I believe it all started with Ernie Anderson as Ghoulardi on CH 8 (CBS) in Cleveland. I saw a video about him. In the early 60's Ch 8 (CBS) didn't have any late night programming like the Tonight Show and they would sign off the air after the news. Someone at Ch 8 scored a deal on some B rated B/W horror films. Ernie was selected to put together some kind of program around these films for after the news on Friday night. Ernie asked what his budget was and they laughed. He had zero dollars since Management saw this a a gamble. Ernie was a very talented “voice over” guy at Ch 8.

Ernie created the Ghoulardi character and did voice overs during the films to make things interesting. He had to take the furniture from the Ch 8 lobby to use as props for the set. It was crazy. By the mid 60's Ghoulardi was making good ratings and he opened the studio up to a small audience. Among the early audience regulars was a guy name Ron Sweed (wearing a gorilla suit). Ron would eventually end up on Ernie's staff.

Ernie ended up following his friend Tim Conway, who also worked at Ch 8 in the early 60's, to the West Coast. Tim went to the Carol Burnett show and Ernie did voice over work and would eventually be hired by ABC as their voice of the network during the 80's.

Channel 8 replaced Ghoulardi creating the Hoolahan and Big Chuck show. They did comedy skits etc. One of them was Mission: Ridiculous. I'm watching Mission: Impossible reruns as I write this.

Ron Sweed would revive the Ghoulardi character as The Ghoul and get a show on Cleveland's Ch 61. Ernie gave Ron his permission to clone his character. The Ghoul eventually moved to Detroit.

Drew Carey was often seen in a Ghoulardi shirt on his TV show.