Ernie Anderson was born Ernest Earle Anderson on November 12, 1923 in Lynn, Massachusetts. He began working in radio at Burlington, Vermont's WSKI-AM in 1946. He met Tim Conway at WHK-AM in Cleveland and began writing with him. They were hired by Cleveland's WJW-TV in 1961 where they created "Ernie's Place", a daytime show of movies and comedy sketches. He created the beatnik character Ghoulardi for himself, wearing a lab coat, fright wig, fake goatee beard and mustache and became popular introducing WJW-TV's Friday night horror movie show Shock Theater (1963). Rose Marie, best known as Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961), recommended him to Steve Allen who recruited him for his own show.

Ernie had many run-ins with his management in Cleveland and moved to California full time in 1966. He appeared in two episodes of Conway's television series Rango (1967) and then formed a comedy act with his old friend. He was hired as "the voice of ABC" in the late 1970s where he continued to work well into the 1980s. He also did the voiceover for the previews of current episodes during the first three seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). Ernie Anderson died at age 73 of cancer in Los Angeles, California on February 6, 1997.