WOLFMAN MAC – This werewolf Movie Host was played by Mac Kelly, who took the obvious Wolfman Jack reference and ran with it! And good for him! Why not? Kelly had grown up watching Michigan Movie Hosts like the Ghoul and Sir Graves Ghastly and others. He and the rest of the creative team launched Wolfman Mac’s Nightmare Sinema on Public Access Cable on July 19th, 2008 with the time-honored Golden Turkey Robot Monster (1953).
Nightmare Sinema became such a hit that Kelly and company got to live the dream – going from Public Access to a spot on “real” television. Their final episode of WMNS aired on March 7th, 2009 with the Spanish zombie movie Horror of the Zombies (1974) from the Blind Dead series. Their show had been seen in Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario.
Retitled Wolfman Mac’s Chiller Drive-In, the show, the happy go lucky lycanthrope and his supporting cast debuted April 25th, 2009 on Detroit’s WMYD as well as MyNetworkTV affiliate stations in Florida. Devil Doll (1964) was the movie presented on that date. Continuing as virtual co-host was Boney Bob (Aaron Helferich) a wisecracking skeleton puppet in the spirit of Shrimpenstein from the 1960s and Joel Hodgson’s puppet-bots from 1988 onward.
The final episode of Wolfman Mac’s Chiller Drive-In debuted on December 18th, 2010 with White Zombie (1932) as the movie. The first of the program’s subsequent Halloween Spooktacular Specials aired on October 29th, 2011 with the Gamera film Attack of the Monsters (1969).
This Movie Host show had a fun backstory like The Texas 27 Film Vault and some other Bad Movie Shows. The opening to each episode of Wolfman Mac’s Nightmare Sinema showed the setup – Wolfman Mac was being pursued by a torch and gun bearing mob intent on killing him. Trying to escape from the mob he at last came across a haunted old drive-in, delighting all of us Joe Bob Briggs fans.
Mac met Boney Bob, a former midget Carnival Barker whose skeleton came back from the dead to befriend Wolfman Mac and manage the drive-in for him. Assorted zombies and other monster “species” also inhabited the establishment, which scared off Mac’s pursuers. Since then, the werewolf and his supporting characters have hosted Psychotronic movies from Wolfman Mac’s Chiller Drive-In.
Mac Kelly and his creative team had panache and a clear love of Movie Host Shows and the So-Bad-It’s-Good film culture as reflected in their Host Segments and comedy sketches.
Other supporting characters during the Nightmare Sinema episodes included Morgus Gravesly (Bryan Larsen), Creepy Clyde (Buddy Keys), Manny Morte (Davey Taylor), Wally Wojciechowski as Professor M. Balmer and Mark Knote as Torg (the robot from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians).
Additional supporting characters for the Chiller Drive-In episodes included ladies like Madame Nina (Nina Kircher), Rubella (Susan Valenti), Grenadine (Karie Nora), Regan (Lori Wild) and Mike Murphy as Son of Froggy (a reference to Froggy from the Ghoul’s Movie Host show).
Mac Kelly out of his Wolfman Mac makeup
The two Wolfman Mac shows presented many of the usual Bad Movie Classics as well as less used flicks like Spider Baby (1968), Moon of the Wolf (1972), King Kong Escapes (1967), Sting of Death (1965), and the stop-motion Mad Monster Party (1967).
Reruns of this show aired on RetroTV and other outlets for several years. Over time, Wolfman Mac became a very popular figure. He served as Grand Marshall for various Halloween Parades, hosted public children’s costume contests and has even officiated weddings at haunted house attractions beginning in 2012.
Wolfman Mac was inducted into the Horror Host Hall of Fame in 2020.
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Balladeer's Blog 
Thanks for spotlighting Wolfman Mac! Sounds like a fun show. I’d never heard of him before!
Thank YOU! I was glad to do it! I’m a sucker for all these shows.