Audience response to Ernie's summer show has earned him NBC recognition. Ernie and Edie catch up_on latest TV doings in the Tribune's TV Magazine. 4 N ERNIE KOVACS’ future there’s an unfulfilled NBC promise and the departure from his professional side of Edie Adams, his blond talented wife. The hilarious Hungarian isn’t glum about either! Taken in order, the cerns a top-budget show on NBC's winter schedule (just like the one he’s doing on Monday nights this sum- mer). Much as he wants a big show of his own, Kovacs doesn’t register promise” con impatience. “Oh, I know this business,” Ko- vaes remarks good-humoredly, “things move slowly. Then, at the very last minute, just when it looks as if every- thing is in the bag, along comes Bill Paley with a nephew. . . - ised Reaction That other event, Edie’s withdrawal from his TV domicile (wherever it may be) occurs in the Fall, when she assumes the role of Daisy Mae in the Broadway musical, “Li'l Abner.” News of Edie’s assignment sparked surprised reaction in TV circles because Edie and Ernie have come to be regarded as a “team,” but if that’s what you thought, you're “wrong,” declares the craggy-faced comedian. “There’s no one else I’d rather work with than Edie,” he explains. “I mean that, But, when we married, there was never any question about Edie pur- suing her own career. I’d be a lout to tie her down. She’s got a lot of talent ...and driveBy MARIE It cannot be paid Ernie Kovacs is nurtured a even that first ep he auditioned for him in a small studio in Philadelphia, where he was the early morning TV rage about six years ago. A Big Gust of Smoke “The first view I got of Ernie. recalls Edie, “was his mouth, making a large O and flowing out a big gust TORRE of smoke . . . and it’s never stopped. Anyway, after hearing my entire pop repertoire —three songs—he hired » came to Ernie’s attention via an appearance on Arthur Godfrey's ‘alent Scouts” (no, she didn’t win!). A year prior, representing WPIX, she won the title of Miss New York Tele- vision of 1950 and copped the Miss United § PGi rarcin seme) Ernie's two children by a previous marriage, Betty and Kip, are cherished by Edie. 5