Take a Good Look (1959–1961) User Reviews

Mediocre Panel/Game Show? or a True Example of Television Art? Yeah, maybe it's Both!

[redryan64 · 8/10 · 21 January 2007]

TV Guide's Critic & Reviewer, Cleveland Amory, once made the statement on the TONITE SHOW that there were (up to then, 1968) 3 truly creative individuals on television. He named Mssers Dave Garroway, Steve Allen and Ernie Kovacs. A great complimenter to all, and surely one that would be hard to dispute.*

Mr. Kovacs, the last man on our list, had been around TV since the earliest days. He had done several series, and ha worked with a lot of talented stars, including Edie Adams (Mrs. Kovacs) and prolific author and monologist, Jean Shepherd.

So, it was in 1959 that he got the opportunity to do a sort of Panel Quiz show entitled, TAKE A GOOD LOOK, which had a natural of a Kovacs' sponsor, the makers of Dutch Masters and Muriel Cigars.**

The show went something lika thisa: A Contest/Challanger would come on, take seat next to M.C. Kovacs and the secret news event or odd feat of challenger would be revealed to audience, not to panel members. Then there would be a series of 3 video taped sketches featuring Ernie and his repertory company of actors and (gorgeous)female actresses.*** After each clue was shown, panelists would ask some questions, all the while attempting to ascertain the secret or the identity of the contestant.

Sounds really good, no? Well, quite frankly,the answer's NO!! It was a sort of lame knockoff of WHAT's MY LINE?, nothing better.I wouldn't be writing this if it were just to review another game show.

What made this so memorable and a real 'don't miss'*** program was the talent of Mr. Ernie Kovacs. His clowning with regular panelists Edie Adams, Ceasar Romero, Hans Conreid and others. All who worked there appeared to be friends off set as well as on.

But the greatest ingredient of all was that Kovacs sense of humor and the truly original approach that he had to rendering the information into the short 'clues'.It has been told by many, including his good friend, Jack Lemmon, that Ernie loved the silent film comedians like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon, Laurel & Hardy, etc. He was just old enough to be able to truly appreciate the sheer beauty and pure hilarity of a sight gag, pantomime, body language and subtle (and not so subtle)changes of facial expressions. The influence of all these elements were apparent in Ernie's stage presentation, for even though so much of his humor is verbal, it is always so beautifully framed by his physical comedy.

Which now brings us up to a most interesting aspect of the Kovacs Art. After having been on the TV for approximately a decade a new innovation came along. In 1958, Video Tape came into general use on the networks. Now with this development, a program could be pre-recorded on video tape and shown later,as often as desired, all the while having no discernible difference to the 'live' look. Previously a system commonly used was called 'Kinoscope', which was a fast developing film process which had the down side of having a gray, streaky and washed-out look to it.

But Ernie's genius lied in the Aristic, not the Scientific. Ernie was the first one to see what were the possibilities of using tape, not just as a record-playback medium, but also a medium used to tell a story by editing and cross cutting, just as one would edit film into a movie. Like a master film maker (e.g.like Buster Keaton), Kovacs knew that the camera's eye could be to used to fool one, and reveal the deception (or not) when it was suitable to the story or to a particular gag.

Mr. Ernie Kovacs was a real high roller, bon vivant, spending his earnings as quickly as they came in. Often times they'd be used to create just one sight gag. A good example is one of Mr. Kovacs as a used car salesman, striking the roof of a car as part of a sales pitch, only to have the auto fall into the ground before our very eyes.It's a scene not forgotten!

Ernie was a true Artist, the kind of guy of which it is so often said, "He was ahead of his time!!", only this time it is absolutely the truth. He was ahead of his time in life and in his death, for he was taken from this world all too early. He died of injuries resulting from an auto accident on Janury 13, 1962, just 10 days short of his 43rd birthday.

* To this list, I would respectfully submit the name of Soupy Sales, for he was certainly creative with the camera work, sound effects and off camera sound gags.

** Having a cigar manufacturer as a sponsor was perfect for any Kovacs, as Ernie was never without a stogie, albeit one just a trifle more expensive than a Dutch Master.

*** Curiously, Ernie got by on TV, but never had a really big following. Those who were his audience, were very faithful, even to the point of being what we now call a'cult following'.

The importance of being Ernie

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 26 December 2002]

Ernie Kovacs was one of the great utility men of early television: although he had distinctive talents, he usually ended up doing whatever the station managers needed somebody to do. At one point in his career, Kovacs hosted a morning cookery show called 'Deadline for Breakfast'. The quiz show 'Take a Good Look' was several notches above that, but it definitely isn't one of the high marks of Kovacs's career. Still, any tv series starring Ernie Kovacs merits attention.

In terms of appeal, 'Take a Good Look' was similar to Groucho Marx's 'You Bet Your Life': both were nominally quiz shows, but in both cases the real appeal of the show was the host's quick-witted banter with his guests. Also, on both of these quiz shows, the amount of money at stake was too little to raise the stigma of corruption which plagued so many 1950s quiz programmes. For 'Take a Good Look', Ernie Kovacs (unlike Groucho) had the benefit of a rotating panel of celebrity guessers and Kovacs's cast of supporting comedians. Special praise should go to Bobby Lauher, a chirpy little blond man whose role in Kovacs's comedy universe is comparable to the work Howard Morris did in support of Sid Caesar.

