Ernie is the fount from which just about every other visual comedian of the last half of the twentieth century has taken their influences. There will never be another like him.

I recall seeing this sketch for the first time on a local TV station the week after Ernie Kovacs died.

Decades ahead of his time Ernie inspired a whole generation of satirest with his inovative use of the new technologies that television offered beyond simply delivering drama ,or comedy into Americas living rooms on a weekly basis. his knack for the abstract and sureal captured our imaginationswith his unique point of veiw never ceasing to confound his audiance . In the early days of cable tv ,with the advent of public access ,l was one of many trying to emulate his technics with my own attempt

Kovacs influenced many of us. In my opinion, he set the standard television sketch comedy shows. If you can find your Shortwave tapes I'd like to see them myself.

Ernie Kovacs + Goon Show = Firesign Theatre.

that attempt was a show l produced in NY for the new manhatten cable network ,called The Shortwave Show ,Saterday nights ,at 10:30 ,on channel D.Just watching Ernie now ,brings back memories of what we tried to acheive ,using his pioneering work as a template. Sadly no examples of The Shortwave show survive to my knowledge exist today ,haveing been done live . lf anyone does have any of it on tape ,please ,do post it ,it would mean so much to see "Discophobia "or"The Mallet and the Mouse" again

Jerry Lewis gets a lot of praise for his visual gags in his self-directed Paramount films, but Ernie was way ahead of him and produced so much more content. Jerry was just a much better business man.

Ernie at his best.

It reminds me of the French Theater or the Absurd. This was done at the same time Ionesco wrote Rhinoceros. This guy was a genius.

Eugenius.

The theme music performed here in the intro is "The Golden Age Polka".

I thought it was brilliant when I was nine, and still think it's amazing. Where can I get that harp ring tone?!

I wanted to know why does he sound as if he is walking with wet shoes?

Fast forward to 16:35. You can figure out how he does that, right?

Thanx for your intrest,I if I could pull any epsds out of my hat l would ,unfortunatly,Jim Cladick,of ETC studios,where the show was broadcast live ,would not use any of the 3/4 inch tapes l provided for him to strike copys of the live show for me,ridiculously claiming "If they wern't brand new tapes,they would damage his machines " he didn't like me ,ever since the day l had a wild looking little punk rock girl chainsaw a stack of disco records in half,l taped one episode ,but the ex got it...