By Joe Puccio

The proverb “everything old is new again” tends to get tossed around with ease these days, especially among the Generation X contingent. Whether it’s fashion, music, or even interior design, the prevailing trends of the past often seem to come full circle and saturate the current landscape. And perhaps more than any other medium, television and film are front and center in the revival game.

From historical Western dramatic series Little House on the Prairie, its glory years occurring in the mid to late 1970s, receiving a reboot this year, to sword and planet animated program He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, a 1980s mainstay first transformed into a live-action motion picture in the latter half of the decennium, garnering a heroic fantasy flick adaptation this spring, both the small and big screens are ripe with attempts to generate interest in an assortment of popular culture sensations of days gone by.

Up All Night, an amalgamation of the boob tube and b-movies, is the latest such spectacle hoping to rediscover an audience in 2026. And with its most famous host, Rhonda Shear, back at the helm, its odds of success are quite high.

“I did Up All Night for about eight years, and it was a fun character and really defined my life, even though I didn’t think it would at the time,” Shear admitted, during a recent conversation with Generation X Wire. “I really embraced it and loved everything about it.”

Originally a USA Network show with renowned comic Gilbert Gottfried as its sole host upon launching in 1989, comedian Caroline Schlitt joined halfway through the first season, lasting about a year, when the decision was made by executives at the station to replace her. “When I went to the audition, I was so tired of being told what I could and couldn’t do in my career, so I decided to do it in an over the top, crazy way. They said they wanted someone sexy. I had never met Caroline, but I did watch her and I thought she was good and very pretty. I went in with a low-cut dress, spandex, and plugged in my blow dryer and blew out my hair,” she laughed. “I wondered what the worst that could happen was, I took a chance, and I wound up getting it.”  

Up All Night (also known as USA Up All Night and Up All Night with Rhonda Shear) aired weekly on Friday and Saturday nights for nearly a decade, ending its traditional cable run in 1998. The unusual program consisted primarily of low-budget films, ranging from cult classics to sexploitation fare, bookended by in-house or on-location comedy skits involving the hosts. While its cancelation was the result of new management at the network aiming for a more upscale viewership, Shear contends its content was, in fact, rather tame for its time. “Whatever craziness was going on, even if it was a little on the lewd side, there was never anything too racy because it was the USA Network and you couldn’t show nudity or have bad language, even though Gilbert and I got away with a lot. It was a fun time to be experimental, which is sort of what I’m doing now. If anything ever started to go too far, I’d just say it was ‘so cool.’ I was never judgmental,” she clarified. “I’m still not, on the new show.”

The modern version premiered this past Halloween before chasing it with Thanksgiving and Christmas themed episodes on YouTube, specifically the prominent Kings of Horror channel, an outlet known for its extensive collection of quality spooky content. Despite the stark differences between being broadcast on basic cable and online media, Shear vows to keep the spirit of the original series the same. “It’s been going great so far. But we’re still looking for a home that makes it as easy as possible for people to find us. And it’s a bit of a challenge,” she admitted. “Everything is different today with streaming. It’s not like when we had USA Network producing the show. My husband (producer Van Fagan), who was my high school sweetheart, and I are doing all the work, and we’ll be airing on another huge horror channel on YouTube very soon, which I’m excited about, and we’re in the process of starting a Roku channel as well. I think it will be a lot more visible.”

Shear was raised in New Orleans, the daughter of conservative, yet open-minded, parents. She attended Loyola University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in show business. She believes her formative years provided the structure she needed to obtain her future goals. “When you grow up in New Orleans, you think everything is bigger than life. Mardi Gras, parties, costumes – nothing about it is like a normal city, in a great way. My parents used to drive me down Bourbon Street,” she exclaimed. “It all formed everything I did later in life.”

Being a regular contestant in local pageants led to winning the title of Miss Louisiana which eventually resulted in a Playboy pictorial – with her clothes on. “That was a life altering moment for me. At the time, I was the Greater New Orleans Floral Trail (GNOFT) Queen. In Louisiana, there’s a queen for everything,” she joked. “But I was dethroned because of the Playboy appearance, even though I was fully dressed in a Scarlett O’Hara-like gown. I got very upset and my parents and I decided to take the Floral Trail society to court. I had the lieutenant governor and the mayor speaking on my behalf. It was like something out of a sitcom or Steel Magnolias,” she continued. “The judge ruled that I could file for monetary damages, but he couldn’t reinstate me as queen. If this happened today, it would’ve gone viral. But what it did was start a longtime relationship with Playboy and years later, when I was on Up All Night, I ended up posing for them again. It’s funny how one thing in your life can change everything.”

Shear’s resume extends far beyond modeling and variety TV. She’s had memorable parts in programs such as Dallas, The Young and the Restless, Happy Days (“I got to play Fonzie’s girlfriend”), Full House, and Three’s Company (“John Ritter was a lovely man and he was wonderful to me for the entire week that I was on set”), acted as a guest timekeeper for World Wrestling Entertainment at WrestleMania (“Shawn Michaels and I were involved in a scripted romance for a while, which was a lot of fun”), authored a book titled Up All Night: From Hollywood Bombshell to Lingerie Mogul, Life Lessons from an Accidental Feminist, and even launched her own line of intimate apparel (Rhonda Shear Intimates), propelled by the successful Ahh Bra.

But for now, it’s the reincarnation of Up All Night that is the multi-talented entrepreneur’s primary present-day focus. Between lining up a plethora of notable guest celebrities to screening a combination of both vintage and contemporary independent films to penning witty sketches, Shear’s plate is full – but she wouldn’t have it any other way. “We’re back – louder, sassier, and somehow even funnier,” she affirmed. “We’re dragging a whole new generation into some late-night chaos they didn’t know they needed.”  

Watch Up All Night at kingsofhorror.com or https://www.youtube.com/@kingsofhorror

Follow Rhonda Shear at https://rhondashearupallnight.com/ and https://rhondashear.com/

Order Up All Night: From Hollywood Bombshell to Lingerie Mogul, Life Lessons from an Accidental Feminist here

Follow Rhonda Shear on Instagram here

Follow Rhonda Shear on Facebook here