Wild Chicago
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Wild Chicago was a popular, long-running Emmy Award winning television series that began airing on Chicago's WTTW (a local PBS affiiliate) in 1988. The series was created by producer John Davies and original host Ben Hollis. Davies produced the series from 1989 to 1991 when he left to pursue other television projects. The show was Executive Produced by Fawn Ring, who went on to appear as on camera host for another WTTW original program, "Art Beat."
"Wild Chicago" took viewers on a fast paced video trip through the city's "urban jungle", highlighting hundreds of offbeat and unusual people, places, and events in the metropolitan area. Subjects included the Chicago Herpetological Society - a club for people who prefer blue-tongued skinks to cats as house pets; singing taxicab drivers; "Wild Neighbor," Zoe, a punk rocker/Barbie doll collector; an Ancient Astronaut society; the Inkin' Lincoln Tattoo and Piercing Jamboree; an interstate pierogi festival; a squirrel lovers' club; the Playboy Advisor; a cookie jar museum; and the Polka Music Hall of Fame. Segments usually ran two to four minutes in length and were bracketed with clever graphics and often the guitar based musical contributions of Roger Adler (who was also composer of the show's theme music).
The series itself has won numerous local Emmy Awards [1], [2] over the course of its popular run as have several of the show's hosts. Emmy Award winners for their individual work include the show's original host, Ben Hollis, and replacements upon taking an extended hiatus in 1992, Laura Meagher and Will Clinger. When, after two years, Meagher left the show to work for Fox Television, then to launch and be featured on Barry Diller's independent channel, WAMI in Miami, Wild Chicago changed to a multiple correspondent/contributor format, a trend in such television magazine shows of the mid 1990's. Contributors included local actors such as Mindy Bell, Cassy Harlo, Tava Smiley, Sarah Vetter, Denise La Grassa, Choky Lim and Dick O'Day, the show's only correspondent to appear in character. The new slate of correspondents continued to win individual Emmys and the show itself continued taking home awards.
As the program entered its second decade, "Wild Chicago"-style visits to out of town locales that included Branson, Las Vegas, and Tokyo became part of the lineup. Clinger, a local actor who played "Guy on Bench" in a 1997 episode of Early Edition and "Smitty" in an episode of the television series ER in 2005 carried the Wild Chicago host torch longer than any of the other hosts; he held the job from 1992 - 2003 and earned 14 Emmys during his 11 years with the program. In 2001 Clinger also emceed the "12 on 11," "Wild Chicago" anniversary special (another Emmy winner) taped at WTTW in front of an audience that featured an array of the show's wildest guests.
Wild Chicago was off the air from 2003 to 2005, but returned in spring 2006 with a seven-part series called Wild Chicago's Illinois Road Trip. This most-recent incarnation of the show was hosted exclusively by original host Ben Hollis and produced by Tom Siegel, who also acted as cameraman for the series. The new series explored oddities throughout the entire state of Illinois, such as ghost tours in Alton and a Beatles-themed bed and breakfast in Benton.
With its tremendous popularity and long television run, Wild Chicago served well the careers of some of its hosts and correspondents. Smiley, who lived on the west coast during the run of the show and flew to Chicago to tape her segments, has probably garned the most renown nationally. From 1999-2001 she played a recurring character on the long-running soap opera "General Hospital." In 2006 she became host of "World Premiere," a series of featurettes taped on the red carpet for the Fox Movie Channel. Smiley also hosted several programs for HGTV, another cable network, that same year.
Laura Meagher realized a lifelong dream when she moved to Paris in 2001. Happily putting her Wild Chicago experience to use, she currently hosts the unTV website, parisfromher.com.
