There's always been something about Chuck Woolery that I've liked. He wasn't like the other classic game show hosts that I used to watch in the seventies and eighties; instead of being all about the hair, teeth and deep voice, Chuck was always a relaxed and easy-going presence that seemed like he actually cared about whether the contestants on his shows won or not. So, this actually makes him a perfect guy to sell pretty much anything on TV. I just didn't think he'd sell this:

Lately I've been seeing Chuck in ads that sell real estate in various locales: one in Arkansas and one in New Mexico. The commercials are similar to the ones Erik Estrada does. You know the sales pitch: "Come to Jerkwater Springs! The weather here is great! It's growing by leaps and bounds! And you can buy a lot for only fifty grand!" Then the celebrity offers a free weekend for two in order to entice you to come down and hear the pitch in person. It's all very cheesy, and borderline suspicious.

I can see why Estrada was doing these commercials: besides Spanish soap operas and one season of The Surreal Life, he didn't have much going on. But Chuck has been doing Lingo on GSN for the last few years, and seems to be making decent money selling motorized fishing lures. Does he really need the money that badly? Did his wife take most of his money in his last divorce? It's just hard to see him pushing plots of land on daytime television after the career he's had.

But here's the real question: Would you buy real estate from Chuck? He does sound fairly persuasive in the commercials. Let me know in the comments.

[thanks to triborough.org for the screenshot!]