CLEVELAND, Ohio -- “The Big Bad B-Movie Show,” a new horror-host show on WUAB Channel 43, hearkens back to Cleveland’s legendary horror movie show format, with a modern twist.
The first episode, featuring 1959 film “Attack of the Giant Leeches,” airs at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17.
The show’s comedic hosts Leopold and Lenora -- aka, local performers Zachariah Durr and Laura Wimbels -- will provide skits and commentary around a different old-school horror film every Saturday night.
“The Big Bad B-Movie Show" finds inspiration in WUAB’s “Superhost” (1969-1989), WOIO Channel 19′s “The Frank and Drac Show” (1987-1988) and “Shock Theater” hosted by Ghoulardi on WJW Channel 8 (1963-1966).
“If you grew up watching local TV, it’s just this never-ending fount of ideas for comedy,” Durr said. “It’s like real TV with less budget, which is perfect for us. We’re going to have commercial parodies, parodies of genres of shows. We’ll include clips from old Channel 43 programming. It’s really a wide open door for us to riff on all the TV we grew up watching.”
Durr, who currently works for WUAB and WOIO as a video producer for the CLE Weekend website, picked up his hosting gig when he learned that the station aimed to incorporate new programming into its schedule. “The Big Bad B-Movie Show” was developed to fill gaps created by the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on the TV station, Durr said.
Durr looped in Wimbels, a local photographer, storyteller and actress, as a co-host for “The Big Bad B-Movie Show.” Wimbels leapt at the opportunity.
“I grew up without cable. We only got seven channels, and Channel 43 was the best channel if you wanted to see an edited-for-TV weekend horror movie," Wimbels said. "I’m excited that, out of all the channels, our show is going to be on 43.”
Both Durr and Wimbels have backgrounds in storytelling and performance, which they’ll tap in “The Big Bad B-Movie Show.” Durr is a regular performer at Cleveland’s comedy venues, and he co-hosts the popular monthly Happy Dog event “Keep Talking: A Storytelling Show.” Before joining WUAB/WOIO, he worked for two years as a video producer for cleveland.com. Wimbels, who published the book “Faces of Cleveland” in 2016, regularly contributes to NPR storytelling program “The Moth,” where she is a five-time Story Slam winner.
Performing as “The Big Bad B-Movie Show’s” hosts Leopold and Lenora, Durr and Wimbels will act out quirky characters that were accidentally trapped in a WUAB vault years ago, with only a stock of old, terrible movies to fill the time. As the story goes, WUAB newsroom workers discover the vault, rescue Leopold and Lenora, and ultimately the two hosts decide to share the movies they discovered while trapped -- along with other hijinks on the way.
The hosts' original performances will depend on the length and type of movie they are airing that week, Durr said. Some episodes of “The Big Bad B-Movie Show” will cycle in local guests, including social media horror movie hosts The Mummy and the Monkey.
None of the skit performances will interrupt the week’s film screening with commentary; instead, they will frame each televised portion with performances.
So far, the weekly “Big Bad B-Movie Show” has a few cult favorites on its docket, including “Little Shop of Horrors,” “The Gorilla,” “The Giant Gila Monster” and “A Bucket of Blood.”
Many of the horror films aren’t too scary, Wimbels said.
“Many movies feature people in poor special effects suits, by today’s standards. There are some that aren’t scary at all but are very funny, intentionally or unintentionally so,” Wimbels said. “I hope people can appreciate a new show with its own style, spin and take on really crappy movies that were made more than 60 years ago.”
However, don’t expect only bad movies on “The Big Bad B-Movie Show.” Durr noted some of the films' redeeming qualities.
“Some of these movies are legitimately good if you take them for what they are,” Durr said. “You do have to take them for the time period that they came out in.”
Both Durr and Wimbels see “The Big Bad B-Movie Show” as a shift back to original programming in Cleveland -- a movement that they hope to see continue in the world of local television.
“I am honored to be one of the people coming back with true local programming. Everything now is so global, and so spread to every corner of the country,” Durr said. “I think this is something viewers will like: a locally made show to call their own.”
“The Big Bad B-Movie Show” will be available to watch at 8 p.m. on Saturdays on WUAB Channel 43 and through WOIO’s Roku streaming service. Episodes will also be posted to WUAB’s website, cw43.tv.