Ed the Sock
Ed the Sock is a sock puppet character, created and voiced by Steven Joel Kerzner, who first appeared on Canadian local cable television in 1987. He is best known for his hosting appearances in the 1990s on MuchMusic and his own late night talk show, Ed's Night Party. He is a gray sock puppet with green hair, round eyes, a scowl, a cigar and a rough, gravelly voice.
Since the acquisition of MuchMusic by Bell Media, causing the cancellation of the majority of its music programming, the Ed the Sock character has continued to be portrayed through FU Network and NewMusicNation.
History
Origination of the Character: Newton Cable (1984–1993)
Kerzner originated the character while working at Newton Cable, a small local cable television provider in the city of North York, part of Metropolitan Toronto. In addition to providing cable TV services for parts of the North York neighbourhoods of Downsview, Bathurst Manor, and Westminster-Branson, the company also ran a local cable TV channel. During this time one of the public access shows the station produced needed a co-host on short notice, so Kerzner took a sock and other supplies from the station's craft closet and made a sock puppet with glue caps for eyes. He named the puppet Ed after Ed Asner and co-hosted the segment himself. He enjoyed the experience and continued to do the character, improving the sock puppet's look and changing its voice somewhat over time. In these early years Ed the Sock served as the sidekick to The Late Late ShowRogers Cable (1993–1995)
After Newton was purchased by Rogers in 1993, Kerzner repackaged The Late Late Show for a wider cable audience. At this point Tunney was its host and star. The new show attracted the interest of producer John Brunton, who took the program to CITY-TV.CityTV (1995–2008)
''Night Party''
The show, which would come to be known as Night Party, debuted on February 10, 1995, at 10:30 pm Eastern Time. When Tunney left the show to pursue TV hosting and comedy opportunities in the U.S., he was replaced by "Humble" Howard Glassman, and though Ed the Sock was the only returning element of the old show he was still a sidekick to the star and not the star himself. The synopsis of the show's first season reads: "Humble Howard and sidekick Ed the cigar smoking, wise-guy sock host a talk show featuring talent spotlights, celebrity interviews and studio audience interaction".Within the show's first year Brunton and Glassman both departed the series. Brunton cited creative differences with Kerzner, while Humble Howard said he simply could no longer stand working with Kerzner. Their relationship remains contentious today:
After Humble Howard's departure the show continued with more focus on Ed and less on his human co-host. Canadian comedian Craig Campbell replaced Glassman and stayed with the show for a decade. Ed's longest running and arguably most popular co-host, Campbell had a very laid-back demeanor and took a more polite approach with the audience, playing "good cop" to Ed's cruder antics.
In 2004 Ed's Night Party, Campbell was replaced by Steven Joel Kerzner's wife Liana Kerzner. Ed's first female co-host, she was a busty redhead who produced a pin-up calendar of herself which was offered for sale on Ed's website. Liana had dropped out of school in 1997 when she and Kerzner started dating to become a writer and co-producer on the show.
In its final season, the show was re-branded as Ed & Red's Night Party and increasingly emphasized appearances by porn stars, strippers in a hot tub, and the kind of frat-party excesses that Ed used to pillory. This resulted in criticism and complaints, largely from some female viewers who grew tired of the show's overly sexualized and sometimes sexist clips and comments, which included such segments as LoCoDe, porn star visits, and weekly clips of drunk spring break girls in Wet T-shirt contests with Ed providing joke commentary.
In its 14th and final season the series was also broadcast on G4 in the U.S. as part of their Midnight Spank late night television programming block.
In June 2008, Rogers announced that Ed & Red's Night Party would be canceled as of August 31, 2008, in an effort to attract female viewers, some of whom disapproved of Ed's politically incorrect and sexist shtick. The final show aired Friday, August 29, 2008. This also marked the end of Kerzner's relationship with both Much and Citytv, with Kerzner stating after Rogers announced their decision to ax Ed the Sock: "It appears Citytv is heading towards something more of a women's channel, I don't know."
