Every several months, as of late, it seems it’s time for a full-moon update on our spooky TV host pal Svengoolie and under-the-makeup alter-ego Rich Koz.
On Sunday, March 12, Koz, who hails from the hallowed yet humble roots of Berwyn, celebrated his 71st birthday and used his social media platform to thank his legion of fans (which includes myself) with a heartfelt post of gratitude.
Koz is quick to admit one of his greatest gifts continues as the 43-plus-year broadcasting career under his signature makeup and garb as scary movie host Svengoolie.
Last July, I wrote a column helping Koz get the word out (and set the record straight) that retirement is NOT a word haunting him, and he’s tried his darndest to use everything short of waving wolfsbane to kill rumors.
“Svengoolie is NOT retiring and moving to Florida,” Koz said, thwarting misinformation via his Facebook page in July 2022.
“Some people have nothing better to do than spread rumors.”
From the response, even from my own column after it published, a tide of fan sentiment flooded Koz on his own social media, plus what I gauged from my own readers with supporters and followers all relieved for the reassurance.
“Svengoolie is an icon and I watch him every week,” Joanne Urschel of Valparaiso wrote me.
Koz created the character as “The Son of Svengoolie” in 1979, after the late Jerry Bishop, the original Svengoolie, launched the kooky coffin alter ego with the show in 1970 on WFLD Chicago Channel 32. Svengoolie is now flirting with what will be the 44th year of his now iconic Saturday weekend TV show, broadcast nationally by MeTV but still originates with the show production based at the same Chicago studio space where it started.
Throughout the four decades, the show’s premise has remained the same: costumed Sven providing hosting duties, comedy bits and corny jokes framed by silly, spooky shenanigans interspersed with the two-hour airing of a classic horror film. It’s a broadcast genre first launched out in Los Angeles on local television in the 1950s by TV horror movie hostess Vampira, aka the late Maila Nurmi, and later resurrected in the 1980s by Elvira, aka Cassandra Peterson.
And yet somehow, Svengoolie has outlasted them all, and created a brand which has continued to expand, courtesy of Koz’s dedication, and also the extended broadcast reach fostered by the executives he answers to at parent company Weigel Broadcasting.
But the curse of tongue wagging and typing has continued, and by last October, the scary rumors started surfacing again.
It was a year ago when MeTV launched a 30-minute spin-off series called “Sventoonie,” featuring a fish-puppet likeness of Svengoolie billed as “the Red Tuna of Terror” and airing immediately following the anchor “Svengoolie” show. The fishy spin-off features scary movie clips with silly commentary and the occasional cartoon.
Then in October 2022, MeTV announced auditions to find “the Spawn of Svengoolie,” launching a national promotion seeking less-than-a-minute audition videos of potential entertaining and equally eccentric counterparts to the one-and-only Svengoolie. MeTV executives even sent Koz to attend the New York Comic Con event for his first time on the weekend of Oct. 8 to be featured at the MeTV booth as a meet and greet, which drew incredible long lines and offered a taping area for “live, in-person auditions” for the chance to be selected as “the Spawn of Svengoolie.”
“For all those who are posting conjecture: No, I am not planning to retire. You will be stuck with me for quite a while. It’s just a contest,” Koz posted to his Facebook page Oct. 1.
The “Spawn” promotion has now been narrowed to finalists, and audition clips from hopefuls from Texas, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois have been airing as segments on Sven’s Saturday night broadcasts, with many also available as uploaded on YouTube.
“I always say he’s the number one horror host you’ve never heard of,” said Donna D’Alessandro, executive vice president and head of content at Weigel Broadcasting, in an Oct. 3 published interview in Variety with writer Michael Schneider.
“The show grew 30% in two years (during the pandemic), hitting about a million viewers every Saturday night. That to me was an unbelievable statistic. A lot of the coastal cities are learning who Svengoolie is now. But we’re still trying to get him out there. He is a huge asset, loved and beloved. I couldn’t believe the amount of audience that he has, his following. I’d walk by his desk, and I couldn’t believe the amount of fan mail he still gets on a weekly basis.”
D’Alessandro, who joined Weigel Broadcasting in 2021, also explained her insight for the Svengoolie brand to writer Schneider for his story in Variety.
“One of the things that we have to look at is there’s a gem here, how do we grow it? How do we extend it? How do we make sure it goes on for another 43 years?” D’Alessandro told Schneider.
“And we started a little bit with this quirky little show called ‘Sventoonie’; we call it an after-party area after ‘Svengoolie’ on Saturday nights. It’s a little different, a little bit funnier, and it’s a little bit more avant garde. That alone showed us that people want more from this character and from the brands.”
Philip Potempa is a journalist, published author and the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa@comhs.org.
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