Yet another connection to my past has passed away, and this one came out of nowhere. Although he was of an advanced age, there was little indication from anywhere that we were going to see the news that broke last night, and in my particular social media algorithm was right up there with the passing of a world leader. As THE ASSOCIATED PRESS wrote:
Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking game show host of “Wheel of Fortune,” “Love Connection” and “Scrabble” who later became a right-wing podcaster, skewering liberals and accusing the government of lying about Covid-19, has died. He was 83.
Mark Young, Woolery’s podcast co-host and friend, said in an email early Sunday that Woolery died at his home in Texas with his wife, Kristen, present. “Chuck was a dear friend and brother and a tremendous man of faith, life will not be the same without him,” Young wrote.
Woolery, with his matinee idol looks, coiffed hair and ease with witty banter, was inducted into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007 and earned a daytime Emmy nomination in 1978.
And in three paragraphs you pretty much have a flavor of how both appealing and consternating someone like Woolery was. He was known for being far from the brightest person to ever helm a game show, ironic considering two of his longer-lasting assignments were games that involved spelling words. (the aforementioned SCRABBLE and Game Show Network’s most successful original strip to date, the highly cost-efficient LINGO).
One friend of mine who knew him quite well, dating back to her days as a contestant on SCRABBLE’s NBC pilot and ultimately becoming a casting producer on his short-lived but beloved prime time super big money quiz show GREED, confessed that in all those years, nearly spanning two decades, he never did know her actual name.
I know this anecdote to be true because he never once called me by my first name, either. In my limited dealings with him the best he could muster was parroting the nickname that his producers and my fellow executives had foisted upon me, “Banger”. But he did provide me with one of my more challenging and ultimately honest confrontations with talent that I ever experienced.
Our paths crossed when he was tapped to co-host what was intended to be the signature program of the revamped Family Channel I ran research for, a live weekday two-hour talk/information fest called HOME AND FAMILY. It was an expanded reboot of a modestly successful ABC daytime series called THE HOME SHOW which my colleagues had shepherded during their tenures there, ultimately expanding it from 30 to 60 to 90 minutes as other attempts to round out their lineiup fell by the wayside. So what was an additional 30 minutes?
Not only was it a reboot for the concept, but it was a chance for both Woolery and his co-host to revitalize careers that at the time had diminished from the peaks they were each at a few years earlier. In Woolery’s case, LOVE CONNECTION had finally ceased production after 11 titilliating seasons and SCRABBLE had been cancelled twice, its poorly rated revival lasting barely five months. In between, his stab at helming what turned out to be a tepid attempt at a syndicated talk show in the style of the old MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW had failed to make it to a second season. But that co-host looking for her own comeback was Cristina Ferrare, who just happened to the wife of the man who ran the company that operated the Family Channel–and my ultimate boss. And the syndication side of the company, MTM, was having more than its own share of troubles, with its broadcast network shows cancelled or struggling and an overly ambitious syndicated hour, THE CAPE, losing more than $10 million in just its first cycle.
So I was quite surprised when that ultimate boss requested a deep-dive research study into HOME AND FAMILY despite these overall financial shortfalls. Its ratings were well short of projections, so it was work that was surely needed, but we had many other priorities that were merely allowed to expire without insights as to why. But then again, he wasn’t sleeping with those shows’ talents.
My staff and I were asked to keep details confidential, and given the sensitivity and the timing that was understandable. But people being who they were, especially the loose cannon that Ferrare often was on a set where she was surrounded by friends and literal family, some things got out. In particular, there was noise about how the “chemistry” between Ferrare and Woolery was one of the more poorly scoring elements of the show from those we got feedback from. But what somehow got lost in translation was the fact that between the two of them, Woolery was far more appealing.
And at that time, Woolery was indeed on a comeback trail in life as well as on air. He and his wife Teri, who also happened to be the adopted daughter of classic sitcom heartthrob David Nelson (OZZIE AND HARRIET, for you true old-timers), had just become parents for the second time and Woolery, in the same oversharing style that he had experienced with the wacky singles he interviewed on LOVE CONNECTION, would give detailed accounts of how their lives were being impacted by late night feedings and Teri’s post-partum depression. In hindsight, it proved to be a harbinger for what would eventually become their divorce, a journey that Woolery publicly shared during yet another ill-fated GSN project, the docu-reality series NATURALLY STONED. But it did cement Woolery as an honest open book with his audience, even if Ferrare’s eye rolls and jockeying for attention of her own were getting in the way.
When I visited the set–a “real, working house” that sat smack dab in the middle of the Universal Studios lot (a cost efficiency that endeared HOME AND FAMILY’s producers to our beancounters)–I was surprised when Woolery confronted me during an extended break. “So I’m hearing viewers don’t think I’m connecting?”, he wryly observed.
Knowing full well the stakes of my answer–which likely would have included the safety of my job–I took a breath and responded “Chuck, that’s not the biggest issue that they have”.
Instead of following up with further questions that might have compromised me further, Woolery looked at me with that “aw shucks” face that so many housewives swooned over and said “Look, I know what I am and what I’m not. And I’ve never hidden any of my flaws from anybody. You either accept me as I am or don’t. If enough people come away with that opinion regardless of what a handful of big shots think, I’m OK with that.”.
Still a little stunned by such rigorous honesty, I said “Chuck, I wish a lot more folks with your job had your degree of self-awareness”. Then the red light went on and Chuck snapped back into action.
He was let go from the show soon after this study was conducted, ultimately replaced by yet another person looking to resurrect his ABC daytime career, Michael Burger of the show that replaced THE HOME SHOW, MIKE AND MATY. Ratings grew even weaker, and the channel itself ceased to exist about a year later. An attempt to resurrect HOME AND FAMILY on the de facto Family Channel successor, The Hallmark Channel, began with Ferrare making yet another comeback. But this time, with ratings once again modest and a new boss that wasn’t her spouse, her comeback was short-lived.
In his later years, as the AP story hinted, Woolery had fallen out of favor with an awful lot of the Hollywood types he had once charmed. His connection to WHEEL OF FORTUNE, about to enter its golden anniversary year, was all but forgotten. He never apologized for his views–no different from those espoused by the man most associated with the franchise, his successor Pat Sajak–and eventually found peace and happiness with a new wife and a relocation to Texas. And he even showed up to recall his glory days for recent documentaries and a most telling looooong interview for THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF GAME SHOW HISTORY which was released earlier this year.
I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be more open with you then, Chuck. But I suspect you would have forgiven me. And as I hope those that may have missed your honest side might as well.
See you on the other side of the break.
Until next time…