Ernie Kovacs DVD Box Set To Be Released In 2009

"Hold everything...don't nobody move!!" There's big news for Ernie Kovacs fans…real big news. A new DVD box set of Kovacs programs is slated for release in 2009.

Koch Entertainment and the Archive of American Television have banded together to launch a new series of DVD's called The Archive of American Television Presents. The first release is a box set called The Studio One Anthology, which contains 17 episodes of the landmark live drama series Studio One. The set came out last week, on November 8th. Their next release will be the 1959 TV adaptation of Budd Schulberg's What Makes Sammy Run. Click on the link above for the AAT to see more about these and to watch a trailer for the Studio One set.

Also in the works is a DVD box set of Ernie Kovacs programs. I have been hired to curate the set, which will contain 15 hours of Ernie Kovacs shows, plus bonus extras.

I've been involved with the project for about a year, although things have become more official and in motion in the last few months (that's why you're only hearing about this now). I've screened a lot of material, visited Edie Adams' film/tape storage facility in L.A. and inspected kinescopes, done research at the Paley Center in N.Y., and looked at rare Kovacs materials found by private collectors.

There is no "street date" slated for the DVD set, but the release will happen sometime during 2009, possibly as early as the middle of the year. It's a little early to talk about specifically what will be on the set at this point. I will post updates here and on my site erniekovacs.info as things are remastered, confirmed and locked in as DVD content.

Edie was to have had a creative hand in helping select the programs on the set, and I was really looking forward to working with her on this. I miss her and hope that the set does justice to all the hard work she put in (since the 1960s!) to save kinescopes, videotape masters, scripts et al of Ernie Kovacs' amazing work.

-- Ben Model

EDITOR'S NOTE, FRIDAY, APRIL 10 2009: I'm sad to report that this project has been put on hold. Click here to read more.-
Al Quagliata

An Interview With Adams, An Interesting Ad, And A New Dot Org

Good afternoon my fellow Kovacsians.

The Ernie Kovacs My Space Fan Page is up to 661 friends and pushing towards 700. Our thanks go out to anyone who requested us as a friend or who has accepted a friend request from us.

Here's something really great that I found on one of my recent Kovacs Internet searches. Its a fantastic collection of 10 interviews with Edie Adams conducted by the Archive Of American Television and recently posted by them on YouTube. There's a great deal of info about Ernie and how he worked along with Edie's reminiscences about her own career. All the interviews average about half an hour and were conducted on March 11, 1999 by Henry Colman. I've watched one already and hope to watch the others soon. I know you'll enjoy them!

I mentioned in my last post that I've been in touch with with Diana Rico who wrote Kovacsland: A Biography Of Ernie Kovacs" I've sent questions to Diana and hope to have an interview for you soon.

Yesterday I acquired the domain erniekovacs.org, which along with edieadams.org had been one of the URL’s for a website run by the Kovacs estate. Starting back in the summer of 2004 this site was set up as a tribute to Ernie and Edie's work along with a fan club and store. It was pulled down in early 2006 for reasons that were never explained. The domains were allowed to expire, eventually being purchased by one of those places that snaps up domains simply to use them as search engine portals. While edieadams.org is unfortunately still being used in this way I found out that erniekovacs.org had become available and so I purchased it. It now points to http://www.erniekovacs.net/ and it makes me very happy that its no longer being used to sully Ernie's good name. Now when you type in either address you'll be brought to the main site.

A fan sent me this interesting scan of an old 1950s ad from an entertainment magazine for one of the Kovacs' shows. Which show? Well it doesn't say, but I would guess whichever one was on that night or week. Hopefully the cigar won't ignite the paper:

Pretty cool and interesting, don't you think? It says it all without saying too much. Something today's overblown media ought to take a cue from. Thanks for sending it!

Until we meet again my fellow Kovacsians I bid you a fond "It's been real!"