In early 1957, NBC got Jerry Lewis to host one of its Saturday Color specials or "specs" (as they were called then). Lewis had recently split up with Dean Martin, and this would be his first show without him. The problem for NBC was, the spec was 90 minutes, and Lewis only wanted to do 60, and they couldn't find anyone who wanted to follow 60 minutes of Jerry Lewis. Until they asked Ernie.

The 30-minute show Ernie did was devoid of any dialogue, and featured the silent character Ernie had been developing, Eugene, as well as the Nairobi Trio. The show's centerpiece was an extended series of surreal sight gags following Eugene, a mute, meek character as a fish out of water in a stuffy men's club. The sketch included the famous gag involving the gravity-defying olives and thermos of coffee.

While everyone's expectations and focus had been on Jerry Lewis, it was Ernie Kovacs and his understated visual humor which used the medium of television that everyone was talking about the next day. "The Silent Show" was what really put Ernie Kovacs on the map. The show won Ernie the Sylvania Award that year (a precursor of the Emmys), as well as movie offer, and a feature story in Life Magazine with his photo on the cover (pictured below).

What is most interesting about the article (besides the fact that it was published on April 15th, tax day) is its discussion of the future of comedy on television. Both in an interview with Ernie, and in a sidebar article interviewing Jackie Gleason, Sid Caesar, George Gobel and others, the comics all felt that the style of comedy prevalent on TV at the time, with its roots in nightclubs, vaudeville and the borscht belt, was on its way out. It was difficult to create that kind of material every week, and the comics all felt tapped out, and also felt audiences were growing tired of it as well. The articles say that the type of comedy Ernie employed, which was meant specifically for television, was possibly to be the next wave.

What is both ironic and sad is that the next wave in comedy was laugh-track-ridden filmed sit-coms, and that Ernie's work was to continue to be an acquired taste, like martinis and cigars. Of course, Ernie's work has held up better over time than things like My Mother the Car, Dennis the Menace and Green Acres (I don't care what the people at Nick at Nite think).

Anyhoo...here it is, in living color, found on the web for us by Ed Capuano, the Life Magazine cover from April 15, 1957.