Chuck Woolery, smooth game show host of ‘Love Connection’ and ‘Scrabble,’ dies at age 83

NEW YORK (AP) – Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking host of “Wheel of Fortune,” “Love Connection” and “Scrabble,” who later became a right-wing podcaster who blasted liberals and accused the government of lying about COVID -19, is dead. He was 83.

Mark Young, Woolery’s podcast co-host and friend, said in an email early Sunday that Woolery died at his home in Texas with his wife, Kristen, present. “Chuck was a dear friend and brother and a man of tremendous faith, life will not be the same without him,” Young wrote.

Woolery, with his matinee idol look, tousled hair and ease with witty banter, was inducted into the US TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007 and earned a Daytime Emmy nomination in 1978.

In 1983, Woolery began an 11-year run as host of TV’s “Love Connection,” for which he coined the phrase, “We’ll be back in two minutes and two seconds,” a two-fingered signature called “2 and 2.” In 1984, he hosted TV’s “Scrabble”, and co-hosted two game shows on TV until 1990.

“Love Connection,” which aired long before the date of dating apps, had a premise that featured either a single man or a single woman who would watch audition tapes of three potential mates and then choose one for a date.

A few weeks after the date, the guest sat with Woolery in front of a studio audience and told everyone about the date. The audience would vote on the three contestants, and if the audience agreed with the guest’s choice, “Love Connection” would offer to pay for a second date.

Woolery told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2003 that his favorite set of lovebirds was a 91-year-old male and an 87-year-old female. “She had so much eye makeup on, she looked like a stolen Corvette. He was so old he said, ‘I can remember wagon trains.’ Poor guy. She took him on a balloon ride.”

Other career highlights included hosting the shows “Lingo,” “Greed” and “The Chuck Woolery Show,” as well as hosting the short-lived syndicated revival of “The Dating Game” from 1998 to 2000 and an ill-fated 1991 talk show. In 1992, he played himself in two episodes of TV’s “Melrose Place.”

Woolery became the subject of Game Show Network’s first attempt at a reality show, “Chuck Woolery: Naturally Stoned”, which premiered in 2003. It shared the title of the 1968 pop song by Woolery and his rock group, Avant-Garde. It lasted six episodes and was panned by critics.

Woolery began her television career on a show that has become a mainstay. Although most associate it with Pat Sajak and Vanna White, “Wheel of Fortune” debuted on January 6, 1975 on NBC with Woolery welcoming contestants and the audience. Woolery, then 33, was trying to make it in Nashville as a singer.

“Wheel of Fortune” started life as “Shopper’s Bazaar,” incorporating Hangman-like puzzles and a roulette wheel. After Woolery appeared on “The Merv Griffin Show” and sang “Delta Dawn”, Merv Griffin asked him to host the new show with Susan Stafford.

“I had an interview that went on for 15, 20 minutes,” Woolery told The New York Times in 2003. “After the show, when Merv asked if I wanted to do a game show, I thought, ‘Great, a guy with a bad jacket and an equally bad mustache who doesn’t care what you have to say — that’s the guy I want to be.’”

NBC originally passed, but they remade it as “Wheel of Fortune” and got the green light. After a few years, Woolery demanded a raise to $500,000 a year, or what host Peter Marshall was making on “Hollywood Squares.” Griffin bowed out and replaced Woolery with weather reporter Pat Sajak.

“Both Chuck and Susie did a fine job, and ‘Wheel’ did well enough on NBC, although it never came close to the kind of ratings success that ‘Jeopardy!’ accomplished in his prime,” Griffin said in “Merv: Making the Good Life Last,” a 2000s autobiography written by David Bender. Woolery earned an Emmy nod as host.

Born in Ashland, Kentucky, Woolery served in the U.S. Navy before attending college. He played double bass in a folk trio, then formed the psychedelic rock duo The Avant-Garde in 1967 while working as a truck driver to support himself as a musician.

The avant-garde, who toured in a converted Cadillac hearse, had the Top 40 hit “Naturally Stoned,” with Woolery singing, “When I set my mind on you alone/I can get a good feeling/Feel like I’m naturally stoned.”

After The Avant-Garde broke up, Woolery released his debut solo single “I’ve Been Wrong” in 1969 and several singles with Columbia before transitioning to country music in the 1970s. He released two solo singles, “Forgive My Heart” and “Love Me, Love Me”.

Woolery wrote or co-wrote songs for himself and everyone from Pat Boone to Tammy Wynette. On Wynette’s 1971 album “We Sure Can Love each Other,” Woolery wrote “The Joys of Being a Woman,” with lyrics including “See our baby on the swing/Hear her laugh, hear her scream.”

After his television career ended, Woolery went into podcasting. In an interview with The New York Times, he called himself a gun rights activist and described himself as a conservative libertarian and constitutionalist. He said he had not revealed his politics in liberal Hollywood for fear of retaliation.

He teamed up with Mark Young in 2014 for the “Blunt Force Truth” podcast and soon became a full supporter of Donald Trump, arguing that minorities don’t need civil rights and causing a firestorm by tweeting an anti-Semitic comment linking Soviet communists with Judaism.

“President Obama’s popularity is a fantasy held only by him and his dwindling legion of juice-box-drinking, anxiety-dog-hugging, safe-space-hiding snowflakes,” he said.

Woolery was also active online, retweeting articles from the Conservative Brief, insisting that Democrats were trying to install a system of Marxism, and spreading headlines like “Trial him! Destructive photo of Joe Biden leaked.”

In the early stages of the pandemic, Woolery initially accused doctors and Democrats of lying about the virus in an attempt to damage the economy and Trump’s chances for re-election to the presidency.

“The most outrageous lies are the ones about COVID-19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, the media, the Democrats, our doctors, not all, but most that we are asked to trust. I think it’s about the election and to stop the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I’m sick of it,” Woolery wrote in July 2020.

Trump retweeted that post to his 83 million followers. By the end of the month, nearly 4.5 million Americans had been infected with COVID-19 and more than 150,000 had died.

A few days later, Woolery changed his stance and announced that his son had contracted COVID-19. “To further clarify and add perspective, COVID-19 is real and here. My son tested positive for the virus and I feel for those who are suffering and especially for those who have lost loved ones,” Woolery wrote , before his account was deleted.

Woolery later explained on his podcast that he never called COVID-19 “a hoax” or said “it’s not real,” just that “we’ve been lied to.” Woolery also said it was “an honor to have your president retweet what your thoughts are and think it’s important enough to do that.”

In addition to his wife, Woolery is survived by his sons Michael and Sean and his daughter Melissa, Young said.

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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits.