Kovacs Life and Career Will Be Celebrated with Classic Comedy Screening Hosted by Noted Journalist & Critic Jim DeRogatis, Q&A with Edie Adams’ Son Josh Mills in Chicago while Noted Comedian & Actor Harry Shearer Will Receive The Ernie Kovacs Award in Dallas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOS ANGELES, CA., (THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2014) – Ediad Productions announced today that legendary comedian Ernie Kovacs (www.erniekovacs.com) will be honored at two separate festivals in Chicago, IL. And Dallas, TX. on the same day – Friday October 17. Both the Chicago Comedy Film Festival (http://www.chicagocomedyfilmfestival.com) and the Dallas Video Festival (http://videofest.org) will focus on Kovacs’ unique comedic talents as innovator, performer, creator and video artist gifted with a skewed sense of humor when television was in it’s infancy in the 1950s and ‘60s.

Next Friday October 17, the Chicago Comedy Film Festival will present Comedy Classic Works featuring Ernie Kovacs, at 6pm, at the Showplace ICON Theater (150 West Roosevelt Rd., Chicago, IL, 60605) that will include both a screening of his absurdist video art and will be hosted by noted journalist and critic Jim DeRogatis. Following the screening DeRogatis will host a Q&A discussion with Joshua Mills, Edie Adams son and caretaker of the Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams archive.. Tickets can be purchased here: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/chicago-comedy-film-festival-special-classic-comedy-works-featuring-wc-fields-ernie-kovacs-hosted-tickets-12184543297

That same day in Dallas, The Video Association of Dallas’ Dallas VideoFest will honor noted comedian,  actor,  philosopher and political activist Harry Shearer (http://harryshearer.com) at the  Angelika Film Cerner (5321 E. Mockingbird Ln., Dallas TX, 75206) who will be in attendance to receive the annual Ernie Kovacs Award. Past Kovacs Award recipients include Paul Reubens, Mike Judge, Joel Hodgson, Terry Gilliam, Martin Mull, Robert Smigel and just last year George Schlatter. There will be a clip presentation and discussion with Harry Shearer. For tickets, please see:  http://www.eventbrite.com/e/kovacs-award-tickets-13240289061

Known as ‘Television’s Original Genius,’ Ernie Kovacs was an hugely influential figure for late night entertainers like Steve Allen, David Letterman, and Conan O’Brien, whose work has been cited appreciatively by Martin Scorsese, Harold Prince, Matt Groening (THE SIMPSONS, FUTURAMA), Robert Smigel (SATURDAY TV FUNHOUSE; Triumph, the Insult Comedy Dog), Joel Hodgson (Mystery Science Theater 3000), Paul Reubens (Pee-wee Herman), Andrea Martin (SCTV), Terry Gilliam (MONTY PYTHON), and author Jonathan Lethem, among others.

Ernie Kovacs was a pioneer in early television whose inventive use of the medium inspired countless performers, directors, and video artists.  In addition to creating such indelible characters as Percy Dovetonsils, Matzoh Hepplewhite, and Uncle Gruesome, Kovacs invented a distinctly modern form of comedy that playfully subverted the television medium. Edie Adams (www.edieadams.com) was his on-screen partner as well as his wife. After his death in 1962 Adams was instrumental in not only saving but also preserving Kovacs’ body of work during the 1960s when she bought all existing Kovacs materials – including the masters that the television networks were planning to destroy them due to cost and storage issues.

Since 2010, the Ernie Kovacs & Edie Adams archive has released video and audio material from the collection, most of which has never been seen or heard in more than 50 years. This Includes The Ernie Kovacs Collection, a six DVD set, The Ernie Kovacs Collection Volume Two, a three-DVD package & The ABC Specials via Shout! Factory (www.shoutfactory.com). Last year, MVD released Here’s Edie, a four DVD package containing the entire run of Edie Adams ABC variety show from 1962-1964. Omnivore Recordings (www.omnivorerecordings.com) has released three audio collections including Ernie Kovacs Presents…Percy Dovetonsils…Thpeaks, Ernie Kovacs Presents: A Percy Dovetonsils Christmas & The Edie Adams Christmas Record featuring Ernie Kovacs. Retrospectives of Kovacs work have also been feted at such prestigious institutions as The Paley Center for Media, Museum of the Moving Image, the National Gallery, AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, the American Cinematheque, the Long Beach Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, Spain.

About Ediad Productions

Formed by the late entertainer and Muriel Cigar girl Edie Adams, and currently run by her son Joshua Mills, Ediad Productions is home to what is likely the largest independent archive of early American television in existence. With more than 150 half-hours of content from legendary comedian Ernie Kovacs, as well as two seasons of Edie Adams’ prime time variety show from the mid-1960s, Ediad Productions is a treasure trove of classic popular entertainment. Titles in the archive include “The Ernie Kovacs Show,” “Ernie in Kovacsland,” “Take A Good Look” (clues), the Kovacs specials for ABC, “The Edie Adams Show,” “Here’s Edie!” and much more. Ediad Productions is the go-to archive for television, digital & mobile entertainment content and is based in Los Angeles, California.

Press Contacts:

Henri Bollinger, henri@bollingerpr.com / 818 784 0534

Josh Mills, It’s Alive! Media, josh@itsalivemedia.com / 323 464 6314