A New Film About The Life Of Ernie Kovacs?

Good afternoon my fellow Kovacsians.

I just found a very interesting article I wanted to share with you entitled "Edie Adams' Memories Of 'The Apartment'." It was written by Ruthe Stein for the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday, April 6, 2008 edition.

The writer interviews Edie about the making of the Billy Wilder film in which she played the vindictive Miss Olsen, nosy secretary to a high-level boss at a large Manhattan insurance company. The boss was played by Fred MacMurray.

I enjoyed this interview and know my fellow Kovacs Fans will too. But this is the question and answer I found the most intriguing and it has to do with another film entirely:

Q: I understand you are hoping to get another movie made about your late husband. (There was a 1984 TV movie, "Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter," starring Jeff Goldblum.)

A: That's true, but I'm not supposed to talk about it. We're trying to get George Clooney to play him.

Wow. Wouldn't that be something? I've seen the Goldblum film and have always admired his performance. My problem with that film, however, was that the storyline mainly dealt with the kidnapping of Ernie's daughters by their mother, Ernie's first wife Bette Wilcox. It did not spend nearly enough time on all the great things Ernie pioneered in television which were treated almost as a side note. That's what happens when something is "made for TV"; you get all the sensationalism and none of the substance. Its not that the kidnappings weren't a major or important part of Ernie's story; its just that they're not the only part and audiences learned very little of the man from watching this film.

Therefore its high time that a movie be made about Ernie that really explores his life and legacy and of course it ought to be a major theatrical release and not just TV fare. And who better than George Clooney to play the lead? That would be a great box office draw and would introduce Ernie and his work to an entirely new generation that might not be familiar with him.

I think Clooney would make a great Kovacs; he's an excellent actor and has already proven he can do a great job with these projects about TV's bygone days as both director and actor; just take a look at "Good Night, And Good Luck" and "Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind".

So let's keep our fingers crossed my fellow Kovacsians. And while we're doing that let's all wish a happy belated birthday to Edie who was born on April 16th.

The Ernie Kovacs My Space Fan Page is up to 715 friends, an increase of 35 since our last post. As always we thank everyone who requested an add or accepted a request from us.

Until next time my fellow Kovacsians, "Its Been Real!"

Ernie The Grizzled Old Miner

Good afternoon my fellow Kovacsians. I'll start off by saying that the Ernie Kovacs My Space Fan Page is up to 680 friends, an increase of 4 since our last post. As always we thank everyone who requested an add or accepted a request from us.

I also need to mention that no one, not even my best "Kovacsian Trivia Answer-ers," has been able to answer all the question from our last quiz. Its a tough one; even yours truly couldn't get it. Give it a shot if you're brave enough. I'm going to let a few more weeks go by before I post the answers to give some more folks a chance to answer.

In our last entry I had a link to a blog post about the old TV western Shotgun Slade which starred actor Scott Brady in the title role. I found this post interesting because:

1. I'm a big fan of old TV westerns and had never heard of this one.
2. Ernie is the guest star in the pilot episode.

The pilot episode of this show was called "The Salted Mine" and it actually aired on March 27, 1959, as part of the "Schlitz Playhouse Of Stars," an anthology series of that era. In it Ernie plays a grizzled old miner named "Hack" (he tells Shotgun "Hack Berry's the whole of it." At least that's what I think he says...) who owns the "Hack Mine," which is located "over the hill a piece."

I'm not going to go into a long winded description of the series or the episode. That's because you can click on the links above to learn more about the show and its lead actor. And you can watch the actual pilot episode with Ernie below:

Its important to realize that before becoming a radio and then TV personality Ernie had trained to be a stage actor. His mentor was his high school drama professor Harold Van Kirk and he also acted in summer stock and studied drama in New York City. He was quite the excellent character actor as you can see from watching this program. Comics like Ernie have the ability to really inhabit and make you believe the characters they play, whether comedic or dramatic.

I sincerely hope you enjoyed the episode and I apologize for the quality. My goal in all the Ernie pages I run is to expose you to things about his career that you may not have known about or seen and I hope this has fit the bill!

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