- Big Chuck and Lil' John
-
The Big Chuck and Lil' John Show
(formerly The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show)
Charles "Big Chuck" Schodowski (right)
and "Lil' John" Rinaldi (left)Genre Late night horror hosts/
Sketch comedyCreated by Bob "Hoolihan" Wells
"Big Chuck" SchodowskiStarring Bob "Hoolihan" Wells
(1966–1979)
"Big Chuck" Schodowski
(1966–2007, 2011-present)
"Lil' John" Rinaldi
(1979–2007, 2011-present)Opening theme "Here We Go Again"
by Ray CharlesEnding theme "Is That All There Is?"
by Peggy LeeCountry of origin United States Language(s) English No. of seasons 40 Production Location(s) Cleveland, Ohio Running time 2 hr. 30 min. Broadcast Original channel WJW-TV (channel 8)
(known as WJKW-TV from 1977–1985)Original run December 23, 1966 – June 17, 2007 Chronology Preceded by Shock Theater External links bigchuckandliljohn.com Charles "Big Chuck" Schodowski (born June 28, 1934) and John "Lil' John" Rinaldi (born 1946) — together commonly known as Big Chuck and Lil' John — are a duo of entertainers who served as late-night horror hosts of The Big Chuck and Lil' John Show on television station WJW in Cleveland, Ohio from 1979–2007. In addition to hosting a movie with a live audience, they also performed original sketch comedy routines. At the end of each sketch was a very distinctive laugh (see external links section below) voiced by late comedian/actor Jay Lawrence, who was a disc jockey for KYW radio in Cleveland during the early 1960s.
Contents
History
Chuck Schodowski started as a producer/engineer at WJW-TV (and before that at KYW-TV), and became a close friend of Ernie Anderson. He worked closely with Anderson (as Ghoulardi) on Shock Theater, and was instrumental in bringing in the blend of blues and polka music that helped define the show, adding comic audio drop-ins to enliven the often awful movies, and immortalized The Trashmen's tune "Surfin' Bird" by marrying it to the image of an old man gurning.
When Anderson left Cleveland for California in 1966, his popular Ghoulardi character was retired, and a talent search ensued to find a replacement. Schodowski agreed to help Bob Wells (WJW's "Hoolihan the Weatherman") with his audition, and the management decided they liked the way the two performed together. They became co-hosts of The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show. Motown group The Fantastic Four's song To Share Your Love was used as the show's opening theme song.
After Wells left the show in 1979, 4 foot-3 inch (1.3 meter) jeweler John Rinaldi, a show regular, took over as co-host; the show itself was renamed The Big Chuck and Lil' John Show.
For many years, the show aired at 11:30 p.m. on Friday nights before moving to 11:30 p.m. on Saturday nights starting on October 1, 1988 (to accommodate The Arsenio Hall Show, which WJW was airing following their weeknight 11 p.m. newscasts), then back to Fridays following WJW's affiliation switch to Fox in 1994.
After Fox acquired WJW in 1996, the movies selected for The Big Chuck and Lil' John Show were no longer done by either host, and began to deviate from the original horror/science fiction genre into more conventional movie fare. In addition, the start time was again moved in 1996 to Saturdays at midnight following Mad TV, then after Fox debuted Talkshow with Spike Feresten in 2006, the show settled in its final start time of 12:30 a.m. Saturday nights/Sunday mornings.
Along with the Saturday night shows, Schodowski and Rinaldi hosted a companion Couch Potato Theater program airing from 10 a.m. - noon on Saturday mornings, which featured at various times Three Stooges shorts, episodes of The Abbott and Costello Show, movies, cartoons, or (due to schedule conflicts) an hour long skits only show.
On December 2006, Schodowski announced he would retire in June 2007. As part of his farewell, WJW broadcast the hour-long retrospective Big Chuck and Lil' John: The End of an Era.[1] This also marked the end of The Big Chuck & Lil' John Show, with the last regular episode airing the afternoon of June 16, 2007 and again in the early morning of June 17.[2][3]
In October 2008, Schodowski released his autobiography, Big Chuck!: My Favorite Stories from 47 Years on Cleveland TV, co-written by The Plain Dealer media writer Tom Feran. The book debuted at the 2008 Ghoulardifest convention.
On Sunday, September 11, 2011, it was announced that Big Chuck & Lil' John would return to TV on WJW every Saturday morning at 11am, beginning Sunday Sept. 18th.
Notable sketches and parodies
- Ben Crazy - a parody of a popular 60's TV medical drama, Ben Casey with Big Chuck as the title character
- The Certain Ethnic _____ - a play on Big Chuck's Polish heritage featuring Chuck as "Stash Kowalski" - a stereotypical Polish Clevelander (e.g., The Certain Ethnic Driver, who drives through red traffic lights and stops at green lights). Originally, the skits were entitled "The Polish ____", but after a few complaints, were changed to "Certain Ethnic"
- The Kielbasa Kid - a parody of TV westerns, with Big Chuck as the bumbling hero
- Parma Place - a parody of the 60's soap-opera Peyton Place; originated on Ghoulardi but was continuously rerun throughout the entire course of Hoolihan & Big Chuck and Big Chuck & Lil' John
- Soul Man - a parody of Superman where Big Chuck (as "Ed Tarboosh" - mild mannered TV producer) would—with the help of his "soul pills"--became Soul Man, who was a big, black, and bumbling superhero (played by longtime station cameraman Herb Thomas)
- Mary Hartski, Mary Hartski - a parody of the 70's TV show Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
Other cast members
Big Chuck and Lil' John would use some of WJW's personalities, like station meteorologist Dick Goddard, in their skits. One sketch dealt with Cleveland's weather radar, in which Cleveland's meteorologists compete to see who had better Doppler. As Goddard claims that WJW has radar that can see clearly to a neighborhood, the image reveals a woman taking a bath (strategically covered with bubbles), and Goddard hides the image with his suit jacket. Goddard would appear in numerous skits through the years, sometimes even playing different characters.
