Saturday, January 22, 2011

Wish Ernie Kovacs A Happy 92nd Birthday...Online!

It's Ernie Kovacs' birthday tomorrow, January 23rd. Now that an official website, Facebook page, Twitter account and MySpace page have been set up for Ernie, here's your chance to give an online shout-out to Ernie on what would have been his 92nd birthday.

Kovacs fans are being asked to say Happy Birthday on all these social media and to sign off with "It's Been Real"...if you're on Twitter, be sure to use the catch-phrase as a hashtag (#itsbeenreal).

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/realerniekovacs
Twitter: @erniekovacs
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/realerniekovacs
Official website: www.erniekovacs.com

And here's a quote from Terry Gilliam about Ernie that's just been posted:
"One of my strongest memories as a kid growing or not-growing up in the countryside of Minnesota was having to go to our neighbour's house to watch television. I had no idea that the Nameless God of Surreal Humour was hunting me down. I felt happy with the ......world as it was. But, one night that dark god coaxed the neighbours into switching the TV to The Ernie Kovacs Show. I was ambushed. Knocked sideways into a world where the bizarre and the daft and the preposterous all lived happily alongside wisdom, wit and perception. I had never experienced anything so visually absurd and inventive. It was sublime. It hurt. I was 11 years old. Was this some new form of child abuse? If it was, it was one of the most momentous things that ever happened to me. Ernie Kovacs scarred me for life. Thankfully, I've never recovered."
And...remember to brush with Koda-Dent, the toothpaste with the film in it!*

Ben Model
www.erniekovacs.info

*this was a spoof product Ernie did a mock commercial for on an episode of his DuMont late night show...a predecessor of the infamous Schnitzel-Dent spot from 1956.

4 comments:

Daddy-o Dilly said...

OK, there it is. The comment I have waited decades to read. I have always wondered if ANY of the members of Monty Python were ever influenced by Ernie Kovacs. I realized the answer could have been no, since Ernie's TV shows were very likely never seen on British TV. Still, it seems like there ought to be some influence, even if later after Ernie's life ended. If ANY Python would have seen Ernie on TV it would have obviously been Terry Gilliam, the lone American in the group. And now here we have this loving endorsement from Terry. Now I am satisfied. (I just watched "Time Bandits" on Blu-ray last night, by the way!)

said...

I do remember that moi thought Mr. Kovacs t'were the coolest.

Daddy-o Dilly said...

Last week (early Feb. 2011) I got a sealed copy of the Ernie Kovacs LP from the 1970s and a used library copy of Edie Adams' autobiography. Two nice items for my Kovacs Kollection!

Al Quagliata said...

Daddy-O,

Two excellent choices. Congrats!