After Night Party's cancellation, Kerzner stated that the Ed character would live on in other projects that were already in the works, "for this fall or possibly a few months after that", including other shows on competing networks and a feature film, though these projects never materialized and he remained off the air for more than two years.
Ed's Nite In
At CityTV, Ed also hosted Ed's Nite In, a short-lived series in which he would invite "friends" over to watch bad movies. The show was slightly different from Ed's later bad movie show This Movie Sucks! in that the movies they broadcast were more current in Ed's Nite In and Ed and his friends did not comment during the movies, only before and after commercial breaks, which also included sketches.MuchMusic (1995–2005)
After moving Night Party to Citytv, Ed also began making appearances concurrently on MuchMusic. This lasted from the mid-1990s until he was released by Much in 2005.Ed's Big Wham Bam
While at Much, Ed hosted the short-lived series Ed's Big Wham Bam, a live weekly two-hour program that featured viewers performing talents such as singing, dancing, and cooking. The show was canceled by the network due to poor ratings.Fromage takeover
In the late 1990s, MuchMusic VJ Christopher Ward, the creator of Much's annual Fromage special, decided to no longer host the show himself. Ed accepted an offer to take over hosting duties, which he did until Much canceled the specials in 2005.Fromage may be the most popular project Ed has been involved with, and he has repeatedly stated that he plans to bring it back in some form.
CHCH-TV Hamilton (2010–2012)
This Movie Sucks!
In 2010, after more than two years off the air, Ed returned to television on regional CHCH-TV in Hamilton with This Movie Sucks!, which was similar to his previous CityTV show Ed's Nite In. Kerzner relied on the use of student interns from nearby Mohawk College and the show was initially plagued with technical issues.The show was once again co-hosted by his wife Liana K and featured comedian Ron Sparks. In each two hour episode Ed has guests over to watch a bad movie. This Movie Sucks! was named one of the five best television shows of 2010 by Toronto Entertainment and one of the three best new shows of 2010 by Excalibur Magazine. A third season of This Movie Sucks! was reported to be in production but never materialized, with CHCH announcing that no future episode screenings were planned.
I Hate Hollywood
Produced concurrently with This Movie Sucks! on CHCH-TV was another Ed-hosted series called I Hate Hollywood, which Kerzner based on FromageEd the Sock has not had a show on network TV since this show's cancellation by CHCH.
The Being Frank Show
Ed briefly became Frank D'Angelo's sidekick on The Being Frank Show in 2011–2012, which aired during late night infomercial slots purchased by host and beer entrepreneur Frank D'Angelo on CHCH-TV, the same network that aired This Movie Sucks! and I Hate Hollywood. Kerzner appeared as Ed the Sock in the D'Angelo's 2018 film The Joke Thief.FU Network
After launching fundraisers beginning in 2015, in late 2016 Ed the Sock announced the FU Network, a video sharing website, from which he would share old and new clips. He also announced he would begin live streaming a new live weekly show from the entrance/lobby of the Hard Rock Cafe restaurant in downtown Toronto, Ontario called Live from Canada, It's Ed the Sock!The Toronto location of Hard Rock Cafe closed on May 31, 2017, making future shows from that location impossible.
In April 2017, Ed posted a video to his YouTube channel called "Who Murdered MuchMusic", documenting what he refers to is the demise and downfall of the Canadian music channel by pointing the finger at Bell Media and arguing that their behind the scenes management killed the station. The video was pulled by YouTube after Bell Media complained about copyright infringement stemming from Kerzner's use of footage and logos owned by the conglomerate.
In July 2018, he launched an Indiegogo campaign to have the network officially launch online, promising to bring back old MuchMusic shows from the 1990s and early 2000s. Although his Indiegogo campaign failed to reach his goal of $35,000, Ed announced that he had met the goal through additional PayPal donations people had also made, and that the FU Network launched as planned, it has since been merged with Ed's website.