Two Koufax For A Kovacs

Good afternoon fellow Kovacsians. It's been a while and I hope it's been real.

Every once in a while when I mention EK to someone who isn't all that familiar with him or his work, they will say "Oh, yeah, that guy who used to pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers." Some of them are being "HAH, HAH, FUNNY!" and yet others are actually serious.

To all those folks I say that EK actually had his own version of the baseball card so you're not too far off the mark. I picked up Ernie’s "Starline Hollywood Walk Of Fame" card on eBay. They show up there quite frequently and aren't very expensive so if you’re looking for a fun EK collectible that won’t break the bank then this is it. These cards were released during 1991-1992 and clicking the link above will take you to a list of all the cards in the set.

According to the "The Movie Card Website" there were some mistakes made in the initial run of cards which were corrected for the second run. They listed Ernie’s death as November 3, 1962 when in actuality it was January 13, 1962. The web site does not mention Ernie’s card as having been corrected and since I’ve never seen one with the correct date I'm assuming they always went out this way.

When looking at EK’s "stats" you'll notice that "The Nairobi Trio" is referred to as a "monkey band", they list one of Ernie’s lesser known characters ("Irving Wong Chinese Songwriter") and they actually mention his hosting of "The Tonight Show". "Monkey band" is an odd choice of wording and Irving is too arcane of a character to make the cut but the "The Tonight Show" belongs there; readers of this blog may remember that when Conan O'Brien was slated to take the helm of the program we wrote some posts trying to convince NBC to list EK as a past host. They never did and given the way that whole fiasco turned out it was all for the best.

Should you wish to visit Ernie’s star on the "Hollywood Walk Of Fame" the address is listed, a new one on me since I never knew that marble slabs had addresses.

I'd like to wish a Happy Memorial Day to all the members of the Armed Forces past and present. And by the way if you want to trade and don’t have two Koufax cards I’ll take two Ernest Borginines and a Gene Barry. They both had a better slider than Kovacs (OOPS! I MEANT KOUFAX!) last year.

Until next time, "It’s Been Real!".

Tell NBC To Add Ernie Kovacs To Their "Tonight Show" Host List!!

If everyone who reads this blog posts something on the Tonight Show forum at NBC's website, they may get the message that something is wrong with the pantheon of hosts on their "Tonight Show Experience" website, shown below:


Go to NBC's "Tonight Show Experience" website by clicking here, and then click on "Community" to go to the posting forum. You will need to sign up in order to post to the board, but it's pretty simple to do. You should see my post about Ernie there:


Log in and post a reply (supporting this cause). Let's see if we can get NBC to take notice...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ben; fantastic idea! I've already posted a reply on Ben's post on the NBC board. If you need more background on Ernie's "Tonight Show" tenure, I posted a piece last week that discusses it.

You can also send a message directly to NBC about without registering to post on the message board:

http://www.nbc.com/Footer/Contact_Us/

You'll see a pull down menu that says "Select Show." Choose "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and then a box will open where you can type in your message.

Let's try to get Ernie on that list!- Al Quagliata

Ernie & "Tonight!": Another "Nairobi Trio": EK DVD Box Set On Hold

Good morning Kovacsians. As the title of this post indicates I have several EK items to share with you today.

I receive emails from time to time asking about Ernie's stint as permanent guest host of "The Tonight Show", on Monday and Tuesday nights from October 1st, 1956, through January 22nd, 1957. Ernie replaced the venerated Steve Allen who was so exhausted from the rigors of hosting five nights a week AND hosting a Sunday night variety show that so NBC could compete with Ed Sullivan on CBS, that he informed the network he would need the first two days of the week off to recuperate and prepare material for the following Sunday's show.

There's an interesting article I found on The Kansas City Blog's TV Barn which discusses the fact that in anticipation of Conan O'Brien taking over "The Tonight Show" from Jay Leno on June 1st 2009, NBC has posted a timeline of "Tonight Show" hosts which skips right from Steve Allen to Jack Paar without bothering to mention Ernie. I've posted comments on the piece so that you can learn more about Ernie's involvement as a "Tonight Show Host." In my humble opinion NBC needs to acknowledge his hosting of the program.

The number one jazz group in New Zealand is named "The Nairobi Trio" but they didn't get their name from EK's iconic sketch. The writer of this piece mentions EK and then goes on to discuss how the band got the name. It's interesting to think there are two well known "Nairobi Trios", albeit completely unrelated. I wonder who swings more, the band or the apes?

Back in November, 2008, Ben Model (who contributes here regularly) announced that he had been hired to put together a box set of 15 hours of EK material not seen in years and never before available to the general public. This set was slated for release sometime late in 2009. On April 6th, 2009, Ben announced on his own EK website that the project has been put on hold. This is sad news as so many EK fans (myself included) were looking forward to this release. We never say never in Kovacsland, however, and Ben assures me that there is a contingent that really wants to get the EK material out. Keep your fingers crossed; when there is more news you will hear about it here.

We have some great EK items available directly from The Paley Center For Media. The Vision Of Ernie Kovacs T-Shirt and Book come from a retrospective the Center (formerly known as "The Museum of Broadcasting" and then "The Museum Of TV And Radio")did on Ernie back in the 1980s. They're one-of-a-kind and you can only get them here.

Thanks for stopping by folks. Until next time, "Its Been Real!"

EDITOR'S NOTE, Wednesday, April 15th, 2009: According to the book "Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen And The Original Tonight Show" by Ben Alba, the first time Ernie hosted "Tonight" was for two weeks in August 1955 and it was during this hosting stint that he introduced "The Nairobi Trio." According to Diana Rico's book "Kovacsland: A Biography Of Ernie Kovacs", "The Nairobi Trio" was introduced on "The Ernie Kovacs Show" on April 21st, 1954. "Kovacsland" states that it was during Ernie's hosting stint of October 1st, 1956, through January 22nd, 1957 that the character Eugene was introduced in a sketch called "Library Bit." This bit would be repeated throughout the stint and Eugene would eventually get his own 1/2 hour special, "The Silent Show", in both 1956 and 1961.

I wanted to present both sides of the story as I discovered this after I commented on the TV Barn's "Tonight" post; I generally go with Diana's book for anything related to Ernie Kovacs.