After the war, Anderson attended Suffolk University for two years, then took a job as a disc jockey at WSKI in Montpelier, Vermont. Anderson worked as a disc jockey in Albany, New York and Providence, Rhode Island before moving to Cleveland, Ohio in 1958 to join radio station WHK.

After WHK switched to a Top 40 format in late 1958, Anderson was let go as his persona didn’t fit with the format’s newer, high-energy presentation. According to Anderson’s lifelong friend, comic actor Tim Conway, Anderson was at a WHK Christmas party “telling this long elaborate joke and just as he’s about to deliver the punch line his boss cuts in and says it. So Ernie looks at him and says, ‘Why did you do that?’ And his boss says, ‘I anticipated it.’ So Ernie said, ‘Anticipate this’ and tells him ‘(expletive) yourself.’ Well, Ernie got fired.”

From 1963 to 1966, Anderson hosted Shock Theater under the alter ego of Ghoulardi, a hipster that defied the common perception of a horror host. While this version of Shock Theater also featured grade “B” science fiction and horror films, Ghoulardi mocked the films he was hosting, and spoke in an accent-laden beatnik slang. Often, comedic sound effects or music would be inserted in place of the movie’s audio track. Occasionally, Ghoulardi would even insert himself into a film and appear to run from the monster, using a chroma key system that WJW normally utilized for art cards. He loved firecrackers (although their possession was illegal in Ohio) and started by blowing up apples and leftovers and graduated to blowing up model cars, statues and other items sent in by viewers.

By 1965, Anderson not only hosted Shock Theater but also the Saturday afternoon Masterpiece Theater and the weekday children’s program Laurel, Ghoulardi and Hardy, all of which were ratings successes. Anderson also created the “Ghoulardi All-Stars” sports teams, which would often attract thousands of fans to as many as 100 charity contests a year. With some help from Conway, Anderson even went to Hollywood to shoot a TV pilot, and featured the audition and films of his trip on his show, highly unusual for local TV in 1966.

Promises of becoming an actor in Los Angeles, as well as fatigue on Anderson’s part, led up to his decision to leave Cleveland permanently in the summer of 1966. Shock Theater ended in October 1966, and the Ghoulardi name was retired. WJW tapped both Schodowski and weather presenter Bob Wells (aka “Hoolihan the Weatherman”) to co-host the successive program, Hoolihan and Big Chuck.

After moving to Los Angeles, Anderson first appeared on the first two episodes of Rango, a short-lived comedy that starred Conway. Anderson and Conway soon collaborated on a comedy act, appearing together on ABC’s Hollywood Palace and later releasing two comedy albums together. Beginning in 1974, Anderson replaced Lyle Waggoner as announcer for The Carol Burnett Show, on which his old performing partner Conway (who had been a recurring guest on the show) became a regular performer beginning in the following year.

Anderson also lent his narration voice to animated television series. He narrated the opening intros to Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 (all for DIC Entertainment) and narrated the first two television shorts of The Powerpuff Girls as part of The What-a-Cartoon! Show until his death in 1997 where the role was taken over by Tom Kenny.

A lifelong smoker, Anderson died of lung cancer in on February 6, 1997 and is buried in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles. His son, director Paul Thomas Anderson, dedicated his 1997 film Boogie Nights to his memory. In addition, The Drew Carey Show episode “See Drew Run” was dedicated to his memory. His death was also mentioned on an episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos that same year.