Wild Chicago

"Wild Chicago" took viewers on a fast paced video trip through the city's "urban jungle", highlighting hundreds of offbeat and unusual people, places, and events in the metropolitan area. Subjects included the Chicago Herpetological Society - a club for people who prefer blue-tongued skunks to cats as house pets; singing taxicab drivers; "Wild Neighbor," Zoe, a punk rocker/Barbie doll collector; an Ancient Astronaut society; the Inkin' Lincoln Tattoo and Piercing Jamboree; an interstate pierogi festival; a squirrel lovers' club; the Playboy Advisor; a cookie jar museum; and the Polka Music Hall of Fame. Segments usually ran two to four minutes in length and were bracketed with clever graphics and often the guitar based musical contributions of Roger Adler (who was also composer of the show's theme music). Wild Chicago was off the air from 2003 to 2005, but returned in spring 2006 with a seven-part series called Wild Chicago's Illinois Road Trip. This most-recent incarnation of the show was hosted exclusively by original host Ben Hollis and produced by Tom Siegel, who also acted as cameraman for the series. The new series explored oddities throughout the entire state of Illinois, such as ghost tours in Alton and a Beatles-themed bed and breakfast in Benton.