“Big Chuck” Schodowski, a beloved Cleveland television legend who starred on WJW (Channel 8) for more than 60 years, has passed away. He was 90 years old.
Fox 8 News announced Monday morning.
The amiable, cleft-chinned broadcaster worked as an engineer and bit part on horror host Ernie “Goraldi” Anderson’s show “Shock Theater” in the 1960s, then co-hosted his own show and won an Emmy. Worked as an award-winning producer and director.
Charles Mitchell Schodowski was born on June 28, 1934 in Cleveland.
“As a child, I was very shy,” he once told the Akron Beacon Journal. “I always wanted to be in the school play, but I never got around to being on stage.”
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
So, instead, I got some old curtains and bed sheets and said, “I’m going to recruit some of my friends to be actors. I’ll do anything else.”
After graduating from Cleveland South High School in 1952, he worked the overnight shift at the Alloys and Chemicals Corporation foundry. Wanting a break from his difficult and dangerous job, Schodowski began studying broadcasting technology at the National Radio School in Cleveland in 1957. He attended night classes for three years and qualified in 1960.
He quickly found a job as a summer replacement engineer at Channel 3 (now WKYC) and moved to Channel 8 as a full-time engineer that year. Former Channel 3 announcer Ernie Anderson and comedian Tim Conway followed him to WJW.
In 1963, Anderson began appearing as host Guraldi in the horror film Shock Theater. The show was so popular that it is believed that juvenile delinquency plummeted on Friday nights as children watched it at home.
In 1966, after Anderson left for Hollywood, WJW hired Bob Wells, also known as “Weather Houlihan,” to replace him.
“The Houlihan & Big Chuck Show” ushered in a new era of late-night entertainment. Welles and Schodowski served as horror hosts and appeared in vaudeville-style comedy skits and parodies. Some of the recurring songs include “Ben Crazy,” “Robert’s Reading,” “Soul Man,” “Keelbathy Kid,” “Pizza Fight of the Century,” “Mary Hartsky,” and ” There were also some memorable sketches, such as “Accordion Duel.” “The Chase”, “The Streak”, “Troglodytes”, “Junk Food Junkie”, “Ajax Liquor Store”, “The Last Wish”, “Certain Ethnic Breeds”
Wanting to express ethnic humor without offending anyone in particular, Shodofsky coined the term “specific ethnic group” to refer to an unspecified culture. He wore a fake mustache, a rumpled hat, and a striped sweater while performing his skits. Since then, “a people” has been part of Ohio’s vocabulary.
After the movie ended early in the morning, Welles and Schodowski put on their pajamas and read jokes submitted by viewers before they went to bed.
Schodowski was proud to direct the 1977 television movie “The Wandering Muse of Artemus Flagg,” starring Burgess Meredith.
“I worked 14 hours a day, seven days a week, for three weeks,” Schodowski recalls. “Burgess said after the game, ‘I’ve never worked so hard for so little money in my life.'”
Anderson and Conway invited Schodowski to California to work as an assistant director. He flew to Los Angeles and immediately became homesick.
“I spent a week there,” Schodowski recalls. “I missed something. I hated the heat and the smog.”
He said goodbye to Hollywood and returned home.
When Houlihan left in 1979, Schodofsky did not have to look for another on-air partner. John Rinaldi, a Cleveland jeweler who has appeared in many skits, has been named co-host of “The Big Chuck and Lil Jon Show.”
“He’s a bundle of enthusiasm. When you’re down, you’re not happy when you’re around him for 10 minutes,” Schodowski said.
Schodofsky and Rinaldi also hosted “Couch Potato Theater,” which featured skits as well as short stories from The Three Stooges and Abbott and Costello.
After WJW switched from CBS to Fox in 1996, horror and science fiction films were replaced by other genres. The show went back and forth between Friday and Saturday, but still drew crowds.
“It’s still fun,” Schodowski said in 2003. “If that becomes a hassle, I’ll think about it again.”
In 2007, Schodowski announced his retirement from the weekly movie show, explaining: I just don’t have the energy. ”
It was a sad occasion when “Big Chuck and Lil Jon: The End of an Era” aired, but it wasn’t really the end.
In 2008, Schodowski released his autobiography, Big Chuck, co-written with Tom Phelan. Schodowski and other Cleveland television icons appeared at GouldieFest each year, and fans treated them like rock stars.
The skit still had an audience.
In 2011, WJW began airing a half-hour program featuring all the classic segments and some new segments. Schodovsky and Rinaldi returned as hosts.
Schodofsky said his show is meaningful to generations of viewers.
“I’ve received well-written and detailed letters and emails about what the show means to some people and, in some cases, how it can help them cope with problematic issues. These are people who had difficult childhoods, difficult home lives, or problems at work,” Schodowski writes in his book, Big Chuck. “I treasure these letters and have saved them all.”