:Ernie Kovacs

Ernest Kovacs was born in 1919. His father, Andrew John Kovacs emigrated from Tornaújfalu, Hungary, which is now known as Turnianska Nová Ves, Slovakia. Andrew sailed on the S.S. Würzburg via Bremen, arriving at Ellis Island on February 8, 1906, at age 16. He worked as a policeman, restaurateur, and bootlegger, the last so successfully that he moved his wife Mary, son Tom, and Tom’s half-brother Ernest Edward Kovacs into a 20-room mansion in the better part of Trenton.{{Cite news|author=Goodman, Mark|title=Nothing in moderation|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4DE133FF930A25756C0A966958260&scp=4|work=The New York Times|date=May 13, 1990|access-date=December 10, 2008|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130130101214/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4DE133FF930A25756C0A966958260&scp=4|archive-date=January 30, 2013|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}

Though a poor student, Kovacs was influenced by his Trenton Central High School drama teacher, Harold Van Kirk, and received an acting scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1937 with Van Kirk's help, appearing with Long Island, N.Y. stock companies. The end of Prohibition and the onset of the Great Depression resulted in difficult financial times for the family. When Kovacs began drama school, all he could afford was a fifth-floor walk-up apartment on West 74th Street in New York City.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7rceAAAAIBAJ&pg=5709,4130335&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Ernie Kovacs:Serious-Minded Clown| date=January 21, 1962|newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|author=Ryan, Jack|access-date=August 6, 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13846507/ernie_kovacs_what_a_husband/|title=Ernie Kovacs-what a husband!|page=113|author=Kovacs, Edie Adams|date=July 20, 1958|newspaper=Palm Beach Post|access-date=November 7, 2010|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}

During this time, he watched many "Grade B" movies; admission was only ten cents. Many of these movies influenced his comedy routines later.

A 1938 local newspaper photograph shows Kovacs as a member of the Prospect Players, not yet wearing his trademark mustache.{{cite web|url=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_N_-W1PmSNqg/SXvT2gIbqRI/AAAAAAAAJgM/dJ-LCaJ8Y8k/s1600-h/1938+Ernie+Kovacs+in+a+Prospect+Presbyterian+Playweb.jpg|title=Discussing Plot and Action|date=March 6, 1938|work=Trenton Sunday Times Advertiser|access-date=November 7, 2010}} Kovacs used his class vacation time to pursue roles in summer stock companies. While working in Vermont in 1939, he became so seriously ill with pneumonia and pleurisy that his doctors didn't expect him to survive. During the next year and a half, his comedic talents developed as he entertained both doctors and patients with his antics during stays at several hospitals.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oOkKAAAAIBAJ&pg=6625,2617383&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Ernie Kovacs Doing Fine 'Living on Borrowed Time'|date=December 18, 1959|author=Thomas, Bob|newspaper=Prescott Evening Courier|access-date=July 17, 2010}} While hospitalized, Kovacs developed a lifelong love of classical music by the gift of a radio, which he kept tuned to WQXR. By the time he was released his parents had separated, and Kovacs went back to Trenton, living with his mother in a two-room apartment over a store. He began work as a cigar salesman, which resulted in a lifelong tobacco-smoking habit.{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tDMsAAAAIBAJ&pg=7132,1575081&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Gentle, Quiet Kovacs Killed in Car Crash|date=January 14, 1962|work=Herald-Journal|access-date=August 6, 2010}}[https://dailynewshungary.com/the-story-of-a-hungarian-man-who-influenced-american-television-shows The story of a Hungarian man who influenced American television shows]

Kovacs's first paid entertainment work was during 1941 as an announcer for Trenton's radio station WTTM.{{cite web |last1=Taylor |first1=Marlin |title=Memories of Ernie Kovacs |url=https://marlintaylor.com/radio/memories-of-ernie-kovacs/ |website=Marlin Taylor .com |access-date=13 August 2023 |date=14 April 2018}} He spent the next nine years with WTTM, becoming the station's director of special events; in this job he did things like trying to see what it was like to be run over by a train (leaving the tracks at the last minute) and broadcasting from the cockpit of a plane for which he took flying lessons. Kovacs was also involved with local theater; a local newspaper published a photograph of him and the news that he was doing some directing for the Trenton Players Guild in early 1941.{{cite web|url=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_N_-W1PmSNqg/RoMQJPnPYdI/AAAAAAAABmU/qK3L03jhlJY/s1600-h/1941+ERNIE+KOVACS.jpg|title=Directs Play|date=January 19, 1941|publisher=Tom Glover|access-date=November 7, 2010}} The Trentonian, a local daily newspaper, offered Kovacs a column in June 1945; he named it "Kovacs Unlimited" (1945–50).{{cite news|url=http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2010/05/02/news/doc4bde3ede47e68167292280.txt|title=Look Who's Talking|author=Edelstein, Jeff|date=May 2, 2010|newspaper=The Trentonian|access-date=July 17, 2010|archive-date=July 21, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100721173156/http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2010/05/02/news/doc4bde3ede47e68167292280.txt|url-status=dead}}{{cite web |title=Kovacs, Ernie |url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Kovacs%2C+Ernie |website=TheFreeDictionary.com |access-date=13 August 2023 |quote=The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission. |language=en}}

File:Kovacs 3 to get ready 1951.JPG

File:Ernie Kovacs Andy McKay Kovacs Unlimited 1952.JPG

In January 1950, arriving at NBC's Philadelphia affiliate, WPTZ, for an audition, wearing a barrel and shorts, got Kovacs his first television job. His first show was Pick Your Ideal, a fashion and promotional program for the Ideal Manufacturing Company. Before long, Kovacs was also the host of Deadline For Dinner and Now You're Cooking, shows featuring advice from local chefs.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,166670-3,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040504002730/http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,166670-3,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 4, 2004|title=Philly Fifties: TV|author=Corliss, Richard|date=July 7, 2001|magazine=Time|access-date=February 9, 2011}}subscription required){{efn|Now KYW-TV; though the current NBC affiliate is WCAU-TV{{cite web|url=http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com|title=NBC Philadelphia}}}} When Kovacs's guest chef did not arrive in time for the show, he offered a recipe for "Eggs Scavok" (Kovacs spelled backward). Kovacs seasoned the egg dish with ashes from his cigar. The sponsor was a local propane company. Hosting these shows soon resulted in his becoming host of a program named Three to Get Ready, named for WPTZ's channel 3 spot on television dials.{{Cite web|url=http://www.broadcastpioneers.com/kovacsinphilly.html|title=Ernie Kovacs|publisher=Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia|access-date=July 17, 2010}}

Premiering in November 1950, Three to Get Ready was innovative because it was the first regularly scheduled early morning (7–9am) show in a major television market, predating NBC's Today by more than a year. Prior to this, it had been assumed that few people would watch television at such an early hour.{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sh8EAAAAMBAJ&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA7|title=WPTZ's Kovacs Reaps Early Scanner Harvest|magazine=Billboard|date=April 7, 1951|access-date=November 8, 2010}} While the show was advertised as early morning news and weather, Kovacs provided this and more in an original manner. When rain was in the weather forecast, Kovacs would get on a ladder and pour water down on the staff member reading the report. Goats were auditioned for a local theater performance and tiny women appeared to walk up his arm.{{cite magazine|magazine=Billboard|date=December 1, 1951|title=Kovacs Gets His Own Goat|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B0UEAAAAMBAJ&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA9|access-date=November 8, 2010}}{{cite magazine |url=http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/03/23/tvs-tiniest-actress/?Qwd=./MechanixIllustrated/9-1955/tiny_actress&Qif=tiny_actress_0.jpg&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=XL#qdig|title=TV's Tiniest Actress|date=September 1955|magazine=Mechanix Illustrated|access-date=November 8, 2010}} Kovacs also went outside of the studio for some of his skits, running through a downtown Philadelphia restaurant in a gorilla suit in one; in another, he looked into a construction pit, saying it was deep enough to see to China, when a man in Chinese clothing popped up, said a few words in the language, and ran off. Despite its popularity, the weekly prop budget for the show was just $15. Kovacs once asked his viewers to send unwanted items to Channel 3; they filled the station's lobby.

