Expatriates of Chicago around my age know all about Svengoolie (or I thought the show was called Son of Svengoolie). He’s the Midwest’s version of Elvira (she’s an LA fixture that got national attention in the Eighties) but he definitely preceded the more famous Mystery Science Theater 3000. The bigger difference between Svengoolie and MST3K is he just played the movie and his comedy was during the breaks.
My brother and I were first exposed to his show on a Saturday evening back in Springfield. During the state high-school basketball finals, WGN was replaced by WFLD on our cable system since the local CBS station had dibs in our area. We were already familiar with the other Chicago channel from watching it at Grandma’s house; it had better afternoon fare while WGN perceived as stodgy. So that evening WFLD was showing Roger Corman’s version of The Raven. Despite the director’s reputation for crap, this does have a major cast: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff and some nobody named Jack Nicholson circa 1963. When the movie broke for a commercial, we saw this weird bit called The Dukes of Berwyn. Eventually we figured the guy with all the black makeup and top hat was the host and it was a funny take on the old afternoon movies show format we recalled from the Seventies.
I didn’t get to see Svengoolie for a couple years after that evening and it was only during the times I was at my Grandma’s house over the weekend. WFLD had moved the show to Saturday afternoons yet it was usually worth going out of my way to catch, namely for his song parodies. Svengoolie isn’t quite Weird Al since the humor is tailored to Chicago politics, woes and inside jokes; hopefully someone can clue me in again on why he picks on the suburb of Berwyn.
It’s nice to see the story in the FIB Trib isn’t an April Fool’s joke neither. I need to ask my brother if his kids are allowed to watch Svengoolie. I feel they were already rooked out of getting share our WGN Bozo experience, it would make me smile a tad to know they still have a chance to watch this well-loved fixture of Chicago.