Wally George: The Original Outrageous Conservative Pundit

Flamboyant Rock group Gwar were typical guests on Wally George's The Hot Seat. By Stuart Sevastos (Flickr: GWAR @ Arena Joondalup (12/12/2010)) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

It's safe to say I'm exaggerating a bit with that title. However, before Rush Limbaugh was calling women names, before Glenn Beck was sobbing comically on national television, before Bill O'Reilly was bad-mouthing and bullying his guests for criticizing American foreign policy, there was the temperamental conservative talk show host, Wally George, taking on any controversial figures he could find from white supremacists to female body builders (to him controversial) and flamboyant rock stars. Wally George became famous for throwing people off of his show, The Hot Seat, and walking off of other talk shows, in agitation. Liberals were his sworn enemies, Ronald Reagan his idol, and he was the perpetual supporter of war policy and keeping things as they are, or maybe even turning back the clock 50-100 years.

Wally George got his start in local radio and television in Southern California. He is also, believe it or not, the father of 1980s sex symbol and movie star Rebecca De Mornay, who first rose to stardom as the sensual vixen of the iconic Tom Cruise film Risky Business.

I first became aware of George from his appearances on the ill-fated late-night talk show Thicke of the Night, hosted by Alan Thicke, who had been busy as a TV show theme song writer and later became star of his own sit-com Growing Pains.

George eventually found his way into feature films and as a commentator for Roller Derby television broadcasts.

But it was his antics on his talk show the Hot Seat that I think made him famous. It all seemed over-the-top, too extreme, he exhibited a comical fanaticism that seemed like it couldn't be real. Many talk show hosts, including his copy-cat foe Morton Downey Jr., Geraldo Rivera, Jerry Springer, and Maury Povich, seem in this same boat; it's all just a little too bizarre. Of course, many celebrities make it their business to pull nation-wide pranks as a means to attract attention and provoke thought. One can't help but think that Wally George was such an entertainer, having all the ear-marks of a jokester putting on a show purely for the satire effect.

But he remains shrouded in mystery, and if it was all just a practical joke, it has never been revealed as such, and he left us with the joke intact.