October 9, 2024 • 11 mins
Join us for a spooktacular episode as we chat with Rich Koz, the beloved host of Svengoolie, about the exciting happenings during this year's Halloween Boo-nanza! 🎃
In this episode, Rich shares insights into the new additions to the show, including the talented Sven Squad, who will be hosting special movie features throughout October.
We dive into the nostalgic world of Halloween costumes, Rich's favorite childhood outfits, and his experiences dressing up for Halloween parties. R
ich also discusses the challenges of acquiring classic horror films and the joy of discovering hidden gems even after 45 years of Svengoolie. Plus, we explore his thoughts on current TV shows, including the new Marvel series, Agatha. 🦇👻
00:39 - Rich's excitement for Halloween
01:28 - The Sven Squad and new movie features
02:32 - Personal Halloween traditions
05:30 - Makeup and skincare regimen
06:25 - Rich's favorite childhood costumes
08:25 - TV fandoms and current shows
10:11 - Halloween programming schedule
Follow us on social media: https://kjonsocial.com
Instagram: @kjontheair
Stay tuned for more celebrity interviews, positive vibes of pop culture, people to know, and pets on the KJ Today Show.
Remember to like, rate, review, and subscribe to stay updated on all the latest episodes.
Let's keep spreading positivity together! 🎉 🌟
Become a patron and help KJ TODAY spread more positive vibes while getting behind the scenes fun and perks! https://kindanerdynetwork.com
Â
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Good morning. Good morning. Is this KJ? It
is. Hi, KJ. I have Rich Coats
on the line for you on hold. OK.
You have until 40 past the hour.
(00:28):
Let's do it. OK. There you go,
OK. Rich, hi. Hello.
Oh, my gosh. Well, I'm, you know, thrilled. It's a it's another
spooky season. And here we are chatting again. And Sven
Gulli still going strong, man, like 45 years. This
(00:59):
Well, I've got some interesting questions from our
fans today, Rich, but I know that somehow,
someway, y'all keep coming up with new ideas to
keep Svengoolie going, and you've got the Sven
Squad this year, so let's talk about some of the new stuff coming up
(01:28):
Well, it's great to have the Sven Squad with us. Very
talented people. Sarah Palmer, who plays Gwen Gooley,
Scott Greider, who is the Imp, and my buddy Bill
Leff, who hosts the morning cartoon shows, but also plays Nostalgia
for Autu. And we've had such a great time incorporating
them into the show, and they've added a lot to it. And in fact, we're
(01:50):
giving them a chance to host their own movies the last two
Saturdays. of this month as part of the second
part of our Double Features. They're going to be hosting two Jim Henson
movies, A Labyrinth and Dark Crystal. And
that'll be the second part of our Halloween Double
(02:10):
I love that. And you say you're giving them a chance to host,
but also isn't that giving you a chance to maybe
Well, no, because we're still doing the first movie of the Double Features. But
it's a chance for them to kind of, you know, have their own say in things
(02:32):
You know, so my husband and I, we have a group of
people who, you know, Svengoolie's just kind of
been a part of what we do, but I do think it
gets a little more special, at least for us this time of
year. We, you know, we'll take a TV outside and we'll sit by a
campfire and watch whatever feature you're doing
on Saturday nights on MeTV. Is there something a
(02:55):
little more special for you this time of year as well with
Oh, yeah. I mean, this is, as people put in my very busy
month, I get to make a lot of appearances and
go out in public and meet and meet the various fans, which is always great.
And we get the chance, you know, these double features, which
(03:16):
is tremendous stuff. We actually have on the last Saturday
of this month, a movie I've been looking for for a long time that we
finally got the original 1953 version of Invaders from Mars.
