Rip-Off Alert!
If you already own the excellent 6-disc Ernie Kovacs set that Shout Factory released last year, do NOT buy this disc. This release is nothing more than Disc #5 of that six-disc set repackaged, even to the extent of printing a new label on the disc itself. When you pop it into your dvd player, it will come up as "Disc 5" of that set. I can't believe Shout Factory is pulling this kind of nonsense. I have been very pleased with their product offerings in the past, but I guess those days are over -- I will be very leery of future Shout Factory offerings for fear that they are nothing but retreads of what I already own. Shame on you Shout Factory!
Ernie Kovacs at the end
This series of eight half-hour specials from 1961-1962 are essential viewing. There's no other way of putting it. The nice folks at Amazon.com will only allow me to rate it a maximum of five stars. I would give it ten if I could.
In the early 1950s an article was written called, "Kovacs Hates TV". This doesn't surprise me in the least. Radicals are seldom satisfied with things as they are - and Ernie was about as radical as they come. He changed everything. At a time when no one knew what to do with the new invention of videotape, Ernie Kovacs made it sing and dance. He was no mere, run-of-the-mill, fifties television comedian. He was in fact the world's very first video artist - incredible when you consider the fact that the term "video art" did not come into existence until 1966, four years after his passing. Even now, despite a half-century of video's technological evolution, Ernie's work still astounds.
Late on the rainy night of January 13, 1962, Ernie...
Where Are the First Three Specials?
As in Shout Factory's Ernie Kovacs box, this collection features only the last five of Kovacs' eight half-hour monthly specials for ABC. Assuming the company withheld these initial 1961 episodes for some future project, I'm baffled as to why they weren't included in this single-disc release.
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