Hot Seat with Wally George

Evocation: I first became acquainted with The Wally George Show when I was in High School, on UHF's KDOC Channel 56 Los Angeles {a station which preserves timeless favorites}, which was re-airing episodes of Dark Shadows at the time, when I saw a commercial for the program, airing at 11pm on Saturday nights, so I decided to tune in. His demeanor was amusing, yelling and insulting guests was his shtick, and even though he addressed what was to be the subject of the show, he always turned it into a verbal shouting match with an audience of mostly drunken supporters shouting "Wally! Wally!", hardly letting the guest get a word in edge-wise, and when they did, they were often called "idiots", "morons", or if female, the ubiquitous "bimbo" was often used, which was also repeated by the belligerent and inebriated crowd. He was typified as the raucous Conservative with the American flag, an enlarged photo of The Challenger, and John Wayne on the rickety baby-blue cubicle-like backdrop enfolding around his desk, upon which was always that apple-boysenberry juice in his mug. It was not a show for serious consideration, but purely for entertainment purposes. His co-host included a yes-man named "David Kennedy" who actually did interject relatively cohesive commentary from time to time.

Of note, his guests have included billboard-queen "Angelyne", Racist Tom Metzger and son, Rick Dees {a long-standing "feud" resulted in which one day as a guest George 'broke' a prop chair over his back, as well as having a pie-throwing episode}, fellow Conservative-loudmouth poseur Morton Downey Jr. {who owes his momentary fame to George, and whom he also had an ongoing "feud" with}, some regulars who appeared with various agendas and cardboard props which were frequently torn from their hands, ripped to pieces and thrown over George's shoulders, members of Heavy Metal band "Dagahoggit" {said to mean "castration by teeth"}, Rebel-Rebel, The Mentors, and Radio Werewolf, along with a slew of strippers, male and female wrestlers {most times actually becoming involved in staged mud-wrestling}, and even a Wally George impersonator at one point {the 'real' Wally George was predictably removed by the resident 'security guards' therein}.

During his tenure, George cameoed in several films including "A Nightmare of Elm Street 5", "Repossessed" {a hilarious parody of 'The Exorcist' starring Leslie Nielson & Linda Blair}, "Club Fed", and "Grunt: The Wrestling Movie", among others. He also eventually wrote a book entitled "The Father of Combat Television", and was even featured as the subject on E!'s "True Hollywood Story" at one time, which has slipped into obscurity.

Also of note, his estranged daughter happens to be actress Rebecca Demornay {Risky Business, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle}, who wanted little to nothing to do with her father.

Eventually, George began playing re-runs of his show which included daily monologues in which one could perceive his increasing physical deterioration, yet he persisted almost until his last days. He occasionally had guests on, mostly consisting of sponsors. He also hosted a radio show for a time, which was much more of the same, for it went on for several hours. Within the last month, a message came up asking viewers to pray for him in his failing health. And now it seems that most traces of his show have been seemingly wiped out, even on the web, which began with the abrupt removal of Hot Seat from the airwaves altogether, without so much as a word of warning.

Through all of this Wally George was essentially a performer, and with that in mind, one could overlook the sometimes absurd antics and attempted 'seriousness' he tried to assert during some commentaries. Love him, hate him, or indifferent about him, he sure was amusing, And for that amusement, the program is missed.

He is survived by daughters Rebecca Demornay, Holly George, and a questionable young ex-wife often shown as part of the crew.

Note: This Evocation was written largely because of sudden inspiration, the relative obscurity of this entertainer, the sad obfuscation of information, and the preservation of this segment of the "Schlock" genre. For the purposes of evocative entertainment, this entire series should be made available on DVD.

For people who give Wally George bad reviews it's probably a few reasons. The first is that Wally was a hardcore Republican, but like Hulk Hogan was vain. Not that his political leanings were fake, but he used them for the kind of verbal fights that would be physical in the ring, and like wrestling, it's easy to disparage what is actually an extremely entertaining, fun and addictive ride...

Wally's co-host was David Kennedy, also the producer, who was comparably mellow and he was later replaced with a mustached big guy who looked like a cop... without David, though, Wally's Hot Seat was finished as it was already, by the latter eighties, on its last legs...