And it's always great when we can get in, you know, something like that. that
we've been looking for for so long and trying to get. And
the whole month is fun for us because, you know, we sprinkle
(03:38):
in all the various scary versions of
the Westerns and sitcoms and it gives
the Halloween season, you know, a little more of a feel through the
I love that after 45 years that there's still, you know, movies
and gems out there that you are still figuring out
how to get your hands on and be able to bring new
(04:01):
material. Is it a long list or has it become a short
No, we keep looking. We try to get different distributors who
have movies available. Movies are not as easy to
get as they once were because in the past you used
to have distributors, you know, knocking on your door trying to
push packages of movies. And now because of all
(04:22):
the competition, the online stuff and everything and,
and various streaming services, it's not always as easy to
get these movies. So sometimes we have to wait until there's
a, you know, a contract lapses or something like that
before we can actually get them. But there's a lot of stuff out
there. And people always say, Oh, how come you don't show this or that it's
(04:43):
because, you know, it's under contract elsewhere. But
I've got some fun questions from people who just
absolutely love you, Rich. Here in Indianapolis, we've
actually had a few people. I know Amy said
she got an opportunity to come up and throw a
(05:03):
rubber chicken at you. So there's a lot of spin fans here in Indy.
Kara is our first question up. And I can't believe as
a woman and talking to you multiple times, I haven't brought this
up, but she said, my question for Rich
is how long does the makeup take and what
kind of skincare regimen does he have to
(05:30):
Well, actually, when I first started, it took almost 55 minutes
to put this stuff on now. I've kind of got it down to around
35 minutes. So it's a little streamlined and a
little easier. The main thing is taking
it off is the worst part and would actually put the
most wear and tear on your skin. So I started out
(05:52):
first using baby wipes to remove the makeup,
but now they have the various makeup wipes and
I use those. And that kind of, you know, keeps it from, you know, before
you scrape it off and use harsh soap to
Robert wants to know, Little Rich,
(06:14):
growing up, were you a Halloween fan and did you have a
favorite outfit that you like to dress up
Oh, yeah. When I was a kid, I loved Halloween and I always looked forward
to being able to wear different costumes. One
of my favorites was a Popeye costume. that I had when I
(06:35):
was a kid. It was really great. And also a Woody
Woodpecker one. A Woody Woodpecker one where the
mask was made out of some sort of, I don't
even know how to explain it. It was like, it wasn't like the plastic type stuff. It was
almost like fabric and very elaborate. I think they made a
lot of those costumes so much better back then. But
(06:56):
yeah, and you know, one year I made my own robot costume out
of a cardboard box, which was not very comfortable. But
That is so funny. I'm pretty sure that, like, you know,
you get to that teenage years where you're like, oh, maybe
I'm too cool for this. But I'm pretty sure the last time I dressed
(07:18):
up for Halloween as a kid was
a robot costume that I made out of a
So, you know, nowadays, Rich, we, you
know, we associate you and Sven Gulli with Halloween. Do
(07:38):
you, you know, if you had an opportunity to go to, you
know, say a comic con, would
you want to cosplay? You know, would you ever be like, you
know what, forget this Sven Gulli stuff. I want to be Iron Man for
Well, I used to have one of my good friends, famous
comic book artist, Alex Ross, used to have Halloween parties
(08:02):
every year. And that was the time when I really got
the chance to dress up as something else. One
year, I was the Penguin from Batman. Another
year, I was Groucho Marx. And yeah,
that was always fun. I didn't mind at all dressing up as other
(08:25):
You brought up the Penguin from Batman. That
was one of the questions I wanted to ask if we had an
opportunity today, and we got a couple more minutes. We all fan
out watching Svengoolie and love what you do, but when
you have an opportunity to relax, is
TV something you turn to? Do you have fandoms?
(08:49):
Yeah, actually I am. I
certainly use TV as, you know, kind of a way
to just relax. I love Turner Classic
movies. I love seeing all the stuff that they show. It's a
lot of fun to see that. And our company's movies
channel. It's great to see that stuff.
(09:12):
And I do, I try to keep up on certain things. I've always been
a superhero fan. So when there's various superhero stuff,
I do tune into that. The Marvel Agatha.
Yeah. What do you think of Agatha? We're watching that here
(09:32):
Yeah. Well, it started out kind of slow and I wasn't sure about it,
but the last episode I felt was really good and I'm
I am enjoying that they put it out at
this time, and we have this opportunity to have this witchy show
from Marvel during the Halloween season.