The only character no one ever saw inspired more gifts; he was Howard, the World's Strongest Ant. From the time of his WPTZ debut, Howard received more than 30,000 miniaturized gifts from Kovacs's viewers, including a tiny, mink-lined swimming pool. Kovacs began his Early Eyeball Fraternal & Marching Society (EEFMS) while doing Three to Get Ready. There were membership cards with by-laws and ties; the password was a favorite phrase of Kovacs's: "It's Been Real".{{cite web|url=http://erniekovacs.blogspot.com/2008/10/good-ol-officer-boyle-of-eefms.html|title=Good Ol' Officer Boyle of the EEFMS|date=October 22, 2008|work=The Ernie Kovacs Blog|access-date=November 8, 2010}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8vKoEsPMqsC&q=ernie+kovacs+tie&pg=PA106|title=Heritage Music & Entertainment Auction #7006|publisher=Heritage Auctions, Inc.|access-date=November 8, 2010|isbn=9781599673691}} Kovacs continued the EEFMS on his morning show when he moved to WCBS in New York in 1952.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=86Kntp6Kas8C&q=ernie+kovacs+auction+card&pg=PA34|title=Heritage Music & Entertainment Auction #7004|publisher=Heritage Auctions, Inc.|access-date=November 8, 2010|isbn=9781599673370 |date=January 1, 2009}}{{cite web|url=http://www.erniekovacs.net/images/eefmsbig.jpg |title=WCBS-TV Early Eyeball Fraternal & Marching Society Membership Card|publisher=erniekovacs.net|access-date=November 8, 2010}} The success of Three to Get Ready proved that people did indeed watch early-morning television, and it was one of the factors that caused NBC to create The Today Show. WPTZ did not begin broadcasting Today when it premiered on January 14, 1952; network influence caused the station to end Three to Get Ready at the end of March of that year.{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iR4EAAAAMBAJ&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA8 |title=WPTZ To Shift Kovacs, Take Garroway TV|date=March 29, 1952|magazine=Billboard|access-date=November 8, 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8uErAAAAIBAJ&pg=1599,3971024&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Garroway-More at Large Than on TV |author=Perrigo, Lucia|date=November 9, 1951|newspaper=Kentucky New Era|access-date=July 10, 2010}}

During early 1952, Kovacs was also doing a late morning show for WPTZ named Kovacs on the Corner. Kovacs would walk through an imaginary neighborhood, talking with various characters such as Pete the Cop and Luigi the Barber. As with Three to Get Ready, there were some special segments. "Swap Time" was one of them: Viewers could bring their unwanted items to the WPTZ studios to trade them live on the air with Kovacs. The show made its debut on January 4, 1952, with Kovacs losing creative control of the program soon after it was begun. Kovacs on the Corner was short-lived; it ended on March 28, 1952, along with Three to Get Ready. Kovacs then began work for WCBS-TV in New York with a local morning show and a later network one. Both programs were cancelled; Kovacs lost the local morning program for the same reason as Three to Get Ready—the broadcasting time was confiscated by the station's network in 1954.{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lB4EAAAAMBAJ&q=red+skelton&pg=PA7|title=Kovacs' Time is Pre-Empted|date=January 16, 1954|magazine=Billboard|access-date=May 26, 2011}}

File:Take a good look adams kovacs 1960.JPG in the television series Take a Good Look]]

At WPTZ, Kovacs began using the ad-libbed and experimental style that would become his reputation, including video effects, superimpositions, reverse polarities and scanning, and quick blackouts. He was also noted for abstraction and carefully timed non-sequitur gags and for allowing the fourth wall to be breached.{{cite book|title=When Television Was Young: The Inside Story with Memories by Legends of the Small Screen|editor-last=McMahon|editor-first=Ed|editor2-last=Fisher|editor2-first=David|publisher=Thomas Nelson|year=2007|pages=[https://archive.org/details/whentelevisionwa0000mcma/page/288 288]|isbn=978-1-4016-0327-4|url=https://archive.org/details/whentelevisionwa0000mcma|url-access=registration|quote=ernie kovacs.|access-date=November 8, 2010}} Kovacs's cameras commonly showed his viewers activity beyond the boundaries of the show set—including crew members and outside the studio itself. Kovacs also liked talking to the off-camera crew and even introduced segments from the studio control room. He frequently made use of accidents and happenstance, incorporating the unexpected into his shows. In one of Kovacs's Philadelphia broadcasts, Oscar Liebetrau, an elderly crew member who was known for often sleeping for the duration of the telecast, was introduced to the audience as "Sleeping Schwartz." Kovacs was once knocked unconscious when a pie smashed into his face still had the plate under it.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/125079473/?terms=edie%2Bmarilyn%2Bspoof|title=Edie to imic Marilyn Again|author=Wilson, Earl|date=February 5, 1970|page=11A|work=Florida Today|access-date=January 8, 2017}}(subscription required)

Kovacs's love of spontaneity extended to his crew, who would occasionally play on-air pranks on him to see how he would react.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0fEvAAAAIBAJ&pg=2964,4341043&dq=bill+wendell&hl=en|title=Bill Wendell, 75, Television Announcer|date=April 16, 1999|newspaper=Lakeland Ledger|access-date=November 23, 2010}} During one of his NBC shows, Kovacs was appearing as the inept magician Matzoh Hepplewhite. The sketch called for the magician to frequently hit a gong, which was the signal for a sexy female assistant to bring out a bottle and shot glass for a quick swig of alcohol. Stagehands substituted real liquor for the iced tea normally used for the skit. Kovacs realized that he would be called upon to drink a shot of liquor for each successive gong. He pressed on with the sketch and was quite inebriated by the end of the show.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nnYfAAAAIBAJ&pg=5509,3178344&dq=percy+dovetonsils&hl=en|title=Channel Markers|date=February 18, 1961|work=The Norwalk Hour|access-date=March 18, 2011}}

Kovacs helped develop camera tricks still common decades after his death. His character Eugene sat at a table to eat his lunch, but as he removed items one at a time from a lunch box, he watched them inexplicably roll down the table into the lap of a man reading a newspaper at the other end. When Kovacs poured milk from a thermos bottle, the stream flowed in a seemingly unusual direction. Never seen on television before, the secret was using a tilted set in front of a camera tilted at the same angle.{{sfn|Spigel|2009|p=190}}

Image:Kovacs hole in head 2-1957 special.jpg and Kovacs positioned in front of two television cameras for illusion.]]

He constantly sought new techniques and used both primitive and improvised ways of creating visual effects that would later be done electronically. One innovative construction involved attaching a kaleidoscope made from a toilet-paper roll to a camera lens with cardboard and tape and setting the resulting abstract images to music.{{Cite book|editor-last=Silverblatt|editor-first=Art|title=Genre Studies in Mass Media: A Handbook|year=2007|page=258|publisher=M. E. Sharpe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Mmy8wYWI3EC&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA32|isbn=978-0-7656-1669-2|access-date=July 12, 2010}} Another was a soup can with both ends removed fitted with angled mirrors. Used on a camera and turning it could put Kovacs seemingly on the ceiling. An underwater stunt involved cigar smoker Kovacs sitting in an easy chair, reading his newspaper and somehow smoking a cigar. Removing it from his mouth, Kovacs was able to exhale a puff of white smoke, all while floating underwater. The trick: the "smoke" was a small amount of milk which he filled his mouth with before submerging. Kovacs repeated the effect for a Dutch Masters television commercial on his ABC game show, Take A Good Look.

Image:Kovacs hole in head-3 1957 special.jpg's head.]]

One of the special effects he employed made it appear as if he was able to look through his assistant Barbara Loden's head. The illusion was performed by placing a black patch on Loden's head and standing her against a black background while one studio camera was trained on her. A second one photographed Kovacs, who used the studio monitor to position himself exactly so that his eye would appear to be looking through a hole in her head.

He also developed such routines as an all-gorilla version of Swan Lake, a poker game set to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the skit Silent Show, in which Eugene interacts with the world accompanied solely by music and sound effects, parodies of typical television commercials and movie genres, and various musical segments with everyday items (such as kitchen appliances or office equipment) moving in sync to music.{{Cite book|title=Ernie Kovacs & Early TV Comedy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zzXtobwmRZAC&q=ernie+kovacs+swan+lake&pg=PA53|editor-last=Horton|editor-first=Andrew|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn= 9780292779624|access-date=September 3, 2013|date=March 1, 2010}} A popular recurring skit was The Nairobi Trio, three derby-hatted apes (Kovacs, his wife, Edie Adams in gorilla suits; and frequently, the third ape was Kovacs' best friend Jack Lemmon) miming mechanically and rhythmically to the tune of Robert Maxwell's "Solfeggio".{{sfn|Greene|2007|pp=65-66}}

Kovacs used extended sketches and mood pieces or quick blackout gags lasting only seconds. Some could be expensive, such as his famous used-car salesman routine with a jalopy and a breakaway floor: it cost $12,000 to produce the six-second gag.{{Cite book|editor1-last=Newcomb|editor1-first=Horace|editor2-last=Dearborn|editor2-first=Fitzroy|title=Encyclopedia of Television|year=2005|pages=2697|publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CFXgj7a55agC&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA816|isbn=1-57958-411-X|access-date=July 17, 2010}} He was one of the first television comedians to use odd fake credits and comments between the legitimate credits and, at times, during his routines.{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=j7kvAAAAIBAJ&pg=4966,2940400&dq=ernie+kovacs+credits&hl=en|title=Ernie Kovacs Back on the Right Track|author=Danzig, Fred|date=September 22, 1962|work=Beaver County Times|access-date=October 25, 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bjkpAAAAIBAJ&pg=4957,3466495&dq=edie+adams&hl=en|title=Latest TV Star, Kovacs, Needs To Rehearse|author=Crosby, John|date=January 8, 1953|newspaper=St. Petersburg Times|access-date=November 7, 2010}}

Kovacs reportedly disliked working in front of a live audience, as was the case with the shows he did for NBC during the 1950s. He found the presence of an audience distracting, and those in the seats frequently did not understand some of the more elaborate visual gags and special effects, which could only be appreciated by watching studio monitors instead of the stage.