In terms of content and rules, 'Take a Good Look' was similar to the earlier 'I've Got a Secret'. Each guest on the show had once done something which had briefly put him or her in the headlines. The celebrity panel had to guess what this person had done to earn his or her 15 minutes of fame. To make the panel's task easier(?), Kovacs's comedians would act out a brief skit which was meant to be a clue(?) to the guest's achievement. Of course, these skits actually made things more confusing ... but they were a big source of this show's entertainment value.

A typical example: one of Kovacs's guests was a former Olympic medallist in the decathlon, who had defeated his German rival by achieving a higher score in the broad jump. The skit featured one of Kovacs's stooges dressed as Huck Finn, fishing at the old fishin' hole. Up from the surface of the water pops the conning tower of a German U-boat, aiming its periscope at Huck Finn ... who immediately leaps over the U-boat and lands safely on the other side of the fishing hole. That's the clue. The panel of celebrities were supposed to guess the phrase 'Beat the Germans by a broad jump.' Of course they failed to guess ... so the decathlete won a small cash award.

'Take a Good Look' was not one of the all-time great quiz shows, but -- like 'You Bet Your Life', and for similar reasons -- these old episodes still make enjoyable viewing, many decades later. Kovacs wrote most of the skits himself, and his unique comedy touch is evident throughout. 'Take a Good Look' was produced by Irving Mansfield, who later shaped the career of his wife, novelist Jacqueline Susann.

Classic Kovacs, but don't even try to play along

[bpatrick-8 · 9/10 · 24 April 2013]

NOTE: May contain spoilers

The format has already been described: a person who is not famous, but has been in a recent news event, appears before a panel consisting of Edie Adams, Hans Conried, Cesar Romero, and a few others; the panel then tries--and nearly always fails--to identify the contestant's secret because Kovacs and a group of actors provide obtuse clues previously taped.

I do remember one show where Cesar Romero automatically identified Mary Ann Mobley, who had just been crowned Miss America. But more typical was the steer-roping champion from either the Calgary Stampede rodeo or Frontier Days. The clues: Kovacs driving a car (steering), Kovacs and one of his female regulars in a rowboat (row), an actress imitating Doris Day (day), and Kovacs hitting his thumb with a hammer and yelling "Oh!". Add them up: Steer row-day-oh. No, the panel never came close.

Viewers often complained to Kovacs and to ABC about their inability to play along because of the weirdness of the clues; Kovacs would say, "I do this show for me."

Take my advice: if you catch this show, don't even try to play along. Instead, enjoy Kovacs' sense of the absurd which, by the way, the public didn't come to appreciate until "Laugh-In," created by George Schlatter, husband of Jolene Brand, one of "TAGL"'s troupe of actors. There's a sizable sampling of vintage Kovacs, and that's what really counts.

And don't forget the Dutch Masters commercials and, if you see one, Edie Adams for Muriel cigars.

By the way, just as comedy overshadowed the game on Groucho's show, it may be more than coincidence that ABC scheduled this show in the half-hour following Groucho's NBC show (Groucho aired from 10-10:30, Kovacs from 10:30-11, on Thursday nights).

Ernie's unusual take on a game show

[nickenchuggets · 9/10 · 17 May 2021]

His motives? Unknowable. His attitude? Unpredictable. Ernie Kovacs was a hugely important figure in tv history in spite of the fact that very few know about him now. Sadly, probably his biggest claim to fame is costarring with Alec Guinness in the nondescript movie Our Man In Havana, because Alec helped the publicity of the movie a lot and gave attention to Ernie. While Ernie didn't appear in many actual movies, he did make loads and loads of special programs dedicated for tv audiences, such as the Ernie Kovacs Show (which came almost a decade before this.) That show has a lot of strange, absurdist humor we've come to expect from him. Things that don't really make sense, but are funny because of their unpredictability. Kovacs would use puppets, his costume and lisp as Percy Dovetonsils, his completely silent performance as the character Eugene, and much more to make the audience laugh, and if you haven't noticed, a lot of these clips were recycled for use as clues in this show. Admittedly, the premise of the show is mediocre. It is essentially Ernie's imagining of a game show, which involves 3 people sitting at desks acting as panelists, and each episode has guests that the panelists must try to guess the identity of via a series of strange clues. The guests featured on the show are not famous to the extent of someone like Kirk Douglas or Frank Sinatra, because that would be too easy to guess. They're there usually because they did something of note a few months or even decades ago. Ernie then lets the panelists (usually consisting of Cesar Romero, Hans Conried, and Ernie's wife, Edie Adams) guess who the person is based on what clues he gives the panelists, although the audience is told who the mystery person is and why they are there. This is about where Take a Good Look's humor comes into play because the clues barely make any sense. For example, one of the later episodes has a guest who was known for having a meeting with Bing Crosby, and one of the clues has a bee sting Ernie's finger. The clue was that the bee was cross (cross bee). As expected, nobody got the clue and you can see the disappointment on their faces when Ernie explains the meaning of it. If you want to watch this, don't even bother trying to guess what the clues mean because it's almost impossible. Just enjoy looking at why the guests are there and Ernie's way of filming the ridiculous skits that count as clues. A young Bobby Fischer even makes an appearance. In all, the show is just absolutely insane. The goal of the game is to guess who the person is based on clues, and while they hardly make any sense, it is a lot of fun to watch. If Ernie lived, who knows what things he would come up with next.