December 30, 1952: "The Ernie Kovacs Show" Premieres

December 30, 1952: The Ernie Kovacs Show premieres on NBC. It becomes a landmark in television production.

Up until then, TV production was basically done with what Leonard Nimoy on Star Trek would have called "stone knives and bear skins." Kovacs' visually experimental and often spontaneous comedic style influenced numerous television comedy programs for years after his death.

With his visual tricks, Kovacs has been credited as an influence by many individuals and shows, including Johnny Carson, Laugh-In, Monty Python, Saturday Night Live, and various PBS programs.

The Ernie Kovacs Show was one of only six TV shows broadcast on all four U.S. television networks during the Golden Age of Television. It was on NBC in the 1952-53 season, CBS in 1953-54, DuMont in 1954-55, and, in its return of 1961-62, ABC. The show probably would have continued had it not been for Kovacs' death in a car crash.

The others were: The Original Amateur Hour, Pantomime Quiz, Down You Go, The Arthur Murray Party, and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.

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December 30, 1952 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football season ended 2 days earlier, with the Detroit Lions beating the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Championship Game. There were no college football bowl games scheduled. Nor did the NHL schedule any games for this day.

There were 2 games in the NBA. The Rochester Royals beat their neighboring rivals, the Syracuse Nationals, 106-93 at the Edgerton Park Arena in Rochester, New York. And the Indianapolis Olympians beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 74-69 at the Butler Fieldhouse (now the Hinkle Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.