Late night TV memories
Thursday, August 30th, 2007Yes, I miss Johnny Carson. I was never a regular viewer of his “Tonight Show”, but I watched it quite a bit in its later years, when I was in my 20s, I guess, and maybe early 30s. I saw the last episode with Bette Midler. Although I didn’t grow up watching him, I was aware of Johnny when I was in grade school. My best friend at Daniel Worley School in Canton, Ohio, Mark Masters, used to tell me about Johnny Carson when his dad let him stay up to watch him. Mark was good at doing funny voices and characters. He used to run around the playground talking like Ray Stevens with a pretend mic in his hand, asking people if they had seen “The Streak” run past. Mark was the one who turned me on to Hoolihan and Big Chuck, those two horror movie hosts who came on after the 11:00 news every Friday night on Channel 8 in Cleveland. I was probably around 10 years old the first time my brother, Dave, and I stayed up to watch Big Chuck and Hooli. We immediately became fans of the show with its low-budget horror flicks and crazy skits that came on during the breaks. I can still remember the following Monday at school Mark telling me that if we would have stayed up a little later after the movie was over we would have seen Hoolihan and “Pajama Party.” Well the next Friday, Davy and I stayed up and we saw Pajama Party: Hooli and Chuck in long nightshirts reading jokes from viewers. And then we got to hear a recording of Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is?” Who can forget the record grinding to a halt! We can talk more about Hoolihan and Big Chuck another time. Thanks for the memory jogger, “good luck.”