"Hexorcist World Premiere"; Vincent Price; Jerry Lewis, promoting the Muscular Dystrophy telethon; and Bruno Sammartino. Cancellation and legacy Chiller Theatres successful run ended at the end of 1983. Precipitating its demise was a decision by WPXI management to air the hour-long weekend edition of Entertainment Tonight immediately after Saturday Night Live, pushing Chiller Theater'''s start time to 2:00 a.m. -- too late for even the most devoted fans to fight off sleep. The show ended January 1, 1984.Chiller Theatre was replaced by a new program called The Saturday Late Show, which still featured the horror and sci-fi movies, but without the local element that made Chiller Theatre what it was. The show was canceled less than a year later. Despite the cancellation of Chiller Theatre, Cardille did not disappear from WPXI-TV. He continued his duties as chief booth announcer and did the weather reports during the noon newscasts for many years until his retirement. After that, Cardille returned to his radio roots until his death in July 2016. Cardille, Rae, and Luncinski continued to make annual Halloween appearances though 2005, including an annual Chiller Cruise on the Gateway Clipper. Luncinski had been on Cardille's daily radio show on Pittsburgh's WJAS at various times over the years plus was a regular every year on the local part of the Jerry Lewis Annual Telethon broadcast from Monroeville Mall. He also had his own auto repair business in Pittsburgh, Pinnacle Auto Repair. He died on January 8, 2009. Rae lives in the Pittsburgh area and still does some acting. Barney married a golf pro and moved to Florida. Elder, who was an independent filmmaker from Weirton, WV, died in 2000. The show continues to be popular thanks in part to Bill Cardille's official website Chiller Theater Memories. The show also inspired SCTV's Joe Flaherty, a Pittsburgh native, to create the series of "Monster Chiller Horror Theater" sketches on the program. Flaherty played Count Floyd, an alter ego of SCTV character Floyd Robertson. Unlike Cardille, Count Floyd dressed in vampire regalia. Sometimes, Floyd warned of fictional scary films that turned out to be Western Pennsylvania in-jokes, such as the film titled Blood-Sucking Monkeys from West Mifflin, Pennsylvania (a Pittsburgh suburb). In other cases, the films were bland, non-horror fare, such as The Odd Couple or Georgy Girl''. References External links Chiller Theater Memories official website 1963 American television series debuts 1983 American television series