Ernie Kovacs in Color!

[Steve D.]

NBC telecast several special and episodes of series in 1956-57 using lenticular color, a color kinescope process. The Ernie Kovacks Show aired on NBC from Jul. to Sept, 1956 as a summer replacment for Ceasar's Hour. The color quality wasn't very good. Here is a thread from this forum on lenticular color posted last year:

Lenticular (color) kinescope of Ernie Kovacs' Silent Show. [Archive] - SH Forums
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/ar.../t-220452.html

-Steve D.

[Indian Head]

Steve, thank you for that link. The curator of this new DVD set confirms what "Joel Cairo" said on that other thread--this particular color program is not on lenticular color film, but rather on a chromogenic film (Kodachrome, according to UCLA). No special filters necessary (although I don't know how much color restoration may have been done. This came as a surprise to me, as I had assumed it to have been lenticular as well.

This program is not the "Ceasar's Hour" replacement, but the legendary "Saturday Color Carnival" in which Kovacs took the last 30 minutes when Jerry Lewis refused to do more than an hour of his 90 minute time slot. The success of this program led to Kovacs' LIFE magazine cover.

Regarding the quality of the color on this DVD, I remain pleasantly surprised. Attached are a few examples which should make my enthusiasm understandable.