The series earned Wilson a Golden Globe and two Emmy Awards, and it was the second highest-rated show on network television for a time.

He hosted a short-lived revival of People Are Funny in 1984, and he had the lead role in the 1985–1986 sitcom Charlie & Co. Born Clerow Wilson Jr. in Jersey City, New Jersey, he was one of ten children born to Cornelia Bullock and Clerow Wilson Sr.[5][6] His father worked as a handyman but, because of the Great Depression, was often out of work.

[5] After bouncing from foster homes to reform school, sixteen-year-old Wilson lied about his age and joined the United States Air Force.

Discharged from the Air Force in 1954, Wilson started working as a bellhop in San Francisco's Manor Plaza Hotel.

At the Plaza's nightclub, Wilson found extra work playing a drunken patron between regularly scheduled acts.

A routine titled "Columbus", from the 1967 album Cowboys and Colored People, brought Wilson to Hollywood industry attention.

Hearing this, Queen "Isabel Johnson", whose voice is an early version of Wilson's eventual "Geraldine" character, says that "Chris" can have "all the money you want, honey – You go find Ray Charles!"

He performed in comedy sketches and played host to many African-American entertainers, including Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte, Diahann Carroll, the Supremes, the Jackson Five, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Melba Moore, Redd Foxx, boxer Muhammad Ali and basketball player Bill Russell.

Wilson acted in TV and theatrical movies, including Uptown Saturday Night and The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh.

In 1976, he appeared as the Fox in a television musical adaptation of Pinocchio, starring Sandy Duncan in the title role and Danny Kaye as Geppetto, with songs by Laugh-In composer Billy Barnes.

The catchphrase "What you see is what you get," often used by Wilson's Geraldine character, inspired researchers at PARC (and elsewhere) to create the acronym WYSIWYG for computer software.