![]() To trace the Svengoolie history, Jerry was the staff announcer on duty (live) on Friday nights in late 1970, back when all TV stations had live announcers on duty. What were the early days of the show like? Was it a smooth transition taking over from Jerry Bishop, or did you have to build an audience? Well actually, it wasn’t immediately going from Jerry to me! There was a little over six years in between his show and my show. You recently were honored by 15th Ward alderman Raymond Lopez and the Chicago City Council for your 40 years of Svengoolie. We e-mailed some questions to Koz and, amazingly, he was able to get out of the coffin during this busy Halloween season and answer a few for us. Tickets are $50 and include a meet and greet with Koz proceeds benefit the museum. The exhibition kicks off with a gala at the museum on Saturday, October 26, at 7 PM. ![]() The Museum of Broadcast Communications is celebrating Koz’s 40 years playing Svengoolie with a new exhibition that will feature the Son of Svengoolie coffin and other items from the original set. A great highlight from those years: “Blob of Red,” a parody song to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann,” created for an 80s airing of the 1972 independently produced British stinker Beware! The Blob. You can check it out almost every Saturday on MeTV, but I also recommend finding and watching the Son of Svengoolie show that aired on WFLD in the days before the Fox network. The national version is pretty much the same as the old show, with the same lineup of spooky but not really gory horror fare, like Creature From the Black Lagoon and the 1931 Frankenstein. In 2011, Koz and the Svengoolie crew started making their mark on the national stage when locally owned network MeTV (current home of Svengoolie) started airing the show on its national cable broadcasts. Koz created his own version of the character with the input and blessing of Jerry Bishop, a radio and television announcer who originated Svengoolie while hosting WFLD’s Screaming Yellow Theater program in the early 70s. Svengoolie the show is the antithesis of slick, with its parody songs, low-budget set, and audio cues culled from 30s movies, but it’s also an incredibly important (and hilarious) link to 50s and 60s television. Koz is the affable and spooky host of Svengoolie, the long-running Chicago television program that airs classic horror, sci-fi, and B movies intersected with comedy and trivia by Svengoolie, his friends, and an arsenal of rubber chickens. But many might not realize that he’s been working in Chicago broadcasting since the 70s. You can check out Svengoolie teaming up with the Justice League beginning on October 16 in the back of DC comic books.Local television legend Rich Koz doesn’t need an introduction to most of our readers, especially when he is dressed as his character Svengoolie, wearing his classic raccoon-eyed ghoulish face paint and top hat. There's a good Svengoolie joke in every segment." "That's the fun of it because I really do think it does capture the spirit of the show within each of the pages there. "There's a lot of classic jokes in there from things that you would see on the show," continued Didio. And, I don't want to give too much away, but let me just say you're talking about rubber chickens? They play a very big part in it."Īs for the classic Svengoolie line "Berwyn"-a Chicago suburb that's mentioned on almost every episode of the TV show-fans won't be disappointed. "You'll notice things that you see on the show also happening in the comic. "I think there's a lot of puns, a lot of the kind of jokes that you expect," explained Svengoolie. The MeTV host is known for his quirky, sometimes cringy sense of humor, and that's something the duo are bringing to this back-up story. There are a lot of things Svengoolie is known for, and it's not just the costume. Svengoolie with the Justice League is something that I felt was a fun mash-up that I think came together even better than we expected." DC has a long history of horror comics and horror stories, and so again, we found a way to blend that aspect of what they brought to the show and mix it nicely with our super-heroes. Is that the best way to say it? And for us, it was something that we thought there was a lot of similarities, and the audience that Svengoolie has on MeTV, and the comics that we create. I think Svengoolie is the hero that DC wanted, and DC needed. "I mean, just the shear costume alone? No. "He seems like a natural fit," Didio told GameSpot.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |