Ernie Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was an American comedian whose uninhibited, often ad-libbed, and visually experimental comic style came to influence numerous television comedy programs for years after his death in an automobile accident. Such iconic shows as Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Uncle Floyd Show, Saturday Night Live and even Captain Kangaroo, Sesame Street and The Electric Company, and ...
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Ernie Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was an American comedian whose uninhibited, often ad-libbed, and visually experimental comic style came to influence numerous television comedy programs for years after his death in an automobile accident. Such iconic shows as Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Uncle Floyd Show, Saturday Night Live and even Captain Kangaroo, Sesame Street and The Electric Company, and TV hosts such as David Letterman and Craig Ferguson are seen as influenced by Kovacs.
Born to Hungarian immigrant parents, Kovacs was influenced deeply by his Trenton Central High School drama teacher, Harold Van Kirk, and thus went to acting school after his 1937 graduation. His first paid entertainment work was as a disc jockey on Trenton's WTTM radio, which led eventually to his first television job in 1949, a show called Three to Get Ready, at NBC's Philadelphia affiliate, WPTZ. Three to Get Ready was groundbreaking, as the first regularly...
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