Like many comedians of the era, Kovacs created a rotation of recurring roles. In addition to the silent "Eugene," his most familiar characters were the fey, lisping poet Percy Dovetonsils, and the heavily accented German radio announcer, Wolfgang von Sauerbraten. Mr. Question Man, who answered viewer queries, was a satire on the long-run (1937–56) radio series, The Answer Man. Others included horror show host Auntie Gruesome, bumbling magician Matzoh Hepplewhite, Frenchman Pierre Ragout, and sardonic Hungarian cooking-show host Miklos Molnar.{{Cite book|editor-last=Castleman|editor-first=Harry|editor2-last=Podrazik|editor2-first=Walter|year=2004|title=Watching TV: Six Decades of American Television|page=416|publisher=Syracuse University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A16TTK0vN7sC&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA149|isbn=0-8156-2988-5|access-date=July 12, 2010}} The Miklos character wasn't always confined to a kitchen; Kovacs performed a parody of The Howdy Doody Show with "Buffalo Miklos" as the host.{{Cite web|url=http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=ernie+kovacs&f=all&c=all&advanced=1&p=4&item=B:22490|title=The Ernie Kovacs Show (NBC)|date=August 13, 1956|publisher=Paley Center for Media|access-date=July 12, 2010}} Poet Percy Dovetonsils can be found playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on a disappearing piano and as a "Master Detective" on the "Private Eye-Private Eye" presentation of the US Steel Hour on CBS March 8, 1961.Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/eoTWzZ893go Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20131207103256/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoTWzZ893go Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoTWzZ893go|title=Video-YouTube-Percy Dovetonsils-Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata|website=YouTube|date=May 3, 2009 |access-date=July 15, 2010}}{{cbignore}}{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rM8zAAAAIBAJ&pg=1178,633157&dq=ernie+kovacs+private+eye&hl=en|title=TV private eye took it on the chin Wednesday night|author=Danzig, Fred|date=March 9, 1961|work=The Bulletin|access-date=July 15, 2010}} On the same show, the Nairobi Trio abandons its instruments for a safe-cracking job; still with a background of "Solfeggio", but speaking, two of the three appear in an "Outer Space" sketch.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=--UQAAAAIBAJ&pg=6904,1154759&dq=ernie+kovacs+private+eye&hl=en|title=Private Eye-Private Eye Stars Kovacs Tonight|date=March 8, 1961|newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard|access-date=July 15, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Kovacs became a regular on NBC Radio's program Monitor beginning during late 1958, often using his Mr. Question Man character in his radio monologues.{{Cite book |editor-last=Hart|editor-first=Dennis|title=Monitor: The Last Great Radio Show|year=2002|pages=254|publisher=iUniverse Inc.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FuhPB7yz1TwC&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA129|isbn=0-595-21395-2|access-date=July 11, 2010}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.monitorbeacon.net/sounds/monitor-1959-hall.mp3|title=Audio file-Monitor with Ernie Kovacs|date=June 6, 1959|work=Monitor Beacon|access-date=July 11, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101010212059/http://monitorbeacon.net/sounds/monitor-1959-hall.mp3|archive-date=October 10, 2010|url-status=dead}}(Windows Media Player){{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13845469/ernie_kovacs_monitor/|page=29|title=Earl Wilson on Broadway|author=Wilson, Earl|date=November 20, 1958|newspaper=The Miami News|access-date=November 9, 2010|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}

File:Ernie Kovacs Private Eye 1961.JPG "Private Eye-Private Eye" (1961) in which he played many of his usual characters as well as a butler (upper r), a skin diver (lower l), and Santa Claus.]]

Kovacs never hesitated to lampoon those considered institutions of radio and television. In April 1954, he started the late-night talk show, The Ernie Kovacs Show, on DuMont Television Network's New York flagship station, WABD. Stage, screen and radio notables were often guests. Archie Bleyer, head of Cadence Records, came to chat one evening. Bleyer had been the long-time orchestra director for Arthur Godfrey's radio and television shows. He had been dismissed by Godfrey the year before, together with fellow cast member, singer Julius La Rosa. In La Rosa's case, he hired a manager, defying an unwritten Godfrey policy. With Bleyer, Godfrey was angered when he found that Bleyer's record company Cadence Records had produced spoken-word material by Don McNeill, host of ABC's Don McNeill's Breakfast Club, which Godfrey considered competition to his show. Bleyer and Kovacs were shown in split screen, with Kovacs wearing a red wig, headphones, and playing a ukulele in a Godfrey imitation, while talking with his guest.

Kovacs's television programs included Three to Get Ready (an early morning program seen on Philadelphia's WPTZ from 1950 through 1952), It's Time for Ernie (1951, his first network series),{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1B4EAAAAMBAJ&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA6|title=Time For Ernie|editor-last=Ackerman|editor-first=Paul|magazine=Billboard|date=June 2, 1951|access-date=November 8, 2010}} Ernie in Kovacsland, (a summer replacement show for Kukla, Fran and Ollie, 1951),{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043195/|title=Ernie in Kovacsland|publisher=Internet Movie Database|access-date=November 8, 2010}} The Ernie Kovacs Show (1952–56 on various networks),{{cite book|title=The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television|editor-last=Weinstein|editor-first=David|year=2006|publisher=Temple University Press|page=240|isbn=1-59213-499-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tV7fXlQQdz4C&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA175|access-date=November 7, 2010}} a twice-a-week job filling in for Steve Allen as host of The Tonight Show on Mondays and Tuesdays (1956–57), and game shows Gamble on Love, One Minute Please, Time Will Tell (all on DuMont), and Take a Good Look (1959–61).{{Cite web|url=http://www.erniekovacs.info/TAGL.html|title=Take A Good Look|publisher=erniekovacs.info|access-date=July 12, 2010}} Kovacs was also the host of a program, Silents Please, which showed silent movies on network television, with serious discussion about the movies and their actors.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1523658/silents_please_1961/|title=Like Old Songs, Silent Movies Are Coming Back|author=Crosby, John|date=April 3, 1961|work=Janesville Daily Gazette|page=12|access-date=January 5, 2015|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}

During the summer of 1957, Kovacs was a celebrity panelist on the television series What's My Line?, appearing in 10 of the season's 13 episodes. He took his responsibilities less than seriously, often eschewing a legitimate question for the sake of a laugh. An example: Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, the founder of an automobile company, was the program's "mystery guest." Previous questioning had established that the mystery guest's name was synonymous with an automobile brand, Kovacs asked, "Are you – and this is just a wild guess – but are you Abraham Lincoln?"—a reference to the Ford Motor Company's Lincoln automobiles.{{Cite book|editor-last=Allen|editor-first=Steve|title=Steve Allen's Private Joke File|year=2000|pages=432|publisher=Three River Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bi0-4WDPGrEC&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA245|isbn=0-609-80672-6|access-date=July 11, 2010}} Kovacs gave an interview admitting that he was absent from the show when he wanted to go out for dinner on a Sunday, leading the reporter to offer that as the reason for Kovacs leaving the series.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MK0yAAAAIBAJ&pg=765,459345&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=What! Wyatt Earp Insecure?|author=Torre, Marie|date=June 17, 1958|newspaper=The Miami News|access-date=November 12, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Actually, Kovacs's participation ended because his contract was up—the summer season was over. Goodson and Todman valued Kovacs's presence in the summer series and kept him on as a guest panelist. According to What's My Line? producer Gil Fates, "We offered him a contract and a permanent place on the panel but, wisely, Ernie didn't want to tie himself down [to New York] at that point in a burgeoning career. He did his last show with us in November of that year, then went to California to work and live."Fates, Gil. What's My Line?: The Inside Story of TV's Most Famous Panel Show, Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1978, p. 103.

File:Kovacs special 1968.JPG car, sending it down into a hole in the ground, circa 1960–1961. Reportedly, the cost to produce this one quick blackout used the entire budget for his half-hour television show.]]

He also did several television specials, including the famous Silent Show (1957), featuring his character, Eugene: the first all-pantomime prime-time network program. After the end of the Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis partnership, NBC offered Lewis the opportunity to host his own 90-minute color television special. Lewis opted to use only 60 minutes, leaving the network 30 minutes to fill; no one wanted this time slot, but Kovacs was willing to have it.{{cite book|title=The Ernie Kovacs Phile|url=https://archive.org/details/erniekovacsphile00wall|url-access=registration|last=Walley |first=David G.|year=1987|publisher=Simon & Schuster, Inc.|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-918282-06-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/erniekovacsphile00wall/page/120 120]}}{{sfn|Greene|2007|p=65}}{{Cite web|url=http://users.rcn.com/manaben/Klifemag.html|title=Ernie's Life Magazine cover |author=Model, Ben|publisher=Model, Ben|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060208071526/http://users.rcn.com/manaben/Klifemag.html |archive-date = February 8, 2006}} The program contained no spoken dialogue and contained only sound effects and music.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7hRUAAAAIBAJ&pg=3789,2560910&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=TV Key Previews|date=January 19, 1957|work= St. Joseph News-Press|access-date=March 18, 2011}} Featuring Kovacs as the mute, Charlie Chaplin-like character "Eugene", the program contained surreal sight gags.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ugUdAAAAIBAJ&pg=7113,2850782&dq=ernie+kovacs+eugene&hl=en|title=Radio & TV|author=Crosby, John|date=January 24, 1957|work=Sarasota Journal|access-date=November 12, 2010}} Kovacs developed the Eugene character during the autumn of 1956, when hosting the television series The Tonight Show.{{sfn|Greene|2007|p=66}} Expectations were high for the Lewis program, but it was Kovacs' special that received the most attention; Kovacs received his first movie offer, had a cover story in Life magazine, and received the Sylvania Award that year.