Other longtime supporting players were veteran cameraman/technician Art Lafredo, who appeared in many skits through the years and had several "Art Lafredo Nights" dedicated to him, and Mary Allen ("the pride of Maple Heights"), who was an older lady and was a viewer who had won a contest in the late 70s to appear on a skit. She impressed Big Chuck with her performance so much, she became a regular player on the show until the late 90s.
News anchor Robin Swoboda was featured as the main villain (a Catwoman takeoff) in "Batguy & Rinaldi" (a parody of Batman & Robin), and sportscasters Casey Coleman, John Telich and Dan Coughlin were used in sports themed skits. Other later skits featured WJW station announcer Bill Ward announcing introductions to skits or for faux testimonial advertisements in the style of Hoolihan.
Owing to the station's long affiliation with the CBS television network, CBS stars like Buddy Ebsen and Andy Griffith made cameos in several skits, as well as Tim Conway (who like Big Chuck began his career on WJW as a sidekick of Ernie Anderson—though on a separate program) who by then was a star on CBS' The Carol Burnett Show. Athletes like Muhammad Ali, Earnie Shavers and Jack Lambert also made guest appearances in skits.
Other show features
Hoolihan, Big Chuck and Lil' John also made music video parodies as well, including Ray Stevens songs like "Guitarzan", "Indian Love Call" (the skit was titled "The Audio Engineer" and made extensive use of chromakey), "Along Came Jones", "The Streak" and "Bridget the Midget" (which was Lil' John's on-air debut on the show back in 1970), plus other songs like Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco", Jimmy Castor Bunch's "Troglodyte", and Larry Groce's "Junk Food Junkie."
The show occasionally would feature a "New Talent Time" sketch where Cleveland area performers, usually performing some sort of offbeat stunt, would be featured. One week featured songwriter Robert McGuire performing his original song "Moon Over Parma", a song that mentioned a journey through the suburbs of Cleveland; the song would later become the theme song for the first season of The Drew Carey Show.
Return to the airwaves
Beginning on September 10, 2011, WJW began airing a weekly half-hour program featuring Big Chuck and Lil' John's classic skits. The program airs Saturdays at 11 a.m.[4]
References
- ^ Washington, Julie E (May 19, 2007). "WERE, WJMO to trade places on the AM dial". The Plain Dealer. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_topdoc=1&p_docnum=1&p_sort=YMD_date:D&p_product=NewsBank&p_text_direct-0=document_id=(%2011949C524F72E908%20)&p_docid=11949C524F72E908&p_theme=aggregated5&p_queryname=11949C524F72E908&f_openurl=yes&p_nbid=C4CL48SDMTIwNzY4NDAyNy41NzAzNTc6MToxMjoxOTguMzAuMjI4LjA&&p_multi=CPDB. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
- ^ Heldenfels, Rich (June 17, 2007). "'Big Chuck' Leaves Channel 8, But the Jokes, Skits Won't Stop". Akron Beacon Journal. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_topdoc=1&p_docnum=1&p_sort=YMD_date:D&p_product=NewsBank&p_text_direct-0=document_id=(%20119E3CCBD9668870%20)&p_docid=119E3CCBD9668870&p_theme=aggregated5&p_queryname=119E3CCBD9668870&f_openurl=yes&p_nbid=Y5DB59HUMTIwNzY4NDM1Ni40MDczMTk6MToxMjoxOTguMzAuMjI4LjA&&p_multi=ABJB.
- ^ Washington, Julie E (June 21, 2007). "After 47 years, a Cleveland TV legend is retiring". The Plain Dealer. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_topdoc=1&p_docnum=1&p_sort=YMD_date:D&p_product=NewsBank&p_text_direct-0=document_id=(%20119ED3E9C0779160%20)&p_docid=119ED3E9C0779160&p_theme=aggregated5&p_queryname=119ED3E9C0779160&f_openurl=yes&p_nbid=W4EY4AGFMTIwNzY4NDI1MC4xNzAyOTY6MToxMjoxOTguMzAuMjI4LjA&&p_multi=CPDB. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
- ^ Dawidziak, Mark (2011-09-04). "Cleveland daytime TV in a post-'Oprah' world". The Plain Dealer. http://www.cleveland.com/tv-blog/index.ssf/2011/09/cleveland_daytime_tv_in_a_post-oprah_world.html. Retrieved 2011-11-09.
Further reading
- Feran, Tom; Heldenfels, R.D. (1997). Ghoulardi: Inside Cleveland TV's Wildest Ride. Cleveland, Ohio: Gray & Co. ISBN 978-1-88622-818-4.
- Schodowski, Chuck; Feran, Tom (2008). Big Chuck!: My Favorite Stories from 47 Years on Cleveland TV. Cleveland, Ohio: Gray & Co. ISBN 978-1-59851-052-2.
External links
Categories:- American television personalities
- Duos
- Television in Cleveland, Ohio
- Horror hosts
- American sketch comedy television shows
- Local comedy television series in the United States
- Motion picture television series
- 1966 television series debuts
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
