Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking game show host of “Wheel of Fortune,” “Love Connection” and “Scrabble,” who later became a right-wing podcaster, took a dig at liberals and the government about COVID-19. Accused of lying. dead. He was 83 years old.
Woolery's podcast co-host and friend Mark Young said in an email early Sunday that Woolery died at his home in Texas with his wife, Kristen, by his side. “Chuck was a dear friend and brother and a man of tremendous faith, life would not have been the same without him,” Young wrote.
Woolery, with his matinee idol looks, curly 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.
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In 1983, Woolery began an 11-year run as host of TV's “Love Connection”, for which he coined the phrase, “We'll be back in two minutes and two seconds,” using the two-fingered sign “2 more”. It was said. 2.” In 1984, he hosted TV's “Scrabble,” as well as two game shows on TV until 1990.
“Love Connection”, which aired long before the advent of dating apps, had the premise that either a single man or single woman would watch audition tapes of three potential partners and then choose one to date.
A few weeks after the date, the guest would sit down with Woolery in front of a studio audience and tell everyone about the date. The audience would vote on three contestants, and if the audience agreed with the guest's choice, “Love Connection” would offer to pay for a second date.
Woolery told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2003 that his favorite lovebirds were a 91-year-old man and an 87-year-old woman. “She had so much eye makeup on, she looked like a stolen Corvette. He was so old he said, 'I remember wagon cars.' Poor guy. She took him on a balloon ride.”
Other career highlights include hosting the shows “Lingo,” “Greed” and “The Chuck Woolery Show,” as well as a short-lived syndicated revival of “The Dating Game” from 1998 to 2000 and an ill-fated 1991 talk show. Was. , In 1992, he played himself in two episodes of TV's “Melrose Place”.
Woolery became the subject of Game Show Network's first attempt at a reality show, “Chuck Woolery: Naturally Stoned”, which premiered in 2003. It shared the title of a 1968 pop song by Woolery and his rock group, Avant-Garde. , It ran for six episodes and was panned by critics.
Woolery began his TV career on a show that has become a mainstay. Although most associated with Pat Sajak and Vanna White, “Wheel of Fortune” debuted on NBC on January 6, 1975, with Woolery welcoming the contestants and viewers. Woolery, then 33, was trying to make it as a singer in Nashville.
The “Wheel of Fortune” began its life as a “Shopper's Bazaar”, consisting of hangman-style puzzles and a roulette wheel. After Woolery appeared on “The Merv Griffin Show” singing “Delta Dawn”, Merv Griffin asked him to host the new show with Susan Stafford.
“I had an interview that lasted 15, 20 minutes,” Woolery told The New York Times in 2003. A bad jacket and an equally bad mustache who doesn't care what you have to say – that's the guy I want to be.”
NBC initially passed, but they reworked it as “Wheel of Fortune” and got the greenlight. After a few years, Woolery asked for a raise to $500,000 a year, or what host Peter Marshall was making on “Hollywood Squares.” Griffin protested and replaced Woolery with weather reporter Pat Sajak.
“Chuck and Susie both did a good job, and 'Wheel' did quite well on NBC, although it never did as well as 'Jeopardy!' did not approach the kind of ratings success it achieved in its heyday,” Griffin said in “Merv: Making the Good Life Last”, a 2000 autobiography co-written by David Bender. Woolery earned an Emmy Award as host.
Born in Ashland, Kentucky, Woolery served in the U.S. Navy before attending college. He played double bass in a folk trio, then formed the psychedelic rock duo The Avant-Garde in 1967 while working as a truck driver to support himself as a musician.
Avant-Garde, who traveled in a sophisticated Cadillac hearse, scored the Top 40 hit “Naturally Stoned” with Woolery singing, “When I turn my attention to you alone/I can get a good feeling/That feeling. It's like I'm naturally stoned.”
After the breakup of The Avant-Garde, Woolery released his first solo single, “I've Been Wrong” in 1969 and released several more singles with Columbia before moving into country music through the 1970s. She released two solo singles, “Forgive My Heart” and “Love Me, Love Me”.
Woolery wrote or co-wrote songs for herself and for everyone from Pat Boone to Tammy Wynette. On Wynette's 1971 album “We Sure Can Love Each Other”, Woolery wrote “The Joys of Being a Woman”, with the lyrics “See our baby on the swing/Hear her laugh, hear her scream.”
After his TV career ended, Woolery moved into podcasting. In an interview with The New York Times, he described himself as a gun-rights activist and described himself as a conservative libertarian and constitutionalist. He said he has not disclosed his politics in liberal Hollywood out of fear of retribution.
He teamed up with Mark Young in 2014 for the podcast “Blunt Force Truth” and soon became a full-throated supporter of Donald Trump, while arguing that minorities do not need civil rights and linking Soviet communists to Judaism. Created an uproar by tweeting an anti-Semitic comment.
He said, “President Obama's popularity is simply a fantasy about him and his dwindling legacy of juice-box-drinking, worry-dog-hugging, safe-place-hiding snowflakes.”
Woolery was also active online, retweeting articles from Conservative Brief, insisting that Democrats were trying to install a system of Marxism and spreading headlines such as “Impeach him! Destructive photo of Joe Biden leaked” .
During the early stages of the pandemic, Woolery initially accused medical professionals and Democrats of lying about the virus in an effort to damage the economy and Trump's re-election chances for the presidency.
“There are the most outrageous lies about COVID-19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, the media, the Democrats, our doctors, not all but most of the people we've been told to trust. I think all of this Coming back to what is about elections and maintaining the economy, I am tired of this,” Woolery wrote in July 2020.
Trump retweeted that post to his 83 million followers. By the end of the month, nearly 4.5 million Americans had been infected with COVID-19 and more than 150,000 had died.
Just days later, Woolery changed his stance, announcing that his son had contracted COVID-19. “To further clarify and add perspective, COVID-19 is real and it is here. My son has tested positive for the virus, and I stand with those suffering,” Woolery previously posted on his account. And especially those who have lost loved ones.” is removed.
Woolery later explained on his podcast that he never called COVID-19 a “hoax” or that “it's not real,” just that “we've been lied to.” Woolery also said that “It's an honor that your President has retweeted your views and that he feels it is important enough to do so.”
In addition to his wife, Woolery is survived by his sons Michael and Sean and his daughter Melissa, Young said.