Silent Show
Encyclopedia
Silent Show was a half-hour television comedy special created by, and starring, Ernie Kovacs
. It was broadcast in the United States on the NBC
network in 1957, and on the ABC
network in 1961. It was selected by the United States as the only television program screened at the 1958 Worlds Fair in Brussels
.
NBC had another reason for this special: a hole in its lineup for a particular Friday night. After Jerry Lewis
broke up his longtime partnership with Dean Martin
, NBC had offered Lewis the opportunity to host his own ninety-minute color TV special 9:30–11 PM (EST) on Friday January 19, 1957. Lewis decided to use only the first sixty minutes, leaving the network thirty minutes to fill. No one could be found to take over a time slot following the solo television premiere of a comedy superstar, other than Kovacs, who was more than willing to try something new. In an interview prior to the show's airing, Kovacs described his work as "radio in reverse", saying that radio provided dialogue, leaving listeners to use imagination to fill in the visual details. In presenting a silent half-hour with Eugene, he supplied the pictures and left the dialogue up to the viewer's imagination.
Kovacs began the show with this:
The NBC version aired live; a rare color kinescope survives and is included on the DVD box set, "The Ernie Kovacs Collection." A second version of the show was created on B&W videotape and broadcast November 10, 1961, on the ABC network. An excerpt of the color show was aired as part of the NBC 50th Anniversary Special in 1976.
When Kovacs outlined his plan for a 30 minute silent broadcast to NBC, the network's reaction was one of disbelief. During rehearsals for the program, network executives made disparaging remarks. Kovacs became angry and walked out, telling them to show a western film they had in reserve instead; he was then able to proceed as he wanted. Kovacs' wife, Edie Adams
, recalled that this experience was the reason Ernie wrote the novel Zoomar.
Excluding Kovacs' opening monologue, commercials, and closing credits, the main body of the show runs about twenty minutes. Kovacs played "Eugene", a bumbling character he had created during his 1956 stint as a continuing guest host of the Tonight Show, filling in for Steve Allen
on Monday and Tuesday nights. A case can be made that this show is actually called Eugene, because that word is the title that appears when the main part of the show starts.
Within the show, no one talks. Eugene unwittingly annoys the people around him with his noisy antics. He is befuddled by simple activities that don't turn out quite right, yet he can perform actions that seem magical with little effort. Sets are minimal.
Eugene draws a table and lamp on a blank wall and is puzzled when the drawn light won't turn on, until it dawns on him to draw a power outlet with a plugged-in electrical cord leading to the lamp — and the drawn bulb lights up. Books on a library shelf are filled with sound: War and Peace is all cannons and gunfire, until Eugene finds, at the end of the volume, a live dove, which flies away; the pages of Camille cough; removing the volume of "The Old Man and the Sea" from the shelf causes a flood of water.
Sight gags, sound effects, and musical montages abound, as do intriguing possibilities of what's possible with the new combined technology of color, sound, film cuts, and video effects. A repairman works with a screwdriver on thin air, and, when done, flips a invisible switch — a television screen (showing, of course, a western) materializes out of nowhere, then vanishes when the repairman flips the unseen switch off. Marble statues come to life, then crumble to pieces. A maid sucks up pieces of crumpled paper with an invisible vacuum cleaner.
Throughout, Eugene, at worst, is only mildly perplexed—at least until the end, when, seated at the side of a long table, he finds the contents of his lunchbox keep rolling away, a plumb-bobbed plum is at an angle off vertical, and milk from a thermos misses the cup directly below it.
As a result of the publicity for this TV special, Kovacs received a movie offer from Columbia Studios (which resulted in his role in the film Operation Mad Ball
), and appeared on the cover of the April 15, 1957 issue of LIFE
magazine.
In 1962, Kovacs and his co-director, Joe Behar, received the Directors Guild of America Award for the second version of this program shown over the ABC network.
Ernie Kovacs
Ernie Kovacs was a Hungarian American comedian and actor.Kovacs' uninhibited, often ad-libbed, and visually experimental comedic style came to influence numerous television comedy programs for years after his death in an automobile accident...
. It was broadcast in the United States on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
network in 1957, and on the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
network in 1961. It was selected by the United States as the only television program screened at the 1958 Worlds Fair in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
.
Background
In 1956, NBC, wanting to present to the public an example of the new technology of color television, hired Ernie Kovacs to write and star in one of the first color television shows to be broadcast. Although NBC was more interested in the "visual splendor" of what would be shown, Ernie Kovacs went one step further and, aside from his opening monologue and the Dutch Masters cigar commercials, decided to banish all human conversation from the show.NBC had another reason for this special: a hole in its lineup for a particular Friday night. After Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
broke up his longtime partnership with Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
, NBC had offered Lewis the opportunity to host his own ninety-minute color TV special 9:30–11 PM (EST) on Friday January 19, 1957. Lewis decided to use only the first sixty minutes, leaving the network thirty minutes to fill. No one could be found to take over a time slot following the solo television premiere of a comedy superstar, other than Kovacs, who was more than willing to try something new. In an interview prior to the show's airing, Kovacs described his work as "radio in reverse", saying that radio provided dialogue, leaving listeners to use imagination to fill in the visual details. In presenting a silent half-hour with Eugene, he supplied the pictures and left the dialogue up to the viewer's imagination.
Kovacs began the show with this:
"There's a great deal of conversation that takes place on television. From way in the morning 6 AM...to all hours of the night. I thought perhaps...you might like to spend a half hour without hearing any dialogue at all."
The NBC version aired live; a rare color kinescope survives and is included on the DVD box set, "The Ernie Kovacs Collection." A second version of the show was created on B&W videotape and broadcast November 10, 1961, on the ABC network. An excerpt of the color show was aired as part of the NBC 50th Anniversary Special in 1976.
When Kovacs outlined his plan for a 30 minute silent broadcast to NBC, the network's reaction was one of disbelief. During rehearsals for the program, network executives made disparaging remarks. Kovacs became angry and walked out, telling them to show a western film they had in reserve instead; he was then able to proceed as he wanted. Kovacs' wife, Edie Adams
Edie Adams
Edie Adams was an American singer, Broadway, television and film actress and comedienne. Adams, a Tony Award winner, "both embodied and winked at the stereotypes of fetching chanteuse and sexpot blonde." She was well-known for her impersonations of female stars on stage and television, most...
, recalled that this experience was the reason Ernie wrote the novel Zoomar.
Summary
Steve Allen
Steve Allen may refer to:*Steve Allen , American musician, comedian, and writer*Steve Allen , presenter on the London-based talk radio station LBC 97.3...
on Monday and Tuesday nights. A case can be made that this show is actually called Eugene, because that word is the title that appears when the main part of the show starts.
Within the show, no one talks. Eugene unwittingly annoys the people around him with his noisy antics. He is befuddled by simple activities that don't turn out quite right, yet he can perform actions that seem magical with little effort. Sets are minimal.
Eugene draws a table and lamp on a blank wall and is puzzled when the drawn light won't turn on, until it dawns on him to draw a power outlet with a plugged-in electrical cord leading to the lamp — and the drawn bulb lights up. Books on a library shelf are filled with sound: War and Peace is all cannons and gunfire, until Eugene finds, at the end of the volume, a live dove, which flies away; the pages of Camille cough; removing the volume of "The Old Man and the Sea" from the shelf causes a flood of water.
Sight gags, sound effects, and musical montages abound, as do intriguing possibilities of what's possible with the new combined technology of color, sound, film cuts, and video effects. A repairman works with a screwdriver on thin air, and, when done, flips a invisible switch — a television screen (showing, of course, a western) materializes out of nowhere, then vanishes when the repairman flips the unseen switch off. Marble statues come to life, then crumble to pieces. A maid sucks up pieces of crumpled paper with an invisible vacuum cleaner.
Throughout, Eugene, at worst, is only mildly perplexed—at least until the end, when, seated at the side of a long table, he finds the contents of his lunchbox keep rolling away, a plumb-bobbed plum is at an angle off vertical, and milk from a thermos misses the cup directly below it.
Critical Reception
In 1957, Ernie Kovacs received the Sylvania Award for his work on the 1957 NBC special.As a result of the publicity for this TV special, Kovacs received a movie offer from Columbia Studios (which resulted in his role in the film Operation Mad Ball
Operation Mad Ball
Operation Mad Ball is a 1957 military comedy starring Jack Lemmon, Kathryn Grant, Ernie Kovacs, Dick York, Arthur O'Connell, and Mickey Rooney and directed by Richard Quine. The screenplay by Blake Edwards and Jed Harris is based on an unproduced play by Arthur Carter.-Plot:In a hospital unit in...
), and appeared on the cover of the April 15, 1957 issue of LIFE
Life
Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased , or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate...
magazine.
In 1962, Kovacs and his co-director, Joe Behar, received the Directors Guild of America Award for the second version of this program shown over the ABC network.
Sources
- Newcomb, Horace & Museum of Broadcast Communications (2004) "Encyclopedia of Television" CRC Press, ISBN 1579583946, pp. 1286–1287