Ernie Kovacs & Early TV Comedy: Nothing in Moderation

Book Description

Among the pioneers of television, Ernie Kovacs was one of the most original and imaginative comedians. His zany, irreverent, and surprising humor not only entertained audiences throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, but also inspired a host of later comedies and comedians, including Monty Python, David Letterman, much of Saturday Night Live, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, Captain Kangaroo, and even Sesame Street. Kovacs created laughter through wildly creative comic jokes, playful characterizations, hilarious insights, and wacky experiments. “Nothing in moderation,” his motto and epitaph, sums up well Kovacs’s wholehearted approach to comedy and life.

In this book, Andrew Horton offers the first sustained look at Ernie Kovacs’s wide-ranging and lasting contributions to the development of TV comedy. He discusses in detail Kovacs’s work in New York, which included The Ernie Kovacs Show (CBS prime time 1952-1953), The Ernie Kovacs Show (NBC daytime variety 1956-1957), Tonight (NBC late-night comedy/variety 1956-1957), and a number of quiz shows. Horton also looks at Kovacs’s work in Los Angeles and in feature film comedy. He vividly describes how Kovacs and his comic co-conspirators created offbeat characters and zany situations that subverted expectations and upended the status quo. Most of all, Horton demonstrates that Kovacs grasped the possibility for creating a fresh genre of comedy through the new medium of television and exploited it to the fullest.

中文：

书名：Ernie Kovacs & Early TV Comedy: Nothing in Moderation

在电视的先驱中，Ernie Kovacs是最具原创性和想象力的喜剧演员之一。他滑稽、不敬和令人惊讶的幽默不仅在20世纪50年代和60年代初给观众带来了娱乐，还激发了许多后来的喜剧和喜剧演员的灵感，包括蒙蒂·蟒蛇、大卫·莱特曼和许多 Saturday Night Live, 罗文和马丁的笑声, Captain Kangaroo, and even Sesame Street。科瓦奇通过极具创意的喜剧笑话、诙谐的人物刻画、滑稽的洞察力和古怪的实验创造了笑声。他的座右铭和墓志铭很好地概括了科瓦奇对喜剧和生活的全心全意的态度。

在这本书中，安德鲁·霍顿首次持续地审视了厄尼·科瓦奇对电视喜剧发展做出的广泛而持久的贡献。他详细讨论了科瓦奇在纽约的工作，其中包括 Ernie Kovacs秀 (CBS黄金时间1952-1953)， Ernie Kovacs秀 (NBC日间综艺1956-1957)， Tonight (NBC深夜喜剧/综艺1956-1957)，以及一些智力竞赛节目。霍顿还研究了科瓦奇在洛杉矶和故事片喜剧中的工作。他生动地描述了科瓦奇和他的漫画同谋如何创造离奇的角色和滑稽的场景，颠覆了人们的预期，颠覆了现状。最重要的是，霍顿证明了科瓦奇抓住了通过电视这一新媒体创造一种新的喜剧流派的可能性，并充分利用了这一点。