
Here's
Edie: The Edie Adams Collection (MVD
Visual DVD Set)/The Ernie
Kovacs Collection + Ernie
Kovacs: The ABC Specials
(Shout Factory! DVD Sets)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B+ Episodes: B+
True
innovators in any medium are few and far between, but it makes
matters worse when they and their work gets lost to history, in the
shuffle and even becomes literally lost as films and tapes are not
archived properly. This can include teams and even married couples.
In television, couple was more daring, surreal, bold and abstract in
their time than Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams. In the early days of
live TV and black and white videotape when that was a new medium
originally created to save money on film costs, the couple pushed the
limits of what was considered the norm at that time.
They
would blur the lines between advertising and the actual programs in
odd ways on purpose, spoof people and events in ways that came out of
nowhere and understood that TV was not just radio with picture like
so many had, but that it was a new medium to do something new with.
The result was some remarkable, surreal and still enduring work that
influenced everyone from david Letterman, to Frank Zappa to The
Beatles and Andy Warhol. We lost Kovacs far sooner than we should
have, but Adams made the brilliant and (as was the case with her and
Kovacs to begin with) visionary decision to (as only the likes of
Jerry Lewis was doing at the time) start an archive of all the film
and tape of everything her and her late husband had made. The result
is one of the most important independent archives of TV history
survives and has now been issued on three terrific, extended DVD
releases (and we hope counting).
First
we look at Here's
Edie: The Edie Adams Collection
not only offers her own series that ran from 1962 - 64 in a 4 DVD
set, but adds clips from the Kovacs show from 1951 - 56 and a 1965
promo film focusing on her music album and feature film projects of
the time. One of the most beautiful performers of her time, her
Marilyn Monroe impersonation was always as hauntingly chilling as it
offered an uncanny accuracy beyond words that captured the legend
better than most, but it was her quasi-Mae West impersonation
promoting a certain cigar producer that gave her and her husband
rare, unheard of creative control and both of them knew what to do
with it. I was already thrilled and stunned with the Kovacs DVD sets
that came out, so when this Adams set was announced, I though it was
great news and as a result, we have here one of the best classic TV
on DVD releases we will see all year and comes with a great booklet
on all of it.
Her
talent was more than recognized as top rate at the time to the point
that guests on these shows include Dick Shawn, Peter Falk, Sir
Michael Redgrave, Don Rickles, Cesar Romero, Rowan & Martin (her
and Kovacs work definitely influenced Laugh-In),
Buddy Hackett, Bob Hope, Zsa Zsa Gabor in wild peak form, Mitzi
McCall & Charlie Brill, Sammy Davis Jr., Cliff Norton,
Terry-Thomas, Spike Jones and Soupy Sales. In addition, she also
attracted some of the greatest music talent in the business including
Jerry Fielding, Andre Previn, Duke Ellington, Stan Getz, Hoagy
Carmichael, Lionel Hampton, Al Hirt, Nancy Wilson, Count Basie, Bobby
Darin, Woody Herman, John Raitt and Johnny Mathis among others. Hard
to believe this shows has barely been seen in 50 years and has all
this guest talent on top of Adams herself, but that is how great this
set is. Don't miss it!
Yet
this was all preceded by Adams work with her husband and two sets (so
far) have been issued of their groundbreaking, landmark work on his
show. The
Ernie Kovacs Collection
and Ernie
Kovacs: The ABC Specials
(a single DVD on the larger set) offer more rich, amazing,
ahead-of-their-time work from the talented power couple over the
beginning o their careers and the six DVDs cover six eras:
1)
The
Early Years
has episodes of It's
Time for Ernie,
Ernie
In Kovacsland,
Kovacs
On The Corner
and Kovacs
Unlimited,
plus bonus May 1951 baseball film he did in his own style, a film on
how that was made, George Schlatter & Jolene Brand interviewed
about working with Ernie (et al), The
Mysterious Knockwurst
short, a 1952 8mm film on the set with the Kovacs by Andy McCay and a
featurette on his 1987 ATAS Hall of Fame induction (Academy of
Television Arts & Sciences) all show how early he established his
undeniable legacy.
2)
The
NBC Morning Show
adds footage from the surviving 75 kinescope copies of his self-named
show and we get a nice selection of them plus five bonus clips.
3)
The
NBC Evening Show
adds footage from the evening/nighttime version of his show and we
get a bonus clip of test footage from his Superclod
skit.
4)
The
Late 1950s
offers the Color
Carnival
version of his show with no dialogue whatsoever, 1959 Kovacs
On Music
show and panel game show Take
A Good Look
(1959 - 1961) with two bonus features attached to that show: a sales
film and clues to one of the mystery guests, plus a clip from the
Paul Killiam-produced Silents
Please
with Kovacs on silent movies and a short of Kovacs on the set of
making the spy film Our
Man In Havana
that includes a commentary by Eric Grayson.
5)
The
ABC Specials
(sold separately as noted) was more groundbreaking work from 1961 to
1962 when 8 specials were produced. 4 through 8 survive and are
presented here in their entirety. Cigars commercials are the bonus
feature.
6)
Classic
Pieces
rounds out this amazing set and includes other loose, surviving
skirts from his morning and evening NBC shows, with bonus footage
that includes more cigar ads, an unusual trailer for the Kovacs film
Operation
Mad Ball
(May 1957) and 1959 promo for the film It
Happened To Jane
entitled It
Happened To Ernie.
This
set also has a high quality booklet with text and tech info, but a
few essays as well explaining details of the Kovacs careers and work
here, plus work that (at least for now we hope) work that has not
survived including shows for the long defunct DuMont network. This
has been out for a little while and though it sold decently, it
should still be a set everyone is talking about and it would be nice
it the Edie
set boosted this one as well.
The
1.33 X 1 image on both sets is usually in black and white, usually on
videotape and sometimes in kinescopes, but they look as good as they
likely are ever going to while the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono in
all programs (save maybe some simple stereo on the rare, recent
recording) is in clean, decent shape for its age, but like the video,
kinescope and film footage, can show its age and some minor flaws
throughout.
-
Nicholas Sheffo