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| Bob "Hoolihan" Wells and "Big Chuck" Schodowski on the set of the "Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show" on WJW Channel 8 in 1976. (Photo credit: Robert E. Dorksen / The Plain Dealer) |
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Bob “Hoolihan” Wells, the former Cleveland television personality best known for co-hosting the popular “Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show,” has died. He was 93. “It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my father Bob ‘Hoolihan’ Wells, of liver cancer,” his son, Robert Dean Wells Jr., posted on Facebook. A native of West Point, Nebraska, Wells arrived at WJW TV-8 in 1965 as the weatherman on the station’s weekday 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. His lighthearted forecasts stood out from the more serious style of crosstown rivals Dick Goddard and Don Webster and earned him the nickname “Hoolihan the Weatherman.” Wells was also a regular on WJW’s late-night “Shock Theater with Ghoulardi.” When host Ernie Anderson left for Hollywood in 1966, Wells was paired with Anderson’s right-hand man, “Big Chuck” Schodowski. The duo spent 13 years together, introducing horror films and bad B movies while entertaining audiences with comedy sketches between commercial breaks. In the late 1970s, Wells became general manager of WSUM, a Christian radio station in Parma. He left Cleveland in 1979 for a job at a Christian television station in Florida, where he and his wife, Barbara, co-hosted a talk show. Wells was succeeded at WJW by “Lil’ John” Rinaldi, who teamed up with Schodowski on “The Big Chuck and Lil’ John Show,” which ran until 2007. Schodowski died in January 2025 at age 90. |
