Age of The Nerd
We had the honor of sitting down with MetTV’s Svengoolie and his Sven Squad last week at San Diego Comic Con. This was the first time that the whole squad had been to San Diego Comic-Con. The Sven Squad is comprised of Gwengoolie, Ignatius Malvolio Prankenstein (IMP), and Nostalgiaferatoo.
The Sven Squad was part of a search that the show hosted a couple of years back called the “Spawn of Svengoolie” talent search, which saw thousands of people send in their tapes to be a part of The Sven Squad. Gwengoolie is played by Sarah M. Palmer, making her first on-air appearance towards the end of the September 23, 2023, episode of “The Return of the Vampire”.
Nostalgiaferatoo is played by Bill Leff, host of MeTV’s morning cartoon show Toon In with Me. A character based on the vampire Nosferatu, with a comical twist, began making appearances on Svengoolie on April 8, 2023. Ignatius Malvolio Prankenstein (IMP) is played by Scott Gryder, formerly of Green Screen Adventures. He made his first on-air appearance towards the end of the September 30, 2023, episode of “Trilogy of Terror”.
Rounding out the Sven Squad is its fearless leader, Svengoolie, played by Rich Koz, since 1979. The Svengoolie character was originally played by Jerry G. Bishop from 1970 to 1973. Koz was an understudy to Bishop in the early 70s. Svengoolie presents sketches, tells jokes, and performs parody songs related to the films being aired, which are usually old horror and science fiction films.
When we sat down with Koz, he was very soft spoken, not like his onscreen character. He revealed that his favorite non-horror movie was The Blues Brothers. The Sven Squad also revealed that Stephen King’s infamous film “The Mist” would be on the show soon.
The show is a long-running local program in the Chicago area and, in recent years, expanded nationally, airing Saturday nights on MeTV. For more info on Svengoolie and the upcoming movie schedule, check out https://metv.com/svengoolie
