Ernie Kovacs: Take A Good Look: The Definitive Collection

All 49 existing episodes of this truly offbeat game show from television's original genius!

October 22, 1959 to July 21, 1960 / October 27, 1960 to March 16, 1961 – Thursdays 10:30- 11:00 p.m. (ABC)

Take A Good Look is Ernie's aphoristic "if a tree falls in the woods" answer to the panel quiz show. Ernie turns the secret guest show formula on its ear and almost inverts it. In Take A Good Look, it is the host who gives the panel hints about the secret guest's identity, and in the form of surreal sight gags, blackouts and sketches. The clues only really make sense if you know who the guest is to begin with. Throughout the series' run, different approaches were taken to address this. Early on in season one, Ernie himself has trouble explaining the show's formula to the home audience. Throughout the show's two seasons, panelists periodically complain to Ernie that the clues don't make sense; there's one show where Hans Conried protests, "Please, Ernie ... tell them it's rigged!"

All in all, it is Ernie who seems to be enjoying the game the most, making these crazy blackouts as well as the commercials for Dutch Masters cigars. You watch the episodes of this game show and wonder "Did this really air on network television?"