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Ghoulardi

Inside Cleveland TV's Wildest Ride

by Tom Feran | R. D. Heldenfels

• Format: Softcover, 176 pages, 8 x 8 inches
• Illustrations: 160 black-and-white photographs
• ISBN: 978-1-886228-18-4
• Price: $17.95

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Description

This is the definitive fan's guide to the outrageous and bizarre Ghoulardi TV show and a history of the hoopla that surrounded its brief reign on Cleveland's airwaves.

Who was Ghoulardi? If you grew up watching TV in Cleveland in the 1960s, you definitely remember. If you live in Cleveland today, you hear about him still.

In early 1963, months before the Beatles arrived in America and years before Howard Stern hit the radio airwaves, Cleveland TV actor Ernie Anderson pioneered the modern counter-culture media celebrity: Ghoulardi. His offbeat late-night movie show was so popular locally that it got ratings higher than the Tonight Show, and the Cleveland police department reported a significant decrease in crime during its broadcast.

Ghoulardi continues to capture the hearts and minds of Cleveland's first TV generation and is riding a wave of nostalgia. Ghoulardi creator Ernie Anderson's recent obituary was the front page feature in both of northeast Ohio's major dailies and the lead item on all local TV news shows. Ghoulardi memorabilia are regular set props on the popular TV sitcom The Drew Carey Show. Ghoulardi tee-shirts still sell even though the show has been off the air for more than 30 years.

This book tells the on-screen and behind-the-scenes story of the Ghoulardi show and its unusual creator with biographical sketches, trivia, photos, original scripts, and other memorabilia.

Reviews

Brings back a whole era of Cleveland television as it sets the historical stage for Ghoulardi's triumph . . . An intelligent media history. . . Enough Ghoulardi trivia to satisfy the most fervent cultist. — The Plain Dealer

Anderson wasn't afraid to tell viewers up front that the movie was bad, but could still assure them 'Hey, groups, we're gonna have fun tonight.' . . .Thanks to Feran and Heldenfels, readers can still have fun with “Ghoulardi” on those cold northeast Ohio winter nights — Star Beacon

Takes a zoom-lens look at Ghoulardi's creator, both on and off camera . . . chock full of rare photos and extensive interviews with people who knew Anderson best, including Tim Conway, Drew Carey and Cleveland television personality 'Big Chuck' Schodowski, Anderson's successor and one of his closest friends. — Youngstown Vindicator

Laid out like a pop scrapbook with dozens of photographs, many taken from broadcasts . . . captures a hint of the mania that made Ghoulardi a Cleveland idol in a sleepy era before long hair, drugs, assassinatins, war and protests. — Columbus Dispatch

A scrapbook of trivia for the boom-boomers who lived through it, a revelation fo the next generation of tube-tethered America . . . Feran and Hendenfels patch together the G catechism, supplementing their tale with sidelong glances of Cleveland culture circa 1963. — Free Times

Tom Feran and R.D. Heldenfels dug into the legend of Ghoulardi and have divulged all they found. . . A comprehensive collection of information about the show. — West Side Leader

About Tom Feran

Tom Feran has been a writer and editor for the Plain Dealer since 1982. He was named Best Columnist in Ohio in 2007 by the Society of Professional Journalists, and is former president of the Television Critics Association of North America. His work has appeared in publications including Ohio, Cleveland and DirecTV Magazine, and he has been a regular pseudonymous contributor to the tabloid Weekly World News. He is author with R.D. Heldenfels of Ghoulardi: Inside Cleveland TV's Wildest Ride and Cleveland TV Memories. He was co-author with John Gorman of Gorman's memoir The Buzzard: Inside the Glory Days of WMMS and Cleveland Rock Radio, and with Chuck Schodowski of the memoir Big Chuck! He is a graduate of Harvard College, where he was president and editor of the Lampoon, and of Cleveland St. Ignatius High School. He and his wife are the parents of two daughters and two sons. More About Tom Feran

About R. D. Heldenfels

Rich Heldenfels is the Television Writer for the Akron Beacon Journal. More About R. D. Heldenfels