Ernie Kovacs

One of the most innovative comic minds of his generation, Ernie Kovacs was an actor, writer, and producer whose surreal sense of humor and eager embrace of the creative possibilities of television made him a wildly influential figure as the medium grew in popularity in the '50s. Between his offbeat brand of storytelling and visual gags that used camera tricks to create improbable images, Kovacs was a humorist who had few antecedents when he first rose to fame, and while his premature death in 1962 ended a career that was still evolving, many adventurous comedians have cited Ko...