(09:55):
But we are, right now, let's talk about, before
we go, When people should start watching because
I think we you know, we used to be Getting psyched
up for this for Halloween weekend, but I want to make sure people know it's
Programming already going, you know day one of October
(10:16):
No, actually, it'll all start on Saturday October 5th and
we're gonna start out with our Sven squad actually hosting some scary
Looney Tunes cartoons in the morning and then We've
got a bunch of the Westerns, I think I might have mentioned that, that have
sort of scary themes to them all afternoon. So
it begins then, and then of course we have scary three
(10:39):
stooges shorts. We've done various ones. And
then we'll pick up with our double feature. So that's
the whole first day that'll launch the whole thing on
I love it. It is the third year of Spengoolie's Halloween Boo-Nanza,
and we certainly hope in our household that this is
(11:00):
a thing that's going to be a regular Halloween feature
Good morning. Good morning. Is this KJ? It
is. Hi, KJ. I have Rich Coats
on the line for you on hold. OK.
You have until 40 past the hour.
(00:28):
Let's do it. OK. There you go,
OK. Rich, hi. Hello.
Oh, my gosh. Well, I'm, you know, thrilled. It's a it's another
spooky season. And here we are chatting again. And Sven
Gulli still going strong, man, like 45 years. This
(00:59):
Well, I've got some interesting questions from our
fans today, Rich, but I know that somehow,
someway, y'all keep coming up with new ideas to
keep Svengoolie going, and you've got the Sven
Squad this year, so let's talk about some of the new stuff coming up
(01:28):
Well, it's great to have the Sven Squad with us. Very
talented people. Sarah Palmer, who plays Gwen Gooley,
Scott Greider, who is the Imp, and my buddy Bill
Leff, who hosts the morning cartoon shows, but also plays Nostalgia
for Autu. And we've had such a great time incorporating
them into the show, and they've added a lot to it. And in fact, we're
(01:50):
giving them a chance to host their own movies the last two
Saturdays. of this month as part of the second
part of our Double Features. They're going to be hosting two Jim Henson
movies, A Labyrinth and Dark Crystal. And
that'll be the second part of our Halloween Double
(02:10):
I love that. And you say you're giving them a chance to host,
but also isn't that giving you a chance to maybe
Well, no, because we're still doing the first movie of the Double Features. But
it's a chance for them to kind of, you know, have their own say in things
(02:32):
You know, so my husband and I, we have a group of
people who, you know, Svengoolie's just kind of
been a part of what we do, but I do think it
gets a little more special, at least for us this time of
year. We, you know, we'll take a TV outside and we'll sit by a
campfire and watch whatever feature you're doing
on Saturday nights on MeTV. Is there something a
(02:55):
little more special for you this time of year as well with
Oh, yeah. I mean, this is, as people put in my very busy
month, I get to make a lot of appearances and
go out in public and meet and meet the various fans, which is always great.
And we get the chance, you know, these double features, which
(03:16):
is tremendous stuff. We actually have on the last Saturday
of this month, a movie I've been looking for for a long time that we
finally got the original 1953 version of Invaders from Mars.
And it's always great when we can get in, you know, something like that. that
we've been looking for for so long and trying to get. And
the whole month is fun for us because, you know, we sprinkle
(03:38):
in all the various scary versions of
the Westerns and sitcoms and it gives
the Halloween season, you know, a little more of a feel through the
I love that after 45 years that there's still, you know, movies
and gems out there that you are still figuring out
how to get your hands on and be able to bring new
(04:01):
material. Is it a long list or has it become a short
No, we keep looking. We try to get different distributors who
have movies available. Movies are not as easy to
get as they once were because in the past you used
to have distributors, you know, knocking on your door trying to
push packages of movies. And now because of all
(04:22):
the competition, the online stuff and everything and,
and various streaming services, it's not always as easy to
get these movies. So sometimes we have to wait until there's
a, you know, a contract lapses or something like that
before we can actually get them. But there's a lot of stuff out
there. And people always say, Oh, how come you don't show this or that it's
(04:43):
because, you know, it's under contract elsewhere. But
I've got some fun questions from people who just
absolutely love you, Rich. Here in Indianapolis, we've
actually had a few people. I know Amy said
she got an opportunity to come up and throw a
(05:03):
rubber chicken at you. So there's a lot of spin fans here in Indy.
