You Work-a John?" Unfortunately I've never seen that and I don't think anyone else in the present day has as its not on any video collections I've encountered.

Thanks once again for stopping by and until we meet again "Its Been Real!"

7 comments:

Ben Model said...

FYI, this sketch was part of an episode of a 1956 series Kovacs did on NBC, a one-hour summer replacement for "Caesar's Hour".

Al Quagliata said...

Ben,

Thanks for the heads up.

Al

said...

As a youngin moi greatly dug Mr. Kovacs and still do too.

Anonymous said...

1. Miklos Molnar was not restricted to a cooking show...name another genre "lucky" enough to claim him.

He hosted a kids' show.

2. What then current show was Ernie lampooning?

Howdy-Doody

3. Miklos kept a pair of shears handy; how did this help him interact with the show's co-star?

Tiring of the annoying puppet, he cut its strings.

For Extra Credit: Give Miklos' version of this show's title and describe in what state Miklos interacted with members of the show's audience.

The kids' show title was Howdy Dee Dee. Miklos was slowly getting hammered on his favorite grog.

Al Quagliata said...

Gary,

YOU DID IT! Great job! It took almost a month for those questions to be answered.

Thanks for playing. You are a true Kovacsian!

SoulCat said...

Was Ernie only on that year ??
I happened onto an old dollar bill which is signed by Cerf ,Francis,Killgallen ,Daly and Ernie It is quite old and tattered but legible I dont think I would ever sell it Though I would like to get it authenticated just for laughs This may be a very unusual artifact Just a thought after seeing the clip which was a hoot to see Would love to hear what you may think of this peace SC

Al Quagliata said...

Jean,

I appreciate the comment and while I would like to see that, I wouldn't be able to authenticate it for you.

If you click my name you'll be brought to my Ernie FAQ page which answers some questions about Ernie memorabilia.