Free Republic

<p>At the height of Wally George's fame in the mid-1980s, fans of the conservative talk-show host with the shock of white hair would wait several weeks to secure one of 60 tickets to his "Hot Seat" television show, taped in Anaheim.</p>

October 10 - 16, 2003 The Suburban Rasputin Wally George, 1932-2003 by Chris Ziegler The last time I saw Wally George, he was gliding gingerly across a dance floor, microphone in hand, golden-throating "Kansas City" to a bar dotted with jowly old men and an acned kid in a Black Flag shirt, and I thought to myself: How can anyone not love this man? Because when I first came to California, it didn’t feel like California until one late night when my friend had just moved into an empty room on the second story of a sterile beige townhouse...

Conservative talk show host Wally George, who sparred with liberal guests for two decades on "Hot Seat," has died. He was 71. George, the father of actress Rebecca De Mornay, died of pneumonia on Sunday at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center. George's combative television show, broadcast on KDOC-TV in Anaheim, rose to popularity in the 1980s. He called his approach "combat TV" and was known for interrupting guests by shouting insults at them. Born George Walter Pearch in Oakland to a former vaudeville actress and the owner of a shipping company, George moved to Hollywood with his mother...

From the Los Angeles Times: October 7, 2003 Wally George, 71; Firebrand Host Made Insult TV a Hit With Orange County Show By Jean O. Pasco, Times Staff Writer Wally George, who pioneered insult television on his long-running Orange County talk show "Hot Seat" in the 1980s, died Sunday in Fountain Valley.