Kara is our first question up. And I can't believe as
a woman and talking to you multiple times, I haven't brought this
up, but she said, my question for Rich
is how long does the makeup take and what
kind of skincare regimen does he have to
(05:30):
Well, actually, when I first started, it took almost 55 minutes
to put this stuff on now. I've kind of got it down to around
35 minutes. So it's a little streamlined and a
little easier. The main thing is taking
it off is the worst part and would actually put the
most wear and tear on your skin. So I started out
(05:52):
first using baby wipes to remove the makeup,
but now they have the various makeup wipes and
I use those. And that kind of, you know, keeps it from, you know, before
you scrape it off and use harsh soap to
Robert wants to know, Little Rich,
(06:14):
growing up, were you a Halloween fan and did you have a
favorite outfit that you like to dress up
Oh, yeah. When I was a kid, I loved Halloween and I always looked forward
to being able to wear different costumes. One
of my favorites was a Popeye costume. that I had when I
(06:35):
was a kid. It was really great. And also a Woody
Woodpecker one. A Woody Woodpecker one where the
mask was made out of some sort of, I don't
even know how to explain it. It was like, it wasn't like the plastic type stuff. It was
almost like fabric and very elaborate. I think they made a
lot of those costumes so much better back then. But
(06:56):
yeah, and you know, one year I made my own robot costume out
of a cardboard box, which was not very comfortable. But
That is so funny. I'm pretty sure that, like, you know,
you get to that teenage years where you're like, oh, maybe
I'm too cool for this. But I'm pretty sure the last time I dressed
(07:18):
up for Halloween as a kid was
a robot costume that I made out of a
So, you know, nowadays, Rich, we, you
know, we associate you and Sven Gulli with Halloween. Do
(07:38):
you, you know, if you had an opportunity to go to, you
know, say a comic con, would
you want to cosplay? You know, would you ever be like, you
know what, forget this Sven Gulli stuff. I want to be Iron Man for
Well, I used to have one of my good friends, famous
comic book artist, Alex Ross, used to have Halloween parties
(08:02):
every year. And that was the time when I really got
the chance to dress up as something else. One
year, I was the Penguin from Batman. Another
year, I was Groucho Marx. And yeah,
that was always fun. I didn't mind at all dressing up as other
(08:25):
You brought up the Penguin from Batman. That
was one of the questions I wanted to ask if we had an
opportunity today, and we got a couple more minutes. We all fan
out watching Svengoolie and love what you do, but when
you have an opportunity to relax, is
TV something you turn to? Do you have fandoms?
(08:49):
Yeah, actually I am. I
certainly use TV as, you know, kind of a way
to just relax. I love Turner Classic
movies. I love seeing all the stuff that they show. It's a
lot of fun to see that. And our company's movies
channel. It's great to see that stuff.
(09:12):
And I do, I try to keep up on certain things. I've always been
a superhero fan. So when there's various superhero stuff,
I do tune into that. The Marvel Agatha.
Yeah. What do you think of Agatha? We're watching that here
(09:32):
Yeah. Well, it started out kind of slow and I wasn't sure about it,
but the last episode I felt was really good and I'm
I am enjoying that they put it out at
this time, and we have this opportunity to have this witchy show
from Marvel during the Halloween season.
(09:55):
But we are, right now, let's talk about, before
we go, When people should start watching because
I think we you know, we used to be Getting psyched
up for this for Halloween weekend, but I want to make sure people know it's
Programming already going, you know day one of October
(10:16):
No, actually, it'll all start on Saturday October 5th and
we're gonna start out with our Sven squad actually hosting some scary
Looney Tunes cartoons in the morning and then We've
got a bunch of the Westerns, I think I might have mentioned that, that have
sort of scary themes to them all afternoon. So
it begins then, and then of course we have scary three
(10:39):
stooges shorts. We've done various ones. And
then we'll pick up with our double feature. So that's
the whole first day that'll launch the whole thing on
I love it. It is the third year of Spengoolie's Halloween Boo-Nanza,
and we certainly hope in our household that this is
(11:00):
a thing that's going to be a regular Halloween feature
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.