Chiller Theater to Return Saturday
September 4, 2023
WPXI-TV meteorologist Scott Harbaugh will host the new “Chiller Theater” to debut Saturday on PCNC and WPXI Now.
After almost four decades off the air, a popular late night TV show will return to Pittsburgh TV for a limited run starting this Saturday.
“Chiller Theater”, originally hosted by Bill Cardille on WPXI-TV from 1963 to 1984, will debut Saturday, September 9th at 11:30pm on PCNC and WPXI Now, with Channel 11 News meteorologist Scott Harbaugh as host.
Harbaugh, however, says not to expect a carbon copy of the iconic program that “Chilly Billy” hosted and produced for more than two decades.
“We’d be doing ourselves a huge disservice trying to replicate such an iconic program in Pittsburgh television history,” said Harbaugh.
The original program, which included trivia, horoscopes, celebrity interviews and one-liners wrapped around a featured horror movie, debuted at 11:30pm Saturday nights and was in a double feature format. It was reduced to a single-feature format by 1980 after WPXI-TV bowed to pressure from NBC to air its popular late night show “Saturday Night Live”, pushing its start time from 11:30pm to 1am.
Two years later, WPXI management made the decision to air “Entertainment This Week” immediately after “Saturday Night Live”, pushing “Chiller Theater” further back to 2am.
In the late fall of 1983, WPXI announced that “Chiller Theater” would be canceled by the end of the year. WPXI replaced it with “The Saturday Late Show”, which featured a local horror movie, but without the local flair that had made the show a staple of many Pittsburgh households for so long. “The Saturday Late Show” did not last a year.
Cardille, for his part, remained with the station as booth announcer and weathercaster until his retirement in the 1990s. He then joined WJAS radio as midday host until its sale and subsequent format change from adult standards to talk in 2014. Cardille died in July 2016 at the age of 87.
This incarnation of “Chiller Theater” will run for eight episodes. Planning for the reboot began five years ago by two WPXI-TV employees. Cardille’s daughter Lori will be on hand during the inaugural episode to talk about her father’s legacy.
WPXI-TV contributed to this report.
PHOTO CREDIT: WPXI-TV
Chilly Billy was the “cheese” that hit that late night pizza. Saturday Night Live has run its course, and it’s time to try something different. 40 years means a lot-and there will be many who don’t “get” what the concept was/is/will be. But there’s hope. Pittsburgh has a lot of creativity-and we’ll be “staring” at the show when it debuts. Good luck!
Conveniently right after Svengooli! Brilliant!
On the plus side it is a piece of locally produced programming at a time where that has all but disappeared. It makes sense insofar as it’s a differentiator to set a local station apart from 1000+ video streams. But I don’t envy Harbaugh as I think this can’t help but disappoint fans of the original. And I’m skeptical about it’s prospects to draw a new generation of fans as so much time has elapsed since Cardille’s version.
This is pretty cool news! I’d give it a watch but my family doesn’t have cable anymore. I don’t even have a TV… Can you stream this somehow?
“WPXI Now” IS the streaming service of WPXI-TV… PCNC is “Pittsburgh Cable News Channel” which someone at the station finally decided was worthy of going on 11.4 digital subchannel. As the story says, the new Chiller Theater will NOT be on WPXI-TV as the old program was. If you tune in there you will see Saturday Night Live. You need to either tune into WPXI NOW on wpxi.com or Pittsburgh Cable News Channel.
Why did the show not air at 11:30 PM as promised by countless promotion beforehand? (Law & Crime ran in the 11:30 PM slot instead.) I was in the process of giving up in disgust when Chiller finally came on at midnight. Also, the huge flashing “screen” on the left side of the set makes it difficult to concentrate on what the host is saying, but the control room “assistant” is totally awesome. He needs something more to do. Maybe he could be loading a film projector in the background. Overall, the show was not bad for a first attempt. Nice to see Chiller alive again. Let’s hope the heart keeps going.