In 1961, Kovacs and his co-director, Joe Behar, were recipients of the Directors Guild of America Award for a second version of this program broadcast by the American Broadcasting Company network.{{Cite web|url=http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/K/htmlK/kovaksernie/kovacsernie.htm|title=Ernie Kovacs, U.S. Comedian|author=Chorba, Frank J.|publisher=The Museum of Broadcast Communications|access-date=November 8, 2010|archive-date=September 11, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130911105024/http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/K/htmlK/kovaksernie/kovacsernie.htm|url-status=dead}}

A series of monthly half-hour specials for ABC during 1961–62 is often considered his best television work. Produced on videotape using new editing and special effects techniques, it won a 1962 Emmy Award. Kovacs and co-director Behar also won the Directors Guild of America award for an Ernie Kovacs Special based on the earlier, silent "Eugene" program. Kovacs' last ABC special was broadcast posthumously, on January 23, 1962.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13989140/kovacs_posthumous_honor/|title=Late Ernie Kovacs Is Honored As Best TV Director Of 1961|page=18|date=12 February 1962|newspaper=Courier-Journal|access-date=September 25, 2017|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}

The Dutch Masters cigar company became well known during the late 1950s and early 1960s for its sponsorship of various television projects of Ernie Kovacs. The company allowed Kovacs total creative control in the creation of their television commercials for his programs and specials. He produced a series of non-speaking television commercials for Dutch Masters during the run of his television series Take A Good Look which was praised by both television critics and viewers.{{sfn|Spigel|2009|pp=202-203}}{{efn|During 1960, the trade journal Advertising Age termed Kovacs "one of the TV commercial's best public relations experts right now". Shortly before his death, Kovacs was negotiating with Colgate-Palmolive to produce silent commercials for the company's products. After Kovacs's death, the trade magazine Printers' Ink wrote that Kovacs's silent Dutch Masters commercials proved that creativity can be compatible with commercialism and that pioneering with regard to sponsorship can pay.{{sfn|Spigel|2009|p=205}}{{sfn|Samuel|2001|p=173}}}}

While praised by critics, Kovacs rarely had a highly rated show. The Museum of Broadcast Communications says, "It is doubtful that Ernie Kovacs would find a place on television today. He was too zany, too unrestrained, too undisciplined. Perhaps Jack Gould of The New York Times said it best for Ernie Kovacs: 'The fun was in trying'."{{Cite web|url=http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/E/htmlE/ErnieKovaksShow/erkovacshow.htm |title=The Ernie Kovacs Show |publisher=Museum of Broadcast Communications |access-date=September 5, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204111710/http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/E/htmlE/ErnieKovaksShow/erkovacshow.htm |archive-date=December 4, 2010 }}

Other shows had greater success while using elements of Kovacs's style. George Schlatter, producer of the later television series Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, was married to actress Jolene Brand, who had appeared in Kovacs' comic troupes over the years and had been a frequent participant in his pioneering sketches. Laugh-In made frequent use of the quick blackout gags and surreal humor that marked many Kovacs projects. Another link was a young NBC staffer, Bill Wendell, Kovacs's usual announcer and sometimes a sketch participant. From 1980 to 1995, Wendell was the announcer for David Letterman.

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Kovacs was also known for his eclectic musical taste. His main theme song was named "Oriental Blues" by Jack Newton.{{cite book|title=Oriental Blues|author=Newton, Jack|publisher=WorldCat|oclc = 62472943}} The rendition most often heard was a piano-driven trio version, but, for his primetime show during 1956, music director Harry Sosnik presented a full-blown big-band version. The German song "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" from The Threepenny Opera (anglicized to "Mack the Knife"), frequently underscored his blackout routines.{{sfn|Spigel|2009|p=196}}

Kovacs was introduced to harpist-songwriter Robert Maxwell's recent instrumental "Solfeggio" in 1954 by Barry Shear, his director at DuMont Television Network.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zzXtobwmRZAC&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA46|title=Ernie Kovacs & Early TV Comedy: Nothing in Moderation|editor-last=Horton|editor-first=Andrew|year=2010|publisher=University of Texas|access-date=June 23, 2014|isbn=9780292779624|pages=46–49}} In the 1982 TV special Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius, Edie Adams recalled that when Kovacs first heard "Solfeggio", he immediately knew how he wanted to use it. He conceived of three music-box-like apes in costume, who moved in time to the tune, and christened them The Nairobi Trio.{{cite AV media|

title=Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius|date=November 17, 1982|publisher=JSC Productions|type=TV program}} Maxwell's 1953 record of "Solfeggio" became so identified with the ape act that the record was re-released in 1957 as "Song of the Nairobi Trio."

File:Ernie Kovacs 1961.JPG

Kovacs matched an unusual treatment of "Sentimental Journey", by Mexican bandleader Juan García Esquivel, to video of an empty office in which various items (pencil sharpeners, water coolers, wall clocks) come to life in rhythm with the music; it was a variation on several famous animations of a decade earlier.{{sfn|Greene|2007|p=64}} The original three-minute presentation was outlined by Kovacs in a four-page, single-spaced memo to his staff. The perfectionist Kovacs describes in minute detail what had to be done and how to do it. The memo ends with this: "I don't know how the hell you're going to get this done by Sunday – but 'rots of ruck." (signed) "Ernie (with love)".{{sfn|Spigel|2009|p=194}} Kovacs also made careful use of the shrill singer Leona Anderson—who had somewhat less than a classical voice, by some estimations—in comic vignettes.{{Cite web|url=http://www.spaceagepop.com/andersonl.htm|title=Leona Anderson|work=Space Age Pop|access-date=August 12, 2010}}

Kovacs used classical music as background for silent skits or abstract visual routines, including "Concerto for Orchestra", by Béla Bartók; music from the opera "The Love of Three Oranges", by Sergei Prokofiev; the finale of Igor Stravinsky's suite "The Firebird"; and Richard Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks"; and, from George Gershwin, "Rialto Ripples"—the theme to his shows—as well as parts of Gershwin's "Concerto in F". He may have been known best for using Joseph Haydn's "String Quartet, Opus 3, Number 5" (the "Serenade," actually composed by Roman Hoffstetter) for a series of 1960–61 commercials he created and videotaped for his sponsor, Dutch Masters.{{sfn|Spigel|2009|p=203}}

For the show of May 22, 1959, Kovacs on Music, Kovacs began by saying, "I have never really understood classical music, so I would like to take this opportunity to explain it to others." He presented a gorilla version of Swan Lake which differed from the usual performance only in the persona of the dancers, along with giant paper clips moving to music and other sketches.{{Cite book|editor-last=Shepherdson|editor-first=K. J.|title=Film Theory:Crit Concepts V4|pages=440|year=2004|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zyRIlJTkuQ4C&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA178|isbn=0-415-25975-4|access-date=July 17, 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aUEwAAAAIBAJ&pg=6923,4789708&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Ernie Kovacs Music Show Tops TV Tonight|author=Pearson, Howard|date=May 22, 1959|newspaper=Deseret News|access-date=July 17, 2010}}

He also served as host on a jazz album to benefit the American Cancer Society in 1957, Listening to Jazz with Ernie Kovacs. It was a 15-minute recording featuring some of the celebrities of the art, including pianist Jimmy Yancey and old original New Orleans Jazz Trumpeter Bunk Johnson, soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet, guitarist Django Reinhardt, composer/pianist/bandleader Duke Ellington and longtime Ellington trumpeter Cootie Williams. Both the Library of Congress and the National Library of Canada have copies of this recording in their collections.{{cite web|url=http://lccn.loc.gov/99389548|title=Listening to Jazz|year=1957|publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=March 21, 2012}}

Kovacs wrote a novel, Zoomar: A Sophisticated Novel about Love and TV (Doubleday, 1957), based on television pioneer Pat Weaver; it took Kovacs only 13 days to write.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13846151/news_specials_1959/|page=24|title=Rennick Plans News Specials|author=Dunn, Kristine|date=July 20, 1959|newspaper=The Miami News|access-date=November 12, 2010|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} The book took its title from the Zoomar brand zoom lenses frequently used on television cameras at the time. In a 1960 interview, Edie Adams related that the novel was written after Kovacs' experiences with network television while he was preparing to broadcast the Silent Show.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kG4pAAAAIBAJ&pg=881,2773436&dq=edie+adams+silent&hl=en|title=Edie Adams Laments Decline of Satire|date=February 16, 1960|author=Thomas, Bob|newspaper=Daytona Beach Morning Journal|access-date=November 12, 2010}} The 1961 British edition was retitled T.V. Medium Rare by its London-based publisher, Transworld.{{cite book|url=https://www.amazon.com/TV-Medium-Rare/dp/B000NGSKMQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343714225&sr=1-1&keywords=tv+medium+rare|title=T.V. Medium Rare|editor-last=Kovacs|editor-first=Ernie|year=1961|publisher=Corgi Books|access-date=July 31, 2012}}