Few know, and IMDb doesn't even list, that Wally had a sister production where he sat behind a desk (in an even cheaper studio) and answered phone calls. This show was thirty minutes to Hot Seat's sixty and was funny too... it just wanted the screaming/shouting party that Hot Seat was... more like... a decompression for fans...

And there were many, myself included, who loved to laugh at Wally and how unintentionally funny he was... yet at the same time agreeing with him partially during the wonderful Reagan era...

Speaking of wrestling, many of his guests were reoccurring foes; one guy had a large head, and told Wally his audience sounded like they were cheering at a football game in which Wally shouted, "YOUR HEAD IS A FOOTBALL!" to the audience's cheering... My friends and I still laugh about that....

Laugh AT and WITH Wally George, which was the point... Especially with Wally's personal Lex Luther in hippie pot-legalizing-wanting Rudy Krause, who had long white hair like Wally and their bouts were just hilarious...

Wally, with a Columbia shuttle photo behind his desk and a framed John Wayne behind the combative guests (who were probably all Wally's friends in real life), defeated everyone because it was his show... But he made the mistake of calling into Howard Stern's show/domain, wherein Stern said, "Oh be still, you wig-wearing hump!" (which was probably written by Stern's then-writer Jackie Martling, whose own show died when Jackie left)...

Anyhow, Wally George is a little piece of time long gone... He never had a show during the Clinton years and would only turn up, latter in the 90's, emaciated and, pretty much dying... My friend and I would turn it on and my friend imitated Reverend Kane from Poltergeist 2, who Wally resembled at this point, which was sad...

In his day of reign when Hot Seat was hot, and before Rush Limbaugh made legit the right wing showcase, Wally was the man who ruled the roost... HIS ROOST... and it was a total blast, through and through.

WE CAN WELL remember viewing this show in syndication over our own local station WGN TV, Channel 9 in Chicago. At that time, circa 1985, it was being shown in the Never-Never Land of the Late Afternoon-Early Evening's 'no man's land' of TV broadcasting.

OUR FIRST IMPRESSION, and as 'They' say, first impressions are very important, was it was hysterically funny, side-splitting at times. The on screen antics of the host, coupled with the underwhelmingly 'awsome' array of unknown and non-professional guests, when juxtaposed against one another, generally made for some delightful TV waste time. We never became true followers, due mainly to work schedule; but did manage to catch it occasionally.

ALL WAS FINE with us with regard to Mr. George and his self-styled video autocracy; until we heard him referred to as being "Consertative Television Commentator" on another program that was all about commercials. With that one remark, this kid (me!) found himself at once overcome with mirth; while simultaneously engulfed with anger.

AS YOU'VE no doubt surmised by now, this writer is a Conservative; been one ever since the old school days at St. Rita High School, here on Chicago's famous and infamous Southside. The attitudes and actions displayed by Host Wally definitely were indicative of a Political Conservative. In fact, the exaggerated actions and one sided behaviour displayed in the course of one of his shows more closely resemble those practices exhibited by today's Political Left, the so called 'Liberals'.(you know, folks such as Pelosi, Reid, Dean, Matthews, Franken and just about any network news anchor at CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, NPR, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC.)

AS OVER THE TOP and absurd as the conducting of business on a typical installment of the HOT SEAT is oddly similar to some of the more "Modern" television programs, which purport to be totally serious; their only humor being whatever ridicule they can muster against their argumentative opponents. We're of course referring to something like POLITICALLY INCORRECT and that more recent show starring that human race hating atheist & ex-Catholic, Bill Maher. The resemblance of his shows to the Late Mr. George's is remarkable.

THE HUMOR of THE HOT SEAT WITH WALLY GEORGE lies in the inherent absurdity of Wally's dictatorial behaviour in cutting off debate with anyone who dared to disagree with his opinion via use of a uniformed security rent-a-cop; who he would 'command' to physically remove the powerless guest from his stage. This is totally laughable in our country, with our Constitutional guarantees of First Amendment rights.

HERE'S HOPING that it will ever remain so very absurd; which means that our Republic will still be truly "the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave!"