Utter Trash--Son of Ghoul

A Tradition of Terror

An interview with The Son of Ghoul

By Bob Ignizio

The Son of Ghoul

Like many a horror host, Son of Ghoul (aka Kevin Scarpino) is clearly inspired by the legacy of the late, great Ghoulardi. However, he’s also made sure to put his own stamp on the Ghoulardi archetype. Kevin has been on the air continuously since 1986. That’s when he replaced WOAC Channel 67’s horror movie host, The Cool Ghoul. His movie show is now broadcast Thursdays from 5pm to 7pm, and Friday’s from 8pm to 10pm on the CAT network (channel 29 in Akron, and channel 35 in Cleveland). Until recently, he also hosted a live game show every Wednesday from 8pm to 10pm. The game show is on hiatus for now, but most likely will return in the near future. Fans in Massilon, Ohio can also catch the Wednesday and Thursday shows simulcast on cable channel 21.

Utter Trash: How did you become interested in being a horror host?
Son of Ghoul: Well, naturally I grew up watching Ghoulardi, like anyone living in the Cleveland area at the time. It’s something that always stuck with me. I watched all the Cleveland hosts, I watched Chuck and Hoolihan, Little John, The Ghoul and Superhost. All those guys. Actually, I always had a Ghoulardi costume my whole life that I’d wear at Halloween. The Ghoul, Ron Swede, had a look-alike contest at one point, and I was the grand prize winner and was named “son of Ghoul” back around 1982. And it was all just a bunch of fun. Then I ended up getting a job at a TV station. They had an opening, and I thought I could do it. So I made an audition tape and changed the character around. I developed my own costume, and did my own version of Ghoulardi. And now it’s 18 years later. I’ve been on continuously for 18 years.

UT: And you’re still showing horror movies.
SoG: Grade ‘B’ stuff, that’s what we love.

UT: How many movies do you have to choose from?
SoG: There’s only so many movies in the public domain. We have 2 or 3 hundred films, so it takes a while to get through ‘em. I just pulled a film off the shelf today that I see I haven’t shown since 1997, so I think it’s time to blow the dust off that one.

UT: Any favorites?
SoG: If I had my way, I’d love to show the old Universal classics. ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Dracular’, ‘The Wolfman’. I’d love to show that kind of stuff. But I always put sound effects in the movies because they’re so cheap, so terrible. I always try to spice ‘em up. I would never do that to those old classics because I think they stand on their own. If I had my way, that’s what I’d like to run. But I’m satisfied with the old public domain ‘B’ library.

UT: When Ghoulardi was around, he was practically treated like royalty. People used to come out in droves to see him in person.
SoG: Well, you had three stations. TV meant more to me than I guess it does to kids now. I loved getting up on Saturday mornings and I watched all the kids hosts, and the local TV in Cleveland. That’s all we had. That’s one of the reasons why Ghoulardi had such a big audience at the time is because there was nothing else. And he was so outrageous and different it just captivated everybody’s attention. I’ve got sort of a cult following, but I know I don’t draw the crowds Ernie drew back in those days. But it depends on what the location is and what the event is. I’ve had ‘em standing in line, too. We did 6 Flags World of Adventure and they had the Fright Fest two years ago. We did stage shows there, and I played to packed houses every night. It all depends on where the venue is and what kind of event it is. It’s hard to get somebody to come out to a carpet store on a Tuesday night unless they’re going to buy carpet, regardless of who’s there.

UT: You also do some stuff on your show with local bands, right?
SoG: Oh yeah. Not only local, I’ve also interviewed some national acts over the years. Paul McCartney, The Monkees, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Robin Trower, Frank Marino, Bad Company, Chubby Checker, I could go on. Those are exciting moments.

UT: Do you interview these people in character?
SoG: Yeah, definitely in character. When you go to interview one of these celebrities, you go through literally months of phone calls. Then when you get to the venue, you still have to explain what’s going on, because they never know. So I just try to tell ‘em what I do, what the show’s about, and most everybody dug it. As a matter of fact, when Stevie Ray Vaughn was alive, he and his band dug it so much that when they would come to town, I’d have to supply ‘em with tapes to take on the tour bus. They’d want new episodes. When they were driving 4 or 5 hundred miles between cities, they wanted something to watch. They got a kick out of it.

UT: You play in a band as well, don’t you?
SoG: I’ve been a musician for 25 years. I play in a band called Flashback. We do classic sixties and seventies rock. We’re booked every weekend. As a matter of fact we’re going to be playing at the Cuyahoga County Fair on August 10^th.