While he worked on several other book projects, Kovacs's only other published title was How to Talk at Gin, published posthumously in 1962. He intended part of the book's proceeds to benefit Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

During 1955–58, he wrote for Mad[http://madcoversite.com/ugoi-ernie_kovacs.html Kovacs' 16 MAD magazine articles List] (his favorite humor magazine), including the feature "Strangely Believe It!" (a parody of Ripley's Believe It or Not! that was a regular feature of his television shows) and Gringo, a board game with ridiculously complicated rules that was renamed Droongo for the television show.{{cite web|url=http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial-page/from-our-readers/my-view/article29138.ece|title=Persistence pays off at the dreaded DMV|author=Schwartz, Dan|date=August 12, 2010|work=The Buffalo News|access-date=November 12, 2010|archive-date=June 30, 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120630180255/http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial-page/from-our-readers/my-view/article29138.ece|url-status=dead}} Kovacs also wrote the introduction to the 1958 collection Mad For Keeps: A Collection of the Best from Mad Magazine.{{cite book |author1=General Mills' Toy Group Marketing and Design Service |title=Mad for Keeps: A Collection of the Best from Mad Magazine |date=1958 |publisher=Crown Publishers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RyIrGwAACAAJ |language=en}}{{cite book|title=Collectibly Mad: The Mad and EC Collectibles Guide|editor-last=Geissman|editor-first=Grant|publisher=Kitchen Sink Press|year=1995|pages=320|isbn=087816202X}}

File:Ernie GE.JPG

Kovacs and Edie Adams guest starred on what turned out to be the final episode of The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show, (syndicated as The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour or We Love Lucy) "Lucy Meets the Moustache", which was in rehearsals during the week of February 28 and filmed on March 3 for an April 1, 1960 network broadcast. "Lucy Meets the Moustache" was the last time Arnaz and Ball worked together and the last time their famous characters appeared in a first-run broadcast. According to Adams, Ball and Arnaz 'avoided contact and barely talked to each other in rehearsals and in-between scenes'. Adams also said that they were not told their episode was the last or that the famous couple was to divorce (Ball entered the uncontested divorce request March 4, 1960).{{Cite book|editor-last=Kanfer|editor-first=Stefan|title=Ball of fire: the tumultuous life and comic art of Lucille Ball|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|year=2004|pages=384|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j66uvWzubRwC&q=edie+adams&pg=PA214|isbn=0-375-72771-X|access-date=July 17, 2010}}

Kovacs also appeared in roles on other television programs. For General Electric Theater's "I Was a Bloodhound" in 1959, Kovacs played the role of detective Barney Colby, whose extraordinary sense of smell helped him solve many seemingly-impossible cases. Colby was hired by a foreign country to recover its symbol of royalty, a baby elephant, who was being held for ransom.{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/466645/i-was-a-bloodhound|title=I Was a Bloodhound|publisher=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=October 27, 2011}}

Kovacs found Hollywood success as a character actor, often typecast as a swarthy military officer (almost always a "Captain" of some sort) in such films as Operation Mad Ball, Wake Me When It's Over and Our Man in Havana.{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0468237/|title=Ernie Kovacs|publisher=Internet Movie Database|access-date=September 18, 2010}} While working in his first film role for Operation Mad Ball, Kovacs was filming a wild party scene after midnight; it was decided to use real champagne for realism. After a few hours of work, someone came up to Kovacs and remarked that he had been having quite a good time chasing starlets all night. Kovacs told the stranger to go to hell, since he was following the script; he later learned the stranger was Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures. Kovacs and Cohn later became friends despite the way they had met, with Cohn giving Kovacs roles in Bell, Book and Candle (1958) and It Happened to Jane (1959).{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1524203/kovacs_spends_money_quickly/|title=Ernie Kovacs Expert at Spending Cash|author=Bacon, James|page=27|date=September 4, 1960|work=The Oregon Statesman|access-date=January 6, 2015|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}

He garnered critical acclaim for film roles such as the perennially-inebriated writer in Bell, Book and Candle and as the cartoonishly-evil head of a railroad company (who resembled Orson Welles' title character in Citizen Kane) in It Happened to Jane, where he had his head shaved and his remaining hair dyed grey for the role.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=OK4xAAAAIBAJ&pg=5129,2846809&dq=kovacs+shaves+head&hl=en|title=Kovacs Gets A New (Wide) Part|date=October 11, 1958|newspaper=Ottawa Citizen|access-date=July 10, 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13845012/ernie_kovacs/|page=12|title=Kovacs Enjoys New Anonymity|date=August 8, 1958|newspaper=Miami News|access-date=July 10, 2010|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} In 1960, he played the base commander Charlie Stark in the comedy Wake Me When It's Over and the con man Frankie Cannon trying to steal John Wayne's gold mine in the western comedy, North to Alaska. His own personal favorite was said to have been the offbeat Five Golden Hours (1961), in which he portrayed a larcenous professional mourner who meets his match in a professional widow played by Cyd Charisse. Kovacs's last movie, Sail a Crooked Ship (also 1961), was released one month before his death.{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055394/|title=Sail A Crooked Ship|date=December 1961|publisher=Internet Movie Database|access-date=August 6, 2010}}

Kovacs and his first wife, Bette Wilcox, were married on August 13, 1945. When the marriage ended, he fought for custody of their children, Elizabeth ("Bette") and Kip Raleigh ("Kippie"). The court awarded Kovacs full custody upon determining that his former wife was mentally unstable. The decision was extremely unusual at the time, setting a legal precedent. Wilcox subsequently kidnapped the children, taking them to Florida.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=wiEhAAAAIBAJ&pg=1402,4911650&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Grandmother Again Held on Kidnapping|date=January 28, 1954|newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune|access-date=July 10, 2010}} After a long and expensive search, Kovacs regained custody. These events were portrayed in the television movie Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter (1984), which garnered an Emmy Award nomination for its writer, April Smith. Kovacs was portrayed by Jeff Goldblum.{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087212/|title=Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter|publisher=Internet Movie Database|access-date=September 18, 2010}}{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0807347/awards|title=April Smith (I) – Awards|work=Internet Movie Database|access-date=January 1, 2012}}

Kovacs's first wife made a legal attempt to gain custody of her two daughters soon after his death. She began August 2, 1962, by claiming {{US$|500,000|link=yes}} (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|0.5|1962|r=1}} million in {{Inflation/year|US}}) was her share of Kovacs's estate and charging that her ex-husband had abducted the girls in 1955; Kovacs had been granted legal custody of his daughters in 1952.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=IxMrAAAAIBAJ&pg=1500,3856559&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Edie Adams Gets Club Property|date=July 26, 1962|newspaper=Reading Eagle|access-date=July 17, 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0RRUAAAAIBAJ&pg=2080,5083867&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Ernie Kovacs' Widow and Divorced Wife in Custody Battle|date=August 4, 1962|work=St. Joseph News-Press|access-date=November 12, 2010}} On August 30, Wilcox filed an affidavit claiming that Kovacs's widow, Edie Adams, the stepmother to the girls, was "unfit" to care for them.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Y2gpAAAAIBAJ&pg=4822,36224&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Ex-Daytonian Files Charges in Child Case|date=September 1, 1962|newspaper=Daytona Beach Morning Journal|access-date=July 10, 2010}} Both daughters, Bette and Kippie, testified that they wanted to stay with their stepmother, Edie.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13845548/edie_with_ernies_older_girls/|page=1|title=She Wants to Stay With Edie|date=September 8, 1962|newspaper=The Palm Beach Post|access-date=November 12, 2010|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jbQrAAAAIBAJ&pg=3293,525574&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=In a Legal Tug of War|date=September 8, 1962|newspaper=The Telegraph|access-date=November 12, 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13845786/ernies_daughters_want_to_stay_with_edie/|page=11|title=People in the News|date=September 9, 1962|newspaper=The Miami News|access-date=November 12, 2010|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} Kippie's testimony was very emotional; in it she referred to Edie as "Mommy" and her birth mother as "the other lady."{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13845979/kovacs_girls_want_edie/|page=22|title=Kovacs Girls Want Edie|date=September 12, 1962|newspaper= Miami News|access-date=July 10, 2010|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} Upon hearing the verdict that the girls would remain in their home, Adams wept, saying, "This is what Ernie would have wanted. Now I can smile." Bette's reaction was "I'm so happy I can hardly express myself", after learning she and her sister would not be forced to leave Edie.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mk4cAAAAIBAJ&pg=5622,3756505&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Edie Adams Wins Custody of Children|date=September 15, 1962|newspaper=The Dispatch|access-date=July 10, 2010}}

File:Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams 1956.jpg in 1956]]

Kovacs and Adams met in 1951 when she was hired to work for his WPTZ show, Three to Get Ready. Her appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts caught the eye of Kovacs's producer, and he asked her to audition for the program. A classically trained singer, she was able to perform only three popular songs. Edie said later, "I sang them all during the audition, and if they had asked to hear another, I never would have made it."{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-oct-17-me-adams17-story.html|title=Tony award-winning actress, TV star|author=Thurber, Jon|date=October 17, 2008|newspaper=LA Times|access-date=August 16, 2010}} Quoting Kovacs, "I wish I could say I was the big shot that hired her, but it was my show in name only – the producer had all the say. Later on I did have something to say and I said it: 'Let's get married.'"

