Wally George, 1931-2003

[Corporate Avenger]

Wally George, who pioneered insult television on his long-running Orange County talk show "Hot Seat" in the 1980s, died Sunday in Fountain Valley.

George, better known to some as the father of actress Rebecca De Mornay, was 71. He died of pneumonia at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center after being hospitalized there for three months with complications from cancer.

George continued to tape his unabashedly conservative "Hot Seat" shows until July, completing his 20th year on the air, station officials said. The show, which airs at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday on KDOC-TV Channel 56, has consisted of reruns since then.

At the height of its popularity in 1984, "Hot Seat" was a must-see for college students, who waited six months for tickets and hours for a choice spot among the 80 audience seats, where they waved U.S. flags and chanted, "Wah-lee!" on cue. George engaged guests whom he called "liberal lunatics" and "fascist fanatics," including 1960s drug guru Timothy Leary and Tom Metzger, a white supremacist leader.

George called his delivery "combat TV," a phrase he used in an autobiography published in 1999. Johnny Carson, referring to the show's choreographed hysteria, once called George the William F. Buckley of the cockfighting set.

"Hot Seat" hit its stride in late 1983 when avowed pacifist Blasé Bonpane, there to oppose the U.S. invasion of Grenada, erupted in anger over George's taunts, flipping over the host's desk before storming off the show. A clip of the altercation aired on national news programs.

"This was before Jerry Springer and those shows," said former Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach), who occasionally watched tapings from KDOC's Orange County studios. "The kids would get just as crazy as he would allow them to be. At one point, that show was so popular, people would choose it over normal network shows. But as insane as some of his antics used to be, he was very strong for moral values and family values."

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituari...e-todays-times


Wally George was awesome, his show was my favorite when I was a little kid, I always wanted to go to one of the tapings but I was too young.

RIP

[dhaas]

Alot of other people ripped off his style. Morton Downey Jr. was a dead WG ripoff. He used to be good on the Stern show too. He would get Stern all fired up. Very entertaining.

[Truth Teller]

One less facist.

[Johnson]

it's "Fascist," TT.

[JAT]

I liked that show when I was younger.

[Corporate Avenger]

Originally posted by dhaas
Alot of other people ripped off his style. Morton Downey Jr. was a dead WG ripoff. He used to be good on the Stern show too. He would get Stern all fired up. Very entertaining.

So his show was nationwide? It was only carried by a local cable channel here in LA.

[Corporate Avenger]

Originally posted by Truth Teller
One less facist.

No man, Wally Goerge used to have Nazi's on his show and he'd rip into them, hard.. He was very conservative but he was funny as hell and I believe he was a true conservative, not like the ones today like Bush, Cheney, etc. He was very "vocal" when he was younger, and I guess he came across as being a jerk, but as he got older he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. I remember staying up late to watch his show on Saturday nights, he made me laugh like nobody else at the time.

[Truth Teller]

Originally posted by Johnson
it's "Fascist," TT.

hSit happens.

Originally posted by Corporate Avenger



No man, Wally Goerge used to have Nazi's on his show and he'd rip into them, hard.. He was very conservative but he was funny as hell and I believe he was a true conservative, not like the ones today like Bush, Cheney, etc. He was very "vocal" when he was younger, and I guess he came across as being a jerk, but as he got older he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. I remember staying up late to watch his show on Saturday nights, he made me laugh like nobody else at the time.

He was a joke,not comedian.

Like Morton Downey ,I thought Downey was hysterical......for a month,then the joke wasn't funny anymore.

Wally George was on TV in the Midwest,I even heard him interviewed on a local radio talk show,when the host wouldn't swallow his bait,George got mad,called him names and hung up [sounds like righties who post at DA now that I think about it].

He was the father of Rebecca De Mornay,she would have nothing to do with him.

[JAT]

Originally posted by Truth Teller
He was a joke,not comedian.

Like Morton Downey ,I thought Downey was hysterical......for a month,then the joke wasn't funny anymore.

Wally George was on TV in the Midwest,I even heard him interviewed on a local radio talk show,when the host wouldn't swallow his bait,George got mad,called him names and hung up [sounds like righties who post at DA now that I think about it].

He was the father of Rebecca De Mornay,she would have nothing to do with him.

He was very impassioned. I'd rather watch his show that some of the modern rubbish being created these days.