Michael Nesmith to receive Ernie Kovacs award!

Monkees' Michael Nesmith to Be Honored with Ernie Kovacs Award for His Innovative Video Work »

 

"What is it???"
"Infinite Rider on the Big Dogma"
"WHA?"

 

Kovacs was a cotton-pickin' GENIUS. Too bad that car accident took his life 54 years ago. I guess if Nesmith is considered worthy of this award, more power to him!

 

We will never see the likes of Kovacs again. His death and the front page pictures of his wrecked car fed the groundswell about the Corvair auto being unsafe.

 

I remember how there was all this hype when "Elephant Parts" (was that the name?) came out and I finally saw it and thought it was awful.

 

I have Elephant Parts on laserdisc and enjoyed it. While the videos ranged from okay to good, it was the comedy bits that were the best. Among them:

• The Large Detroit Car Company
• Neighborhood Nuclear Superiority
• Rock 'n' Roll Hospital (which dealt with illnesses like a 50s Fit and Bee Gees Disease)
• Elvis Drugs

He also did a second video called Dr. Duck's Super Secret All-Purpose Sauce which was the same type of program, although I don't remember if it contained any music videos. I remember one bit with Jay Leno where he drives a Buick Roadmaster, a car so large that when getting a fill up the gas station attendant asked him to turn off the engine so they could keep up (when finished Leno then handed him a large wad of bills to pay for the gas).

 

Don't forget, he had a Summer replacement series called "Television Parts" too (around 1985 IIRC)...

 

"Dr. Duck's Super Secret All-Purpose Sauce" is a compilation of the Television Parts material.

In addition to Jay Leno, there are also appearances by (a very young) Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling, Whoopie Goldberg, Martin Mull, and many others.

I tend to like "DDSSAPS" quite a bit. It pretty much contains all of the most-memorable funny stuff from Television Parts – including many of Jack Handy's bizarre "Deep Thoughts" ("Tadpoles is a winner!").

Unlike Elephant Parts, "Dr. Duck's Sauce" doesn't have any Nesmith tunes – you need to get yet another compilation for those – "The Television Parts Home Companion".

 

Back in the 90s .... Nez was working on releasing a 'Television Parts' VHS/DVD box set that was to include extras and behind the scenes stuff. Unfortunately it never got released.

Now is time to release a blu-ray set!!!

 

... heard from Jodi Ritzin that they are reconsidering re-releasing a Television Parts Box Set and releasing Dr. Duck's Super Secret All Purpose Sauce.

 

That would be cool. I would get this. IIRC a Television Parts box was announced at VideoRanch years ago, but never materialized.

Couple things:

(1) Micky Dolenz directed a segment for Television Parts which AFAIK never aired. Did it ever surface anywhere like in some video release or something?

(2) When Television Parts aired, it was kind of irregular. I seem to recall they showed the first three of six (?), then took it off and then they cut the last three into a 90--minute special pre-empting Saturday Night Live. I wonder if all the segments aired (that were supposed to).

Apparently the commercial for the Live At The Palais album (included in Elephant Parts) was a real commercial which aired during Saturday Night Live at one point. And I remember seeing it on one of the SNL anniversary shows (maybe the 15th or 20th) as if it was a film made for SNL.

 

Speaking of SNL, I never knew what Mike had to do with Deep Thoughts....
I know it was something, he knew Jack Handey?

 

All I know is Deep Thoughts first appeared on Television Parts.

 

One correction the video does feature Mike singing the title song over the end credits. The only place to get it too.

 

The song 'Total Control' is available on the Newer Stuff collection.

Videoranch - The Newer Stuff CD »

 

Hear, hear!! I know Ralph Nader is always given the credit for killing the Corvair with his book "Unsafe At Any Speed," but I can't help but think Kovacs' death at the wheel of one did almost as much. I remember my parents talking about buying a Corvair in '62 but my dad brought up Kovacs' demise and that put the kibosh on the idea. I had no idea who this "Kovax" guy was they were talking about; thought it was somebody he worked with.