ernie kovacs – The Comedy Bureau

January 15, 2019

ernie kovacs, retrospective, tv history, ucla, westwood

So much of the weird comedy that you know and love today could trace a pretty much direct line all the way back to Ernie Kovacs (go down a YouTube rabbit hole and you’ll see what we’re saying) and the UCLA Film and Television Archive is doing a two night retrospective of the TV comedy pioneer

At the Billy Wilder Theater, they’ll be “…presenting two evenings of Ernie programming entitled Kovacsland Forever: Ernie Kovacs Centennial to the Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood. On Friday, the archive will screen a variety of Kovacs clips and programs on the big screen. Some of his most iconic comedy and some very rare clips will be screened. The evening will also feature a panel discussion with Moderator Susan King and yours truly, who runs the Kovacs estate. On Saturday, the archive will screen one of Kovacs best known & best films Our Man in Havana.”

Tickets for either night, 7:30PM both at Fri., Jan. 18th & Sat., Jan. 19th, are $10 each and you can (and really should) get them here.

The rest of our listings for comedy shows, events, screenings, open mics, maps, and more can be found at www.thecomedybureau.com.

All of Ernie Kovacs’ “Take a Good Look” Is Now in a Collector’s Box Set

October 17, 2017

Uncategorized

ernie kovacs, shout factory, take a good look

Both for comedy and television, Ernie Kovacs was a trailblazing pioneer. There are plenty of rabbit holes of which you can go down in exploring his career and the subsequent influence he’s had on absurdist humor (Seriously, a bit of googling Kovacs will lead to a lot more googling of everything he’s done).

One of those rabbit holes is his game show Take A Good Look, which “…turns the secret guest show formula on its ear and almost inverts it. In Take A Good Look, it is the host who gives the panel hints about the secret guest’s identity, and in the form of surreal sight gags, blackouts and sketches. The clues only really make sense if you know who the guest is to begin with. Throughout the series’ run, different approaches were taken to address this.”

Shout Factory has put all 49 episodes on a 7 DVD disc set and is offering an Ernie Kovacs sketch comedy special to the first 1000 orders.

You can (and should) get Ernie Kovacs: Take a Good Look here.