Riff Markowitz, CHCH television trailblazer, dies at age 86

Riff Markowitz, one of the creators of a popular children’s television show here on CHCH has passed away at age 86.

Markowitz helped launch The Hilarious House of Frightenstein back in September 1971, which first aired on CHCH -– the show was so popular that it is still watched today.

At the time, there was nothing like it on the air.

“Absolutely. I think the word gets thrown around a lot. It’s an iconic piece of Canadiana. I think we were all exposed to it as well at different times. It started in 71’ but it was syndicated as recently as the early 2000s,” said cultural historian Ed Conroy,

Markowitz passed away this week at the age of 86, but his legacy and impact in television lives on.

“Riff is a god of the Hammer. He’s a legitimate television pioneer. He brought an anarchic spirit to television that is missing really from modern television,” said Conroy.

“It’s interesting because when we shot the show we both thought it would run for a year — that’s what we sold it as — and it would die and go to television heaven – but it didn’t work out that way,” said Riff’s brother Mitch Markowitz.

Riff and his brother Mitch shot 130 one-hour episodes of The Hilarious House of Frightenstein – and Mitch says it’s available to 220 million subscribers of various streaming services.

But it wasn’t the Riff’s only hit TV show on CHCH.

“My brother had another show back then on CHCH that was also syndicated across Canada — it’s called Party Game, it was a charade show. Every big celebrity in the country came and wanted to be on that show,” said Mitch.

“Party Game – another show that Riff created in 1970 for CHCH — is something that people that saw it at the time will never forget because it was just so wild, it was so uncontrolled. All these talented people, including Billy Van, doing these wild sketches, kind of Jim Carrey stuff before that was fashionable,” said Conroy.

Two film makers from London, Ont. made a documentary about The Hilarious House of Frightenstein that will be shown at the Hamilton Film Festival in October. Riff is featured in the film.

The CHCH family sends its condolences to the Markowitz family.

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