Bogart Media

Everyone who was old enough to watch TV in the 80s remembers Latka Gravas, the loveable immigrant with multiple personality disorder.  Here is Kaufmann playing Latka and Vick Ferrari.

And, in 1981, Andy co-starred with Bernadette Peters in sort of a chick movie with robots.

But not everyone was paying attention to the ruckus he was making in Memphis.

And more with Letterman, here.

Andy Kaufman and Bob Zmuda played a Las Vegas lounge singer character, Tony Clifton.  Here’s Tony on The Dinah Shore and Friends Show.  As the story goes, Tony pours a pan of eggs from an aborted cooking segment all over Dinah, sometime after this clip ends.  Dinah’s producers destroyed the humiliating footage.

Oh but Merv was all over it, 

Click here to see the 1977 television debut of Andy playing Tony.

For more on Andy’s work, here’s a blog that chronicles his journey on the small screen.

Kaufman’s work still influences contemporary comedy to this day.

I love how the hostesses try to spin the incident as a “priceless moment on TV.”  Andy’s partner-in-comedy-crime was Bob Zmuda.  Here Bob talks for over ten minutes without really saying anything.  It’s pure genius.

And then Andy sort of takes over the show…

These two knew how to put on a show.

April 1979. Andy Plays Carnegie Hall.

And I love the second act, when Andy is surely removing the Tony costume.

With Andy, the show never really ends.