Super papa

I just happened upon this great little 1984 made-for-TV (ABC) movie starring Jeff Goldblum who is dead-on Ernie Kovacs. Great direction, music and even a cameo by Edie Adams (Ernie's widow, by whom this story is based)playing Mae West. Plus just watching all the 1950s cars go by. Nostalgia city!

Not only is the direction by veteran Lamont Johnson wonderful, but the casting by Lynn Stalmaster is just superb! The two Kovacs daughters are delightful (especially the younger's reply at the end to Ernie's admonition about still sucking her thumb!).

The picture captures the wacky, frenetic pace--and true life--that was Ernie Kovacs. How to film all this, with kids screaming "they want their mommy," and yet keep Goldblum and the Edie Adams actress true to their characters is marvelous.

Special commendation, too, to a real pro: Cloris Leachman, who plays Ernie's mother. Her walking around with no underwear and just long-sleave men's shirts, while speaking with a thick Hungarian accent and broken English, is just spellbinding.

Don't miss this great little movie when it's on: I had wanted to watch it because I thought it was a 2-hour Biography on A&E; instead, as a movie made for TV, it was almost a better biography (save for no beginning about Ernie or his tragic death in a car accident and later great help by Edie to pay all of his IRS and other debts).

Ernie Kovacs was one of the great innovative comedians of the last century. In the years of his career he had to be because he operated during the McCarthy Era when a whole lot of subjects were taboo in terms of satire. As one of Kovacs's contemporaries Sid Caesar said, comedians with all the restrictions of early television had to be creative.

What was going just as Kovacs was hitting the big time both in his career and his courtship of Edie Adams, he was going through a nasty divorce with his first wife. He won the custody fight and that was unusual for a father to do that back then, still his wife took his two small daughters and fled with them to parts unknown. Kovacs spent thousands trying to locate them.

Just as Jim Carrey was able to channel Andy Kaufman in his film, so did Jeff Goldblum do with Kovacs. I am old enough to remember Ernie Kovacs from film and television and Goldblum was great. Melody Anderson was a fine Edith then Edie Adams and Cloris Leachman was fabulous as Ernie's mother from hell. Now I know where they got the inspiration for the grandmother character in Malcolm in the Middle.

If that wasn't enough the real Edie Adams got to play Mae West who Edie back in the day did a devastating impersonation of. I never did find out what Mae thought of it, but here she kind of channeled Mae the same way Goldblum channeled her late husband.

For a nice behind the scenes look at one of our great American comic geniuses definitely see Ernie Kovacs: Before The Laughter.

In the absence of being able to watch Ernie Kovacs episodes, I settled on this movie one night. As a kid I would watch Kovacs show with my parents approving in their loungers behind me, because they recognized him as a creative original (and my parents are super old-school!) The three of us would find plenty of things to chuckle about, as everyone; phonies, conformists, TV show hosts, simpering poets, a trio in gorillas masks; were all set up and mowed down for our enjoyment.

Ditto for this movie. While Goldblum may not be too much like Kovacs, there were scenes that made me laugh in exactly the same way Kovacs had. Kovacs loved a good put-on & absurdity was the unifying thread of his show. Kovacs search for his kids was the typical stuff of made for TV movies, but I still laugh over some scenes in this. The sequence where Kovacs is reviewing his contract and puts on pair of glasses to read the fine print, then another pair over those, then another pair over those, while playing it sincere is exactly the kind of screwy humor my family held in high respect.

This is a splendid little sleeper of a movie. Ernie Kovacs was one of the giants of early television. I think he would be pleased with the way Jeff Goldbloom captures his wonky personality. Melody Anderson also distills that of Edie Adams. There is a very basic heart tugging story about the search for Kovacs' two abducted daughters. But at the same time the film is funny --- Cloris Leachman is a hoot as Kovacs impossible mom --- and has many of the offbeat and innovative qualities of the old Kovacs show itself.

This was actually a very interesting movie. I tells the story of comedian Ernie Kovacs and his search for his kidnapped children. I love Jeff Goldblum and he is top notch in this movie. The movie features some of Kovac's classic sketches and boy are they funny.

I wouldn't rent this (mostly because I doubt I would be able to find it), but if it's on TV then sit down and watch it. The climax is very moving and the rest of the movie is also pretty darn funny.