The Local Campy Late Night Horror Show Thread

[Nomad V]

OK, there was a brief flirtation with this subject in another thread, but I'll bring it out in the open here. Are there still late night horror shows on your local TV market? Does anyone know of any on Cable. Anybody remember USAs late night shows with Rhonda or that awful Gilbert fellow? Dish now has the Chiller Channel, but I was wondering if there are any surviving local late night shows out there like we had in Pittsburgh with Chilly Billy Cardille's "Chiller Theater, on WIIC TV 11. For those of you from "DaBurg" or those of you that are curiou s out there here is the link.

http://www.chillertheatermemories.com/

Unfortunately, I can't get Pittsburgh stations where I'm at and there is no local station producing late night horror shows in the Alleghenies.

 

[Dale]

Elvira got her start on KHJ Channel 9 in Los Angeles when I was a teenager, but she was on weekend afternoons, not latenights.

 

[Holdfast]

More of a TV topic, so off to GTV&M.

 

[ElScoob]

Well, nothing left here in Cleveland... although Big Chuck & Li'l John lasted until just a couple years ago on Channel 8 (WJW). That was the second iteration of a show that started out as Big Chuck & Hoolihan... which was preceded by the one, the only Ghoulardi.

Ghoulardi, of course, was the late great Ernie Anderson, who left Channel 8 to go out to LA at the urging of his friend Tim Conway. Ernie ended up becoming one of the biggest voice-over guys in the industry, gaining a certain immortality as the voice of ABC in the 70s ("...on the Luuuuve Boat!"). Those of us who watched TNG in its first run will also recall his unmistakable tones in each week's next-episode teaser ("Next time on an all new Staaaar Trek: The Next Generation...").

Ernie's son is filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, of Boogie Nights and Magnolia fame (his production company is named after his dad's famous alter ego).

Ghoulardi's aesthetic and sense of humor had a certain influence on the Cleveland-area music scene, with acts like The Cramps and Devo (out of Akron) taking certain cues from the Ghoulardi legacy before going on to larger-scale fame.

In addition to being 'officially' succeeded at WJW by Big Chuck and Hoolihan (Big Chuck having been a crew member and occasionaly supporting player in sketches on Ghoulardi's show), Ghoulardi gave his blessing to a young fan named Ron Sweed, who took up the fright wig, fake goatee, lab coat, and one-lensed shades as The Ghoul. I believe Ron is still doing the Ghoul schtick somewhere, possibly Detroit... though he had a show on on of Cleveland's UHF stations for a few years back in the day.

--g

 

[RobertVA]

Several decades ago one station in SE Virginia had a guy dressed up in a lab coat and a horribly matted gray wig to portray "Dr Madblood". Often he was having conversations with a disembodied "brain" soaking in a fish bowl that was wired to a nearby loudspeaker. Brain had an uncanny resemblance to a couple of loops of string wrapped around a sponge you would use to wash an automobile. Yes, the show had a skimppy budget and they didn't mind showing it.
Madblood and company introduced old hooror and Science Fiction movies and had some short escapades bracketing the commercial breaks. Their theme song: the instumental segmet of "Green Eyed Lady".

 

[RJDiogenes]

Back in the early 70s, I used to watch The Ghoul on Channel 56 in Boston; he was actually in Cleveland, as ElScoob said, but he was syndicated to all the Kaiser stations ("all" being about four). He is still around-- Detroit sounds about right-- and he also has a book that you can buy on Amazon.

I love the idea of the campy Horror Host and I was surprised to find that there are still a few of them around. You can find a lot of info on this page. And there's at least one guy with an Internet-based show.