After the couple's first date, Kovacs proceeded to buy a Jaguar car, telling Adams he wanted to take her out in style. He was seriously taken with the beautiful and talented young woman, courting her with imagination and flair.{{Cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=r6Q8AAAAIBAJ&pg=1134,9683779&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=The Marquee: About Edith Adams|date=January 30, 1954|author=Kleiner, Dick|work=Gazette and Bulletin|access-date=July 11, 2010}} Kovacs's attempts to win Adams' affection included hiring a mariachi band to serenade her backstage at the Broadway musical she was performing in and the sudden gift of a diamond engagement ring, telling her to wear it until she made up her mind.{{cite book |last1= Nachman |first1=Gerald |author-link1= Gerald Nachman (journalist) |title=Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s|url=https://archive.org/details/seriouslyfunnyre00nach |url-access= registration |quote= ernie kovacs. |location=New York, NY |publisher=Pantheon Books |date=2003 |page=[https://archive.org/details/seriouslyfunnyre00nach/page/200 200] |isbn= 9780375410307 |oclc=50339527 |access-date=July 11, 2010 }} Kovacs continued this romantic quest after the show went out of town.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KCANAAAAIBAJ&pg=6698,683999&dq=ernie+kovacs+adams&hl=en|title=On Broadway|author=Kilgallen, Dorothy|date=September 2, 1954|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|access-date=November 7, 2010|author-link=Dorothy Kilgallen}}

Adams booked a six-week European cruise, which she hoped would let her make up her mind whether or not to marry Kovacs. After only three days away and many long-distance telephone calls, she curtailed her trip and returned to say "yes".{{Cite book|editor-last=Adir|editor-first=Karin|title=The Great Clowns of American Television|publisher=McFarland & Company|year=2001|pages=270|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5jr9L--C4tMC&q=edie+adams&pg=PA169|isbn=0-7864-1303-4|access-date=July 17, 2010}} They eloped and were married on September 12, 1954, in Mexico City.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tony-winning-actress-edie-adams-dead-at-81/|title=Tony-Winning Actress Edie Adams Dead at 81|date=October 16, 2008|work=CBS News|access-date=August 16, 2010}} The ceremony was presided over by former New York City mayor William O'Dwyer and was performed in Spanish, which neither Kovacs nor Adams understood; O'Dwyer had to prompt each of them to say "Sí" at the "I do" portion of the vows.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Pa8zAAAAIBAJ&pg=5269,3220593&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Nasty Old Civilian Food|author=Wilson, Earl|date=September 17, 1954|newspaper=Miami News|access-date=July 10, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Adams, who had a middle-class upbringing, was smitten by Kovacs's quirky ways; the couple remained together until his death. (She later said about Kovacs, "He treated me like a little girl, and I loved it—Women's Lib be damned!")

Adams also aided Kovacs's struggle to reclaim his two older children after the kidnapping by their mother. She also was a regular partner on his television shows. Kovacs usually introduced or addressed her in a businesslike way, as "Edith Adams". Adams was usually willing to do anything he envisioned, whether it was singing seriously, performing impersonations (including a well-regarded impression of Marilyn Monroe) or taking a pie in the face or a pratfall if and when needed. The couple had one daughter, Mia Susan Kovacs, born June 20, 1959. Mia also died in a car crash in 1982, at age 22.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KXhVAAAAIBAJ&pg=2325,4002722&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Littlest Star for the Kovacs|date=June 29, 1959|newspaper=The Miami News|access-date=March 21, 2012}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Kovacs and his family shared a 16-room apartment in Manhattan on Central Park West that seemed perfect until he went to California for his first film role in Operation Mad Ball.{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XEoEAAAAMBAJ&q=kovacs+source%3Alife+intitle%3Alife+intitle%3Amagazine&pg=PA167|title=An Electronic Funnyman And His TV Tricks|date=April 15, 1957|magazine=Life|access-date=October 15, 2010}} The experience of the totally different, laid-back lifestyle of Hollywood made a big impression on him.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9z1QAAAAIBAJ&pg=6026,3710229&dq=ernie+kovacs+californian&hl=en|title=Something Special About Ernie Kovacs|author=Hoffman, Leonard|date=September 26, 1961|newspaper=The Evening Independent|access-date=October 27, 2010}} He realized he was working too much in New York; in California he would be able to work fewer hours, do just as well or better and have more time for Edie and his daughters. At the time, he was working most of the time and sleeping about two or three hours a night.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MtANAAAAIBAJ&pg=5745,1083068&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Ernie Kovacs – Ambitious and Successful|author=Mercer, Charles|date=June 17, 1956|newspaper=St. Petersburg Times|access-date=October 16, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Kovacs claimed that he realized it was time for a change when he was telling his girls a bedtime story and found himself thinking of using it for a show instead. Kovacs relocated his family there in 1957, after Edie finished work for the Broadway play Li'l Abner.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zgcrAAAAIBAJ&pg=1588,4978040&dq=ernie+kovacs+moves+california&hl=en|author=Ovington, Reg|date=July 14, 1957|title=A TV Workhorse 'Retires' To His Own Green Pasture|newspaper=Reading Eagle|access-date=October 15, 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JSIsAAAAIBAJ&pg=3827,406522&dq=ernie+kovacs+californian&hl=en|title=Ernie, Edie Fast Becoming Californians|date=February 5, 1958|newspaper=Times Daily|access-date=November 12, 2010}}

File:Ernie Kovacs Grave.JPG

In the early morning hours of January 13, 1962,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HSMcAAAAIBAJ&pg=6745,1128022&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Comedian Ernie Kovacs Is Killed in Traffic Accident|date=January 14, 1962|newspaper=Victoria Advocate|access-date=August 26, 2013}} Kovacs lost control of his Chevrolet Corvair station wagon while turning quickly and crashed into a power pole in West Los Angeles. He was thrown halfway out the vehicle's passenger side and died almost instantly from chest and head injuries.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Cl4bAAAAIBAJ&pg=7413,3280246&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Show World Mourns Death of Kovacs|date=January 14, 1962|newspaper=Pittsburgh Press|access-date=August 26, 2013}}

A photographer arrived soon after and images of Kovacs' body{{snd}}with an unlit cigar on the pavement near his outstretched hand{{snd}}appeared in newspapers across the United States.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gOcrAAAAIBAJ&pg=1299,2680763&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=The Voice of Broadway|author=Kilgallen, Dorothy|date=June 4, 1962|newspaper=Kentucky New Era|access-date=October 27, 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HlcxAAAAIBAJ&pg=4929,1003149&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title='The Kovacs Picture' and 'More on the Photo'|date=January 17, 1962|newspaper=Lawrence Journal-World|access-date=October 27, 2010}}

In keeping with Kovacs's wishes, a simple service was held at the Beverly Hills Community Presbyterian Church.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=I-cuAAAAIBAJ&pg=6332,4303182&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Hollywood Pays Its Final Respects to Ernie Kovacs|date=January 16, 1962|newspaper=Rome News-Tribune|access-date=August 6, 2010}} The pallbearers included Ernie's best friend Jack Lemmon, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Billy Wilder, and Mervyn LeRoy.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4A8sAAAAIBAJ&pg=802,1333796&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Simple Rites For Kovacs Late Today|date=January 15, 1962|newspaper=Times Daily|access-date=August 6, 2010}} George Burns, Groucho Marx, Edward G. Robinson, Kirk Douglas, Jack Benny, James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Buster Keaton and Milton Berle also attended.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0MI9AAAAIBAJ&pg=7026,670307&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Hollywood Honors Kovacs|date=January 17, 1962|work=The Daily News Texan|access-date=October 27, 2010}} The pastor said that Kovacs had summed up his life thus: "I was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1919 to a Hungarian couple. I've been smoking cigars ever since."{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=i0ALAAAAIBAJ&pg=5477,2629365&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Star-Studded Assembly Attends Kovacs' Funeral|date=January 15, 1962|newspaper=St. Petersburg Times|access-date=August 6, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

He is buried in Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. His epitaph reads "Nothing in moderation—We all loved him."{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOHgDAAAQBAJ&q=jo+stafford&pg=PA229|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. (2 volume set)|last1=Wilson|first1=Scott|publisher=McFarland|year=2016|page=415|isbn=978-1-4766-2599-7|access-date=January 25, 2017}}

There is a street named after Kovacs in San Antonio, Texas.{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Merrisa |date=September 30, 2014 |title=San Antonio street names and groupings |url=https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/slideshow/San-Antonio-street-names-and-groupings-94695.php |website=mysanantonio.com}}

