Perhaps there will NEVER be a TV show as unpredictable, deranged and magnificient as The Gong Show. The premise was simple, present a talent show with acts that are both good and bad. The uninteresting acts got GONGED and those that didn't were scored by the judges. The act with the highest score won a measly $516.32. Althought some people have compared it to the early rounds of American Idol, that really misses the point. A bad act was just as likely to win as a good one. The key criteria for winning The Gong Show appeared to be orginality and balls. Having both made you a contender. Winners continued on in obscurity, so nobody took it seriously. It was lowbrow, perishable, raucous, reckless and simply perfect.
Chuck Barris - the prolific and infamous Game Show producer had created The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, the $1.98 Beauty Pageant and others for television. At one time Chuck Barris Productions had over 20 TV shows on the air at once. He sold the idea for The Gong Show to ABC, and originally cast John Barbour as the host. John Barbour didn't grasp the concept of the show, instead playing it straight as if he was hosting a legitimate talent show. As Chuck Barris tells it, he scrapped Barbour and at the last minute he was pressured by the network to take over the hosting spot. Although claiming to be both shy and uncomfortable in front of the camera, to save the show Chuck reluctantly agreed. At that moment, Chuck Barris became a public figure and the antithesis of a smooth game show host.
In real life Chuck Barris is a engaging and humble man. In this writers estimation, however, the importance of Chuck Barris as the host of The Gong Show cannot be overestimated. His on-stage shuffling, awkward hand claps, grammatically incorrect ad libs, and seemingly bumbling personality created the needed goofy and unpredictable atmosphere that made The Gong Show remarkable. He wore goofy hats and seemed to be stoned (he wasn't). He appeared supportive of every act, even though the audience knew that he knew that the act was crap. Chuck created an environment where everyone was in on the joke - the host, the judges, the audience and the acts. Chuck was dubbed "Chuckie Baby" by his devotees and there were even occasional demands for "Chuck for President" made by fans.
The show was a true phenomenon with T-shirts, a best-selling book and even a major motion picture release. It made 70's icons out of 'The Unknown Comic' and 'Gene, Gene the Dancing Machine'. Canadian comedian Murray Langston, who as "The Unknown Comic" wore a paper bag over his head (with cut-outs for his eyes, mouth, and even a box of Kleenex), and "Gene Gene the Dancing Machine" (Gene Patton), arguably the most popular member of the "cast," another NBC stagehand who would show up and dance whenever the band played the song "Jumpin' at the Woodside." Upon hearing the song, Chuck Barris would erupt in surprise and near ecstacy as if he just won the lottery, and Chuck, the studio audience and the judges would go crazy. Siv Ã…berg, a one-time Miