Rating: 
Summary: Pure Innovative Genius
Review: The cult following of Ernie's work is well deserved. Where so many other TV "pioneers" were adapting radio material for the screen, Mr. Kovacs treated TV like a totally new toy and created visually centered material that others have fed upon for decades. A Kaleidoscope dancing to the music? On black and white TV? What was he thinking of? Ernie's genius ideas are now commonplace entertainment fodder. These tapes give us a rare opportunity to glimpse comedy art at its crude and wonderful birth. Although its easier for baby boomers to put this material in context, creative younger folks will be able to watch Ernie and contrast him to the often seen scenes of Berle, Lucy, Gleason, etc. If you think Sid Caesar was innovative, Ernie will slay you.
Rating:
Summary: Pure Innovative Genius
Review: The cult following of Ernie's work is well deserved. Where so many other TV "pioneers" were adapting radio material for the screen, Mr. Kovacs treated TV like a totally new toy and created visually centered material that others have fed upon for decades. A Kaleidoscope dancing to the music? On black and white TV? What was he thinking of? Ernie's genius ideas are now commonplace entertainment fodder. These tapes give us a rare opportunity to glimpse comedy art at its crude and wonderful birth. Although its easier for baby boomers to put this material in context, creative younger folks will be able to watch Ernie and contrast him to the often seen scenes of Berle, Lucy, Gleason, etc. If you think Sid Caesar was innovative, Ernie will slay you.
Rating: 
Summary: The content is outstanding, but product quality lacking
Review: These are likely the only Kovacs images currently in print, and it's good to have these tapes available at a reasonable price. Be forewarned, though, that the tapes are loaded with little glitches that make the experience of watching them a little less enjoyable. The video company chalks it up to the source material, but these imperfections are obviously the result of problems in the mass video copying process.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful material, but...
Review: These videos are taken from tv shows compiled in the late 70's. We get to see the genius of Kovacs, his great skits, bizarre antics, wild characters, and ingenious visual gags. But... We sometimes see the same clip three or four times. The clips are edited together in ways that don't necessarily complement each other. And if I hear that version of "Mack the Knife" again, ...[I'll go insane]. Kovacs is deserving of a new survey of his works. A better job of compiling his work can be done than this, and we don't need to hear the same Jack Lemmon introduction repeatedly. (I do worry that some of this archival material may have deteriorated over the years, hopefully it's still preserved.) This set is worth your time, and worth your money. It's reasonably priced, and contains a variety of good material. It would just be nice to have a better assembled, more thought-out collection.
Rating:
Summary: Innovative Beyond His Years
Review: This 2-disc set includes all of the 1977 PBS Series that re-introduced this television pioneer to a new audience. Seeing this material again for me after almost twenty years was like visiting an old friend and catching up on great times. I would caution those just discovering Kovacs, however, that some of this DVD is not side-splittingly funny in a conventional sense; rather, much of it is gently humorous and cerebral. Mostly, it is fascinating - incredibly surreal (still the most surreal stuff EVER seen on television) and way, WAY ahead of its' time; much of Kovacs work remains indescribable and uncategoriazable. Having said that, characters such as Percy Dovetonsils and the Nairobi Trio will have even the most jaded viewer chuckling, if not laughing out loud at the sheer outrageousness of these images. Keeping in mind when these shows were made (late 50's/early 60's) Kovacs' body of work remains among the most subversive ever done for network television. By the way, Kovacs solemnly intoning a scene from Julius Ceaser, dressed in full Roman centurian regalia, and then breaking into a tap-dance is still one of the funniest things that I have ever seen. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Innovative Beyond His Years
Review: This 2-disc set includes all of the 1977 PBS Series that re-introduced this television pioneer to a new audience. Seeing this material again for me after almost twenty years was like visiting an old friend and catching up on great times. I would caution those just discovering Kovacs, however, that some of this DVD is not side-splittingly funny in a conventional sense; rather, much of it is gently humorous and cerebral. Mostly, it is fascinating - incredibly surreal (still the most surreal stuff EVER seen on television) and way, WAY ahead of its' time; much of Kovacs work remains indescribable and uncategoriazable. Having said that, characters such as Percy Dovetonsils and the Nairobi Trio will have even the most jaded viewer chuckling, if not laughing out loud at the sheer outrageousness of these images. Keeping in mind when these shows were made (late 50's/early 60's) Kovacs' body of work remains among the most subversive ever done for network television. By the way, Kovacs solemnly intoning a scene from Julius Ceaser, dressed in full Roman centurian regalia, and then breaking into a tap-dance is still one of the funniest things that I have ever seen. Highly recommended.
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