Remembering Bob "Hoolihan" Wells — Cleveland's Horror Host Signs Off at 93

It’s 11:30 on a Friday night in Cleveland, sometime in 1969. You’re supposed to be asleep. Instead you’re six inches from a glowing television, the volume low, watching a monster movie you’d never have chosen on your own — and staying anyway, because between the reels, two men in cheap sketches are funnier than the film deserves. One of them is the weatherman.

No jump scare tonight, fiends. This one’s a goodbye.

Bob “Hoolihan” Wells (1933–2026) was the Cleveland horror host who succeeded Ghoulardi and co-hosted The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show.

Wells died on Wednesday, October 21, at his home in Clearwater, Florida, of liver cancer. He was 93. WJW, the Cleveland station where he became Hoolihan, announced his passing — and a generation of Northeast Ohio monster kids felt a Friday night go dark.

Quick Specs

Name: Robert D. “Bob” Wells, known as Bob “Hoolihan” Wells
Born: September 27, 1933 — West Point, Nebraska
Died: October 21, 2026 — Clearwater, Florida (liver cancer), aged 93
Known for: “Hoolihan the Weatherman” on WJW-TV Channel 8, Cleveland; co-host of The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show (1966–1979)
The chair he filled: Successor to Ernie “Ghoulardi” Anderson’s Shock Theater on WJW
Catchphrase: “Sunshine to you, no matter what the weather”
Also seen in: Summer Rental (1985), as attorney Stan Greene
Honors: Ohio Broadcasters Hall of Fame inductee (2007); Cleveland Association of Broadcasters “Legend” Award (2010)

The Weatherman Who Wandered Into the Crypt

Wells started in broadcasting in 1951, spinning records and reading copy on Nebraska radio fresh out of high school. He trained as a military jet pilot along the way, flew with the Nebraska Air National Guard, and worked his way through Oklahoma City and Kansas City before Cleveland called in 1965.

WJW hired him as its evening weatherman — and wanted a funny one. Wells auditioned in a grass skirt, improvising, and station management handed him a name that stuck for sixty years: Hoolihan the Weatherman. Every forecast ended the same way: “Sunshine to you, no matter what the weather.”

He was already haunting the late show as a supporting player on Shock Theater with Ghoulardi when Ernie Anderson left for Los Angeles in late 1966. The station paired Wells with Charles “Big Chuck” Schodowski, an engineer who’d been popping up in Ghoulardi’s skits, and The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show premiered on December 23, 1966 — Friday nights at 11:30, Z-grade movies up front, vaudeville sketches in the breaks.

Thirteen Years of Friday Nights

The formula was beautiful in its simplicity: a bad movie, treated with total affection, interrupted by sketches Cleveland still quotes. “The Kielbasy Kid.” “Pizza Fight of the Century.” “Ben Crazy.” “Readings by Robert.” “Certain Ethnic Varieties.” The boys turned up at Halloween haunted houses, played charity ball against anyone who’d take the field, and made the late movie a civic ritual — the kind of show a city organizes its Friday nights around.

This is the tradition Harper comes from, fiends. Before streaming, before on-demand, the horror host was the friend who stayed up with you — the face in the dark between the monster and the commercial break. Ghoulardi lit the fuse in Cleveland. Hoolihan and Big Chuck kept the fire burning for thirteen years, and when Wells left in 1979, Schodowski and John “Lil’ John” Rinaldi carried the same Friday-night chair for another twenty-eight.

Sunshine, All the Way Out

Wells left Cleveland in 1979 for Florida — Christian broadcasting first, co-hosting a daily show with his wife, Barbara, and then a long second career in financial planning. Hollywood called once: in Summer Rental (1985), he played attorney Stan Greene opposite John Candy, with Barbara turning up in two small parts beside him.

But Cleveland never really let him go, and he never asked it to. He came back for Ghoulardi Fest appearances over the decades, and in September 2025 he reunited with Rinaldi at The BIG Adios Muchachos Show in Cuyahoga Falls — paying tribute to Schodowski, who had died that January at 90, reminiscing, and bidding farewell to generations of viewers. One fan, hearing today’s news, put the whole story in six words: “Big Chuck and Hoolihan together again!” That was Gary L. Grandee Jr., and every monster kid in Ohio knows exactly what he means.

Trivia & Facts

Wells earned the “Hoolihan” name at his WJW audition — he showed up in a grass skirt and improvised his way into the job.
The show’s sketches traditionally ended on a recorded laugh track voiced by Jay Lawrence, a Cleveland radio disc jockey.
Wells married Barbara Leigh in 1956; she had been one of Cleveland’s first female disc jockeys. They were married 51 years, until her death in 2007, and had three children.
In 2019, Wells, Schodowski and Rinaldi reunited to film the five-episode web series Space Ship One — their first project together since 1979.
As a cast member of The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show, Wells won several local Emmy Awards.

Harper’s Extras

Tonight, do it the old way: put on a creaky monster movie at 11:30, stay up later than you should, and laugh in the breaks. That’s the church Hoolihan preached in. For more goodbyes and celebrations from the crypt, keep it locked on Horror News.

Another goodbye from this month: our tribute to Richard Riehle.

FAQ

When did Bob “Hoolihan” Wells die? Wednesday, October 21, 2026, at his home in Clearwater, Florida. He was 93.

What was The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show? A Friday late-night horror movie and sketch-comedy show on Cleveland’s WJW-TV, hosted by Wells and Charles “Big Chuck” Schodowski from December 23, 1966 to August 1979. It succeeded Ghoulardi’s Shock Theater; after Wells left, it continued as The Big Chuck and Lil’ John Show until 2007.

What was Hoolihan’s catchphrase? “Sunshine to you, no matter what the weather” — his sign-off on every forecast.

Sunshine to you, Bob — no matter what the weather. Sleep tight.