UT: So which do you enjoy more, the music or the hosting?
SoG: I’m kind of torn, because I’ve been a musician longer than I’ve done the TV thing. I have to say I’ve got a love for both of them that’s about equal. I enjoy playing music, and I do that “out of character”. And I enjoy doing the show, too. It’s like any job, if you have a bad day you still have to go in and smile and act like the world’s great. It’s like anything, you know. It has its ups and downs. But for the most part it’s a labor of love. I wouldn’t still be doing it if I didn’t enjoy it.

UT: You’re also doing a game show in addition to the movie show now. [note: As mentioned in the introduction, ‘Son of Ghoul’s House of Fun and Games’ is temporarily on hiatus. However, it will most likely return soon – ed.]
SoG: I do a weekly game show on Wednesday nights from 8 to 10 called ‘Son of Ghoul’s House of Fun and Games’. It’s a trivia show where we get contestants live on the air, and I pull questions out of drum. I ask ‘em questions, and after a few rounds of questions, the high score wins. I spin a wheel, and whatever number that lands on determines the prize. Some of them are great. There’s dinners for two, Browns or Indians tickets. Then sometimes it’s a roll of toilet paper or Vienna sausage. We’re going into our third year with the game show, and the phones are jammed. They start ringing 30 minutes before we start, and keep ringing 30 minutes after we’re done. The nice thing about that is, it’s live. Aside from the news, I think I may be the only live television show in town.

UT: After the whole Janet Jackson thing, did you have to put the show on a delay?
SoG: We did. We put it on a delay. And now we can definitely cut out language, which was something we should have done a long time ago. Fortunately for us, people have been cool most of the time. We did have a couple incidents, but we caught it in time. We corrected it, and something like that can never happen again.

UT: Do you ever have situations on a show where something goes wrong and you manage to turn it around to your advantage?
SoG: I could say that about every week. When I first started doing the show, I produced it in the station’s studios. Now, for the movie show, I have my own studio down here in Massillon. I hire a production company to come in and shoot. We might shoot 3 or 4 weeks at a time. At this point, with 18 years under my belt, I have so many re-runs I could go forever just on reruns. I’ve got stuff I’ve never shown. A lot of the weekend stuff consists of oldies, and we do some new stuff. We base every thing on the Wednesday game show, and the movie show is just an added extra. Actually, I’m on 3 times a week now. The game show is on Wednesday from 8-10. Then they run my movie on Thursday from 5 to 7. Then they rerun the same movie on Friday night from 8 to 10.

UT: You had a sidekick named Fidge, who sadly passed away recently. Can you tell me a little about him, and what he brought to the show?
SoG: He brought the Abbot & Costello quality to the show. It was something that happened that I never really looked for. He was just a local Massillon guy who happened to know the guys who owned the studio where I was producing the show at the time. He asked to come in to just check it out. He came in, and I started needling him a little bit, and he was such a good sport about everything. He was so naïve, and I think that was the beauty of it. He really wasn’t faking it. What you saw was what you got, Fidge was Fidge. Viewers fell in love with it. He was the perfect sidekick. When he was gone, there was a big void there for a while. We didn’t know quite how the show was going to go. But I went 9 ½ years before I had him by my side, so I guess I can go along without him. And we have. But we look back at the skits now; we run ‘em once in awhile. He’s greatly missed. On the game show, Jungle Bob has replaced Fidge as the score keeper on the show. He just fell into the spot perfectly. We do a lot of appearances together. He’s like the modern day Jungle Larry. He has animals, his name is Bob Tuma. He’s now the sidekick on the game show. He’ll bring out tarantulas and snakes and alligators. It brings a different flavor to the show.

UT: Tell me your side of the feud between you and The Ghoul.
SoG: He tried to sue me back in the eighties, claimed that I was stealing his character, which he never created. It ended up that he didn’t own anything, and the judge found that I was free to do what I wanted to do. I wasn’t stealing anything from anybody. So, he’s held a grudge for years. But recently, last year we both made an appearance somewhere together, and we shook hands and put it behind us.

UT: You don’t really have the same look as The Ghoul anyway, right?
SoG: I don’t think so. It was changed enough that it prevented me from losing in court. There was enough difference there. And I think everybody recognizes that, too.

UT: Tell me about this Flutog thing.
SoG: It’s sponsored by Red Bull. A guy named Bob Fergusson is building the Ghoulardi Glider. I’m going to help push the glider off the dock behind the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. It’s either August 9^th or August 11^th. They build these giant gliders and push them off a 30 foot drop into the lake. Whoever can glide the longest and has the best presentation gets a cash prize. This is Bob Fergusson’s baby, I just agreed to be one of the horror hosts that pushed him off the ramp.

UT: Anything else you want to say?
SoG: It’s been a labor of love, and I’m happy to carry on the great tradition of Ghoulardi. I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t have the viewers there. I’ve had great support from the people, and as long as they’ll tune in, I’ll do it until they stop paying me.