Percy would sometimes talk to the off-camera crew (who were frequently heard laughing at Kovacs' ad-libs), or to his unseen "friend," Bruce. The lisping of both names helped reinforce the supposedly effeminate nature of those two names, a fact which George Carlin would later sometimes reference when discussing gay issues. Kovacs created the character in 1950 for his program Three to Get Ready on WPTZ in Philadelphia (the station that is now KYW-TV). The prop glasses he used were discovered by his associate Andy McKay at a novelty store for ten cents; Kovacs drew lines on the eyeballs of the glasses to give Percy a "half-awake" appearance. Kovacs was said to be inspired by the TV poetry readings of Ted Malone. (Malone's program was called Between the Bookends); Percy's sign-off was, "I'll see you just outside the bookends." Others have attributed Percy's persona to Alexander Woollcott. According to Joe Mikolas, a friend of Kovacs who also worked with him on his television shows, Kovacs had plans to make Percy Dovetonsils a more three-dimensional character, but died in an auto accident before he could start writing new material. Kovacs' own description of his character was, "He's a beautiful soul who hasn't quite made it over the line into this rude, virile world." Records In 1961, Kovacs recorded an album of Percy reading his poetry for Vanguard Records; the album was titled, Percy Dovetonsils... Thpeaks, but it was not released until 2012. Kovacs planned to release the album, but was not able to do so because of conflicts with other labels he recorded for. When the masters were given to Kovacs, he donated them to a Los Angeles area hospital. His wife, Edie Adams, was able to acquire them again in 1967; they remained part of her non-public collection of her husband's work until her death in 2008. When found, the tape was mislabeled as film and had no music background; it was only audio of Kovacs as Percy reading his poetry. References External links A sampling of Percy Dovetonsils poetry Television characters introduced in 1950 Fictional poets Comedy television characters Male characters in television Percy Dovetonisils Fictional gay males 1950s in comedy