During the 1950s, Kovacs' innovative use of video comedy illustrated the distinctive prospects in television, all of which lead to similar techniques used on the Johnny Carson and David Letterman shows. His live shows were characterized by ad-libbed routines, enormous flexibility with the TV camera, experimentation with video effects, complete informality while on camera, and a permissiveness that expanded studio boundaries by allowing viewers to see activity beyond the set. He developed such ideas as blackouts, trick photography, on-the-street interviews, and clowning with the camera crews and other backstage persons.
After a career in radio, Kovacs' move to television came in the 1950s, when he hosted several programs at the same time. His first show, Deadline for Dinner, consisted of cooking tips from guest chefs. When a guest did not show, he did his own recipe for "Eggs Scavok," his name spelled backwards. Another program he hosted was called Pick Your Ideal, which was pretty much a 15-minute promotional for the Ideal Manufacturing Company. In November of that year he launched one of TV's first morning wake-up programs. The unstructured format required improvisational abilities Kovacs had mastered on radio. The daily 90-minute slot was titled 3 To Get Ready.
Kocacs' off-the-wall style was considered extremely eccentric in early television. He approached the medium as something totally new. While other men in his field were treating TV as an extension of Vaudeville, Kovacs was expanding the visible confines of the studio. His skits incorporated areas previously considered taboo, including dialogue with the camera crew, the audience, and forays into the studio corridor.
Later, in 1952, Kovacs appeared on daytime TV as host for Kovacs on the Corner. Kovacs strolled along a cartoon-like set and talked to such neighborhood characters as Luigi the Barber, Pete the Cop, Al the Dog, and Little Johnny Merkin, a midget. One program segment allowed a selected audience member to say hello to folks back home. A closed window filled the screen. On the window shade was printed the phrase "Yoo-Hoo Time." When the shade was raised, the excited audience member waved, saying "Yoo-hoo!
Later still, CBS aired a new, national Ernie Kovacs Show. Kovacs produced and wrote the show himself and, as with his earlier broadcasts, much of the program was improvised. Unlike other TV comedies, there was no studio audience, nor was canned laughter used. In Kovacs' view, the usefulness of an audience was diminished because they could not see the special effects. Described as his "hallucinatory world," the program featured many ingenious video effects as though illusion and reality were confused. In his skits, paintings came to life, flames from candles remained suspended in midair, and library books spoke.
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