PITTSBURGH — Chiller Theater, sponsored by Hundred Acres Manor, returns to WPXI-TV’s main channel Saturday night for the first time in 25 years to close out its 8-show run.
The classic horror show reboot has been airing since early September on PCNC and the free WPXI NOW streaming app.
The season concludes with two special and unique episodes of the 1959 Vincent Price classic “House on Haunted Hill”.
The WPXI version will air Saturday night at 1 a.m. (Sunday morning) after Saturday Night Live. The episode will pay tribute to Chiller Theater host Bill Cardille with a few clips from the original show.
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The PCNC version will air in the normal 11:30 p.m. timeslot and will be presented entirely in black and white to match the film. The introduction, with Scott Harbaugh, will be presented in the same format as the introduction to the movie. That version will also air on WPXI NOW at midnight.
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If you’ve missed any episodes, you can find them here: www.wpxi.com/ChillerTheater
Chiller Theater originally hit the air on WIIC-TV 60 years ago.
The horror and sci-fi movie show was hosted by Cardille from 1963 to 1984. For more than two decades “Chilly Billy” was the staple of late-night entertainment on WPXI-TV (formerly WIIC-TV). The show was so popular in the 1970s it kept NBC’s Saturday Night Live off of Channel 11 for nearly four years.
Bill and his cast of castle characters, Norman the Castle Keeper, Terminal Stare, Sister Susie, Stephen the Castle Prankster and Georgette The Fudgemaker, kept Chiller Theater in the #1 spot in the ratings through the end of the 1970s and early 1980s.
The updated show is hosted by WPXI-TV Meteorologist Scott Harbaugh.
“I grew up here in the ‘70s. There is only one Chilly Billy, and I am no Bill Cardille,” Harbaugh said. “We’d be doing ourselves a huge disservice trying to replicate such an iconic program in Pittsburgh television history.”
This rebooted Chiller Theater is the brainchild of WPXI-TV employee Jake Klingensmith and former employee Jeremy Lynch. Klingensmith has been working behind the scenes since 2018 to bring Chiller Theater back from the dead.
Klingensmith said, “Growing up around the Pittsburgh area and being a fan of vintage horror and sci-fi, I thought it was only right to try to reboot the show. It’s not the same show, but we feel we’re taking it in a direction people will love.”
You can also get behind-the-scenes videos and classic Chiller Theater clips on the Chiller Theater YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chillertheaterTV
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