He looks just about the same as he did four years ago, when he snuck away into the city’s shadows.
His hair is a bit thinner and there are a few more lines around his eyes and mouth. But his smile is still one of the kindest in town and his eyes still sparkle with the inquisitiveness of an explorer.
He is Ben Hollis, the 42-year-old fellow who in 1988 created that satisfyingly frenetic WTTW-Ch.11 program, “Wild Chicago,” and served as its ebullient host for four years, winning three local Emmy awards in the process.
In 1992, in a move that surprised many–who walks away from success?–Hollis said he no longer wanted to be running around town in a pith helmet and safari jacket interviewing strangers, many of whom were very strange.
“I was just tired,” he said one recent late afternoon. “I guess the term people like to use is `burnout’ and that’s part of it. I was suffering from sheer fatigue. But, more importantly, I felt myself losing my curiosity.”
Ben Hollis without curiosity, to borrow a phrase from writer Gay Talese, is like a car without gas. But now, refueled, Hollis is back on TV with a wonderful concoction called “Ben Loves Chicago,” airing for but three installments on WPWR-Ch. 50.
“It’s a more personal show,” Hollis says. “I am putting more of myself into each encounter–engaging with people, working myself into the stories but not taking them over.”
When he left “Wild Chicago” a search was conducted for his replacement. More than 250 people–local actors, high school students and one hematologist–applied and, as some indication of Hollis’ workload, two hosts were selected, comic/actor Will Clinger and former TV director and stage manager Laura Meagher.
Hollis didn’t care.
“I’ve seen the show a few times,” says Hollis, who retained no financial interest in or creative link to “Wild Chicago.” “It’s a different show.”
The differences are subtle.
As Hollis originally conceived “Wild Chicago,” along with WTTW producer John Davies, who served as its director, it was a show that was to be driven more by its frantic and stylized hand-held camera work than by the personality of the host.
It has remained that, under the guidance of producer Harvey Moshman. But Clinger and Meagher–and the series of guest segment hosts who took over for Meagher who left the show in 1994, shortly before winning a local Emmy–are not, and didn’t try to be, Hollis.
The show always walked a thin line between visiting characters and making fun of them. And Hollis usually stayed on the gentler side of that line.
During his interlude away from TV, Hollis created “Be My Guest,” a stage piece for Bailiwick Repertory in which Hollis conducted an on-stage talk show, with audience members serving one at a time as guests; fulfilled a longtime desire by traveling to Guadalcanal; got married for the second time, to massage therapist/artist Julia Bunn, and became father to her two children.
Oddly–since Hollis is a proven TV commodity–his new show has only been given a three-week trial run.
“I would have liked a longer commitment,” he says. “I know that’s the wait-and-see-the-ratings nature of TV but three weeks is not a long time for old fans and new viewers to find me.”
This is made more difficult because the show is sandwiched between hours of “Three Stooges” reruns.
“Is the Stooge crowd going to get what my show is all about?” Hollis asks. “I just don’t know.”
They should. The first show, which aired on Aug. 11, was a typically eclectic and energetic romp, including a jaunt through the new Museum of Contemporary Art; a visit with a delightful 101-year-old actress named Martha Wyers; parsing the philosophical sayings that adorn Water Tower Place’s Food Life; and finally, intimately, to a “leaving the country” yard sale.
The second show, which can be seen in encore airing at 10 p.m. Saturday, contains segments on an odd female rock trio; a woman who teaches facial exercises and a playful bunch of professional movers. It also has Hollis bringing great sensitivity to an interview with three homeless men as they sit on a park bench. (The third installment airs at 9 p.m. Saturday and 10 p.m. Aug. 24).
“I would like to stay on television, doing what I do,” says Hollis. “The stories and characters in the city are inexhaustible–as is my love for them.”
There is no telling what happens to Hollis next. Perhaps more shows for WPWR? Perhaps a gig as a feature reporter for a local news outlet?
For the moment, at least, it’s good to have him back where he belongs, poking around the city’s corners and characters and bringing them–in all their wacky, weird and wonderfully quiet glory–to TV life.
