The planned host of the NBC show was John Barbour, who did not understand the show’s concept and considered it a straight talent show as opposed to Barris’ parody concept. in THE GONG SHOW MOVIE (1980) Chuck Barris Productions & Universal Pictures. When Vito (Philip Simms) and Mario (Vincent Schiavelli) get “gonged,” Chuck (Chuck Barris) is sympathetic. As with some of Barris’ other projects (including The Newlywed Game), it was at one point possible to see The Gong Show twice daily, a relatively uncommon feat in the years prior to cable TV’s expansion into the commercial market. The show’s cult status far outstripped the two years it spent on NBC (1976–78) and the four years it ran in syndication (1976–80). However, Barris became a public figure in 1976 when he produced and served as the host of the talent contest spoof The Gong Show, which he packaged in partnership with television producer Chris Bearde. The somewhat shy Barris rarely appeared on camera, though he once dashed onto the set of The New Treasure Hunt to throw a pie at emcee Geoff Edwards. The Gong Show Photo By NBC Television Network. The last was his most successful program other than a game show. Barris also made several attempts through the years at non-game formats, such as ABC’s Operation: Entertainment, a variety show staged at military bases akin to USO shows a CBS revival of Your Hit Parade and The Bobby Vinton Show, a Canadian-based syndicated variety show for singer Bobby Vinton (produced in conjunction with Chris Bearde and Allan Blye). Interviewed on the NPR program Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! on August 1, 2009, Barris said that the Newlywed Game was the easiest program he had developed: “All I needed was four couples, eight questions, and a washer-dryer.”īarris created several other short-lived game shows for ABC in the 1960s and for syndication in the 1970s, all of which revolved around a common theme: the game play normally derived its interest (and often, humor) from the excitement, vulnerability, embarrassment, or anger of the contestants or participants in the game. Game Show Network airs a current version with Sherri Shepherd. The show is the longest lasting of any developed by his company, running for a total of 19 full years on “first run” TV, network and syndicated. The combination of the newlywed couples’ humorous candor and host Bob Eubanks’s sly questioning made the show another hit for Barris. The next year Barris began The Newlywed Game, originally created by Nick Nicholson and E. The show would air for eleven of the next fifteen years and be revived twice in the 1980s and 1990s. The contestants’ sexy banter and its “flower power”-motif studio set were a revolution for the game show genre. On this show, which was hosted by Jim Lange, three bachelors or bachelorettes competed for the favor of a contestant of the opposite sex blocked from their view. They suggested that he quit his ABC programming job and become a producer.īarris formed his production company Chuck Barris Productions on June 14, 1965.īarris became successful during 1965 with his first game show creation, The Dating Game, on ABC. Barris told his bosses that the producer/packagers’ pitches of game show concepts were worse than Barris’ own ideas. Barris was promoted to the daytime programming division at ABC in Los Angeles and was put in charge of deciding which game shows ABC would air. Chuck Barris plays Chuck Barris in the (1980) Chuck Barris Productions & Universal Pictures, THE GONG SHOW MOVIE.īarris also wrote or co-wrote some of the music that appeared on his game shows. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks (June 23–30, 1962), the biggest hit of Cannon’s career. Recorded by Freddy Cannon, it peaked at No. He produced pop music on records and television, but his most successful venture was writing “Palisades Park”. Barris soon became a music industry figure. Barris got his start in television as a page and later staffer at NBC in New York City, and eventually worked backstage at the television music show American Bandstand (then filmed in Philadelphia), originally as a standards-and-practices person for ABC.
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