Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Returning to Television, Hail to the New Host, Baby! (VIDEO)

One of the highlights of my childhood was coming home from school in the fourth and fifth grade to watch re-runs of a show called Ripley's Believe It Or Not starring a terrifying old man named Jack Palance. Palance would, of course, become better known to me the following year as Grissom in Batman, but part of his allure as host of this program was that he looked like he had a pretty estimable bullshit detector.

The show was rebooted in the late 90s with Dean Cain, and the less said about this iteration, the better. It was mostly a rehash of stuff from the original Palance program with a smattering of new, even more dubious contemporary garbage. Kind of like those Dennis Farina-hosted Unsolved Mysteries from a few years later, mostly just rehashing Stack-era stories with updates.

It's being rebooted once again for the modern age, and they've picked a hell of a host to lead the charge. The Travel Channel announced yesterday that they would be bringing Ripley's Believe It Or Not back to life with host Bruce Campbell. And none of this rehash nonsense, this is brand new content...

“As an actor, I’ve always been drawn toward material that is more ‘fantastic’ in nature, so I was eager and excited to partner with Travel Channel and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! on this new show,” Campbell said in a statement. “And because amazing things happen all around the world, we should have no shortage of unbelievable stories to share with a fresh new audience.” The Believe It Or Not reboot will feature “10 all-new, one-hour episodes that will showcase the most astonishing, real and one-of-a-kind stories. Currently in production, the series will be shot on location at the famed Ripley Warehouse in Orlando, Fl, and will incorporate incredible stories from all parts of the globe — from Brazil to Baltimore.”

The show will debut on The Travel Channel this summer. Check out some vintage Palance below, extolling the virtues of paper clips and having some fun with novelty sized money at a bank...