A frequent critic of the U.S. tax system, Kovacs owed the Internal Revenue Service several hundred thousand dollars in back taxes, due to his refusal to pay the bulk of them. Up to 90% of his earnings were garnished as a result. His long battles with the IRS inspired Kovacs to invest his money in a convoluted series of paper corporations in the U.S. and Canada. He would give them bizarre names, such as "The Bazooka Dooka Hicka Hocka Hookah Company".{{Cite web|url=http://www.erniekovacs.info/JoeMikolas.html|title=Conversations with Joe Mikolas|publisher=erniekovacs.info|access-date=July 12, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110314083350/http://www.erniekovacs.info/JoeMikolas.html|archive-date=March 14, 2011|df=mdy-all}} In 1961, Kovacs was served with a $75,000 lien for back taxes; that same day he bought the California Racquet Club with the apparent hope of being able to use it as a tax write-off.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YGcUAAAAIBAJ&pg=5928,847085&dq=ernie+kovacs+california&hl=en|title=The Lyons Den|author=Lyons, Leonard|date=July 8, 1961|newspaper=Toledo Blade|access-date=November 12, 2010}} The property had mortgages at the time of purchase which were later paid by his wife, Edie Adams.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FT4yAAAAIBAJ&pg=7012,2583035&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Edie Adams Once Advised Ernie To Forego Deals Until Return|author=Lyons, Leonard|date=August 6, 1962|newspaper=Lawrence Journal-World|access-date=October 16, 2010}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kJA0AAAAIBAJ&pg=3199,1903667&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=A New World for Edie Adams|date=November 18, 1962|newspaper=Gadsden Times|author=Ryan, Jack|access-date=October 15, 2010}}

His tax woes also affected Kovacs's career, forcing him to take any offered work to pay his debt.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=86Kntp6Kas8C&q=ernie+kovacs+taxes&pg=PA93|title=Heritage Auctions #7004|publisher=Heritage Auctions|access-date=October 25, 2010|isbn=9781599673370|date=January 1, 2009}} This included the ABC game show Take a Good Look, appearances on variety shows such as NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, and some of his less-memorable film roles. He also filmed an unaired 1962 pilot episode for a proposed CBS series, Medicine Man (co-starring Buster Keaton; the pilot episode titled "A Pony for Chris"). Kovacs's role was that of Dr. P. Crookshank, a traveling medicine salesman in the 1870s, who was selling Mother McGreevy's Wizard Juice, also known as "man's best friend in a bottle".{{cite news|date=February 8, 1962|author=Spiro, J.D.|title=Ernie Kovacs' Last Interview|work=The Milwaukee Journal}} This was abandoned after his death, which occurred the day after filming some scenes in Griffith Park for the pilot. CBS initially intended to broadcast the show as part of a summer replacement program, The Comedy Spot, but decided against it due to problems with Kovacs' estate.{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fBMfAAAAIBAJ&pg=7585,1565828&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title='Octavius' Cute to Point of Nausea|author=Du Brow, Rick|date=July 18, 1962|work=Sarasota Journal|access-date=September 12, 2010}} The pilot is part of the public collection of the Paley Center for Media.{{Cite web|url=http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=medicine+man&f=all&c=all&advanced=1&p=1&item=B:08659|title=Ernie Kovacs: Medicine Man (Pilot)|year=1962|publisher=Paley Center for Media|access-date=July 12, 2010}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=medicine+man&f=all&c=all&advanced=1&p=1&item=T87:0447|title=Medicine Man (Pilot)|year=1962|publisher=Paley Center for Media|access-date=July 11, 2010}}

Some of the issues regarding Kovacs' tax problems were still unresolved years after his death. Kovacs had purchased two insurance policies in 1951; his mother was named as the primary beneficiary of them. The IRS placed a lien against them both for their cash value in 1961. To stop the actions being taken against her, Mary Kovacs had to go to Federal court. The court's early 1966 ruling resolved the issue, with the last sentence of the document reading: "Prima facie, it looks as if, within the limits of discretion permitted the government by the relevant statutes, an injustice is being done to Mary Kovacs."{{cite web|url=http://ftp.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/355/355.F2d.349.19953_1.html|title=Mary KOVACS, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.|author=United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit|publisher=Courts.gov|date=January 7, 1966|access-date=February 9, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727213132/http://ftp.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/355/355.F2d.349.19953_1.html|archive-date=July 27, 2011|df=mdy-all}}

Adams, who married and divorced twice after Kovacs' death, refused help from celebrity friends who planned a benefit for the purpose.{{Cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TkkEAAAAMBAJ&q=edie+adams&pg=PA93-IA2|title=Edie Wins A Big One|author=Bunzel, Peter|date=April 5, 1963|magazine=Life|access-date=July 17, 2010}} "I can take care of my own children," she said, and resolved to accept offers only from those who wanted to hire her for her talents. Adams eventually paid all of Kovacs's debts.{{efn|At the time of his death. Kovacs was an estimated $500,000 in debt (equivalent to over $4.5 million in 2021 dollars).}}

Most of Kovacs's early television work was performed live: some kinescopes have survived.{{cite web |title=The Ernie Kovacs Collection |url=https://www.youtube.com/show/SC5BcpawgzSKFZ_lQIBzE_bA?season=1 |website=youtube.com |access-date=13 August 2023 |quote=1 season • Comedy • English audio • 1951 Free with ads TV-PG}}{{cite web |author1=YouTube Movies & TV |title=The Ernie Kovacs Show-December 19, 1955 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGumRPQJFH4 |website=YouTube |date=December 22, 2022 |access-date=13 August 2023 |language=en |quote=Free with ads TV-PG CC}}{{cite web |author1=Kovacs Corner |title=Ernie Kovacs |url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL956F02CBCAF6F525 |website=YouTube |access-date=13 August 2023}} Some videotapes of his ABC specials were preserved; others, such as his quirky game show, Take a Good Look, were available mostly in short segments until recently, with the release of some complete, videotaped episodes. After Kovacs's death, Adams discovered not only that her husband owed ABC a great deal of money, but that some networks were systematically erasing and reusing tapes of Kovacs's shows or disposing of the kinescopes and videotapes. She succeeded in purchasing the rights to surviving footage with the proceeds from Kovacs' insurance policy and her own earnings after Kovacs' IRS debts were paid.{{cite news|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists/19980801roddy.asp|title=Edie Hits a High Note|author=Roddy, Dennis|date=August 1, 1998|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|access-date=July 12, 2010}}{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rZkiAAAAIBAJ&pg=2689,7886996&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Edie Adams Arranges Ernie Kovacs' Special|author=Thomas, Bob|date=March 27, 1968|work=Sumter Daily Item|access-date=July 16, 2010}} In March 1996, Adams detailed her experiences before the National Film Preservation Board.{{Cite web| last =Adams| first =Edie| author-link =Edie Adams| title =Television/Video Preservation Study: Los Angeles Public Hearing| work =National Film Preservation Board| publisher =Library of Congress| date =March 6, 1996| url =https://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-film-preservation-board/documents/tvadams.pdf| access-date =July 10, 2010}} (PDF)

File:Ernie Kovacs's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.jpg

Adams first used some of the videotapes she had purchased for a 1968 ABC television special, The Comedy of Ernie Kovacs; to produce the show, she hired Kovacs's former producer and editor. The hour-long program was sponsored by Kovacs's former sponsor, Dutch Masters.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/?spot=1523438|title=Kovacs Cult May Be In Making|author=Klemsrud, Judy|work=Corpus-Christi Caller-Times|date=April 7, 1968|page=81|access-date=January 5, 2015|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4710895/edie_saved_ernies_tapes/|title=Edie Saved Ernie's Tapes|date=March 31, 1968|page=30|work=The Independent Record |access-date=March 23, 2016|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}

Most of Kovacs's salvaged work is available to researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles Library's Department of Special Collections: additional material is available at the Paley Center for Media.{{Cite web|url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/ft729006px|title=Finding Aid for the Ernie Kovacs Papers|publisher=Online Archive of California|access-date=September 18, 2010}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.paleycenter.org/collection?advanced=1&q=ernie+kovacs&c=all&f=all&x=13&y=12|title=Ernie Kovacs Collection|date=July 2008 |publisher=Paley Center for Media|access-date=September 18, 2010}}

Telecasts of edited compilations of some of his work by PBS (station WTTW, Chicago) under the title The Best of Ernie Kovacs in 1977, inspired the film.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ObU0AAAAIBAJ&pg=3234,7194044&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Old Ernie Kovacs Films Returning|author=Sharbutt, Jay|date=June 5, 1976|newspaper=Kentucky New Era|access-date=July 17, 2010}} These broadcasts were made available on VHS and DVD. The DVD set features extras that are not in the VHS set. The series was narrated by long time friend, Jack Lemmon. The 1984 television film Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter helped return Kovacs to the public's attention, though the show emphasized his bid to retrieve his kidnapped children instead of his professional life. Jeff Goldblum portrayed Kovacs, Madolyn Smith portrayed Bette and Melody Anderson portrayed Adams in the movie. Edie Adams appeared in a cameo in this film, playing Mae West; it was one of the impressions she performed in shows with Kovacs.{{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/15987/Ernie-Kovacs-Between-the-Laughter/overview |title=Movies-Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter |access-date=July 11, 2010 |first=Stephen |last=Farber |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102211817/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/15987/Ernie-Kovacs-Between-the-Laughter/overview |archive-date=November 2, 2012 |url-status=dead |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |date=2012 |df=mdy }}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=beYNAAAAIBAJ&pg=7159,3233920&dq=ernie+kovacs&hl=en|title=Edie Adams Has Part in Kovacs Revival|date=May 14, 1984|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|access-date=July 11, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13844599/ernie_kovacs_vegas_star/|title=Ernie Kovacs Vegas Star|date=November 29, 1957|page=17|author=Wilson, Earl|newspaper=Miami News|access-date=July 11, 2010|via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}

During the early 1990s, The Comedy Channel broadcast a series of Kovacs' shows under the generic title of The Ernie Kovacs Show. The series included both the ABC specials and some of his 1950s shows from NBC. By 2008, there were no broadcast, cable, or satellite channels broadcasting any of Kovacs's television work, other than his panel appearances on What's My Line? on the Game Show Network. {{citation needed|date=September 2014}}

On April 19, 2011, Shout! Factory released The Ernie Kovacs Collection, six DVDs spanning Kovacs's television career. The company's website also offers an extra disc with material from Tonight! and The Ernie Kovacs Show, as well as a rare color kinescope of the complete 30-minute 1957 NBC color broadcast featuring "Eugene".{{cite web|url=http://www.shoutfactorystore.com/prod.aspx?pfid=5257356|title=Ernie Kovacs Collection|publisher=Shout Factory|access-date=January 12, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110117025038/http://www.shoutfactorystore.com/prod.aspx?pfid=5257356|archive-date=January 17, 2011|df=mdy-all}} On October 23, 2012, Shout! Factory released The Ernie Kovacs Collection: Volume 2 on DVD.{{cite web|url=http://www.shoutfactory.com/?q=node/216074|title=Kovacs Collection Volume 2 Release|publisher=Shout Factory|access-date=November 12, 2012|date=October 23, 2012}} The 49 surviving episodes of the game show Take a Good Look were released on DVD by Shout! Factory on October 17, 2017.

In 1961, Kovacs recorded a record album of poetry in the character of Percy Dovetonsils named Percy Dovetonsils Thpeakth, but was unable to release it due to contractual obligations with other record companies. After he was given the masters, Kovacs donated them to a Los Angeles area hospital. Adams was able to re-acquire the tapes in 1967, and they remained part of her private collection until her death in 2008. The tapes were labeled as movie material and were thought to be such until further examination proved they were Kovacs as Percy reading his poems with no music background. The album was finally released in 2012.{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/percy-dovetonsilsthpeaks-mw0002371641|title=Percy Dovetonsils Thpeakth|author=Kovacs, Ernie|publisher=Omnivore|year=2012|access-date=September 8, 2013}}{{cite web|url=http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/culture/2012/04/5782320/prescient-avant-garde-comedy-ernie-kovacs-and-edie-adams-recovered-c|title=The prescient, avant-garde comedy of Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams, recovered classics of early television|author=Matos, Michaelangelo|date=April 27, 2012|publisher=Capital New York|access-date=September 8, 2012}}{{cite web|url=http://www.erniekovacs.info/percy_d.html|title=Perthy Dovetonthils Thpeakth|publisher=erniekovacs.info|access-date=July 12, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110314083420/http://www.erniekovacs.info/percy_d.html|archive-date=March 14, 2011|df=mdy-all}}{{cite web|url=http://www.broadcastpioneers.com/kovacsinphilly.html|title=Ernie Kovacs-WPTZ|year=2005|publisher=Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia|access-date=July 9, 2010}}

Kovacs was inducted posthumously into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia's Hall of Fame in 1992.{{cite web|url=http://www.broadcastpioneers.com/p-hall.html|title=Hall of Fame|year=1992|publisher=Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia|access-date=July 31, 2012}}

• Operation Mad Ball (1957) (with Jack Lemmon) as Capt. Paul Lock
• Bell, Book and Candle (1958) (with James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Jack Lemmon) as Sidney Redlitch
• It Happened to Jane (1959) (with Doris Day and Jack Lemmon) as Harry Foster Malone
• Our Man in Havana (1959) (with Alec Guinness and Noël Coward) as Capt. Segura
• Wake Me When It's Over (1960) (with Dick Shawn) as Capt. Charlie Stark
• Strangers When We Meet (1960) (with Kirk Douglas and Kim Novak) as Roger Altar
• North to Alaska (1960) (with John Wayne) as Frankie Canon
• Pepe (1960) (with Cantinflas) as Immigration Inspector
• Five Golden Hours (1961) (with Cyd Charisse and George Sanders) as Aldo Bondi
• Sail a Crooked Ship (1961, with Robert Wagner) as Bugsy G. Foglemeyer aka The Captain

• {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5y9zBgAAQBAJ&q=%22ernie+kovacs%22+%22silent+show%22+%22with+the+possible+exception+of+percy+dovetonsils%22&pg=PA65|title=Politics and the American Television Comedy: A Critical Survey from I Love Lucy through South Park|last=Greene|first=Doyle|year=2007|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-476-60829-7}}
• {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/broughttoyoubypo00samu|title=Brought to You By Postwar Television Advertising and the American Dream|last=Samuel|first=Lawrence R.|year=2001|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-77763-7|url-access=registration}} via Project MUSE {{subscription required}}
• {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q_dekIDkPtMC&q=ernie+kovacs&pg=PA343|title=TV by design: modern art and the rise of network television|last=Spigel|first=Lynn|year=2009|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-76968-4}}

• Adams, Edie (1990). Sing a Pretty Song: The "Offbeat" Life of Edie Adams, Including the Ernie Kovacs Years. William Morrow; {{ISBN|0-688-07341-7}}
• Barker, David Brian (1982). "Every Moment's a Gift": Ernie Kovacs in Hollywood, 1957–1962, a Master's Thesis. Available for viewing at the library at the University of Texas at Austin {{ISBN missing}}
• Cassidy, Mary Lou (ca.1970) (never finished) master's thesis on Ernie Kovacs in David Walley research material about Ernie Kovacs, ca. 1972-1975, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles
• Rico, Diana (1990). Kovacsland: A Biography of Ernie Kovacs. Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich; {{ISBN|0-15-147294-7}}
• Walley, David (1975). Nothing in Moderation. Drake Publishers; {{ISBN|0-87749-738-9}}
  Reprinted as The Ernie Kovacs Phile by David Walley, Bolder Books, 1978 and Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 1987; {{ISBN|0-918282-06-3}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kovacs |first1=Ernie |last2=Mills |first2=Josh |last3=Model |first3=Ben |last4=Thomas |first4=Pat |last5=Magnuson |first5=Ann |author5-link=Ann Magnuson |title=Ernie in Kovacsland: Writings, Drawings, and Photographs from Television's Original Genius |date=25 July 2023 |publisher=Fantagraphics Books |isbn=978-1-68396-667-8 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=Ernie Kovacs was TV's original madcap genius. A new book tells why his influence and legacy matter |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2023-07-20/ernie-kovacs-kovacsland |access-date=13 August 2023 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=20 July 2023}}

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist|group=note}}

{{Reflist|25em}}

{{Commons category}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• [http://www.erniekovacs.com The Official Ernie Kovacs Website]

;Works

• [http://madcoversite.com/ugoi-ernie_kovacs.html Kovacs' 16 MAD magazine articles List]

;Papers

• [https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/ft729006px/entire_text/ Finding Aid] for the [https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/ft729006px/ Ernie Kovacs Papers(Collection 1105)] UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles, Gift of Edie Adams

;Video

• {{The Interviews about|ernie-kovacs}}
• [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEqaUJ6hZXSrt3TuTTr4xNA Ernie Kovacs] - Topic - YouTube
• [https://archive.org/details/Jack_Benny_-_Ernie_Kovacs_Guests The Jack Benny Program with Ernie Kovacs as guest] at the Internet Archive
• [https://archive.org/details/Operation_Madball_trailer Operation Mad Ball Trailer (1957)] at the Internet Archive
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKp_yxloCn4 Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius] - John Barbour's documentary
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFl2CNvvuKc Ernie Kovacs Dutch Masters Cigar Commercial]

;Metadata

• https://catalog.afi.com/Person/48853-Ernie-Kovacs
• {{TCMDb name|105013%7C48853}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20190207050439/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba1770289]
• https://www.emmys.com/bios/ernie-kovacs
• {{IMDb name}}

;Fansites

• [http://www.erniekovacs.net/ Ernie Kovacs Dot Net] – fansite
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090105200357/http://www.erniekovacs.info/ Kovacsland Online!] – fansite

{{Ernie Kovacs}}

{{Madcontribs}}

{{1987 Television Hall of Fame}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovacs, Ernie}}

Category:1919 births

Category:1962 deaths

Category:20th-century American comedians

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:American comedy writers

Category:American game show hosts

Category:American male comedians

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:American people of Hungarian descent

Category:American satirists

Category:American sketch comedians

Category:American comics writers

Category:American television talk show hosts

Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)

Category:Comedians from Trenton, New Jersey

Category:Directors Guild of America Award winners

Category:Mad (magazine) people

Category:Male actors from Trenton, New Jersey

Category:Primetime Emmy Award winners

Category:Road incident deaths in California

Category:Trenton Central High School alumni

Category:Writers from Trenton, New Jersey