Comments From A Fan: Lee Munsick

Hi folks. When a fan writes me with some great Ernie observations, I've decided that the blog will be the place to post them. These comments are taken from an insightful email from Lee Munsick who saw the early Ernie shows. Thanks Lee, for the look back! Here we go:

I was born in 1936. From age 8 I was fascinated with radio. When EK started on WPTZ-3 in Philly, my family lived about 25-30 miles due west of NYC well up a hill. I think in 1948 Dad bought our first TV, a Crosley 10". As an old time radio fan and wannabe announcer since age 8, I was fascinated with TV. Especially Arthur Godfrey, whose 1950-ish morning shows were simulcast - so one was watching a radio show take place.

By turning our rabbit ears we could get all the NY stations and all the Philly stations. One morning I found Kovacs, and tended to be late to school for many mornings after. When my older brother came home from college I sat him down in front of the set and we both about fell on the floor laughing.

I have (somewhere) an EEFMS card (Ernie signed them all) which I treasure. I know you are too young to have seen those pre-network shows, and you really missed something. Just about everything he did on the web that took advantage of the abilities of the new medium, he developed in Philly first. Dueling with himself, the tilted table with milk pitcher and glass come to mind. I loved the network stuff as well and all the characters. Unfortunately those first shows were all live and before kinescopes and certainly videotape, so do not exist. I've often wondered if anyone had an early Brush tape recorder and at least took down the audio, but of course Ernie is primarily visual although great writing.

The one network thing I never could figure out was Ernie playing a hyped-up hep used car salesman. He stood next to a little Nash, and as he got more and more excited about what a terrific deal it was, he banged his fist on the fender. The car shot down out of sight and the camera backed up to show a hole in the floor. It didn't go down like on a lift - it just DROPPED! I've never figured how they did that. Some reviewer somewhere revealed that they blew the budget for 3 shows on that one gag.

Thanks again Lee. Folks, feel free to comment on this post, however, please read the rules for commenting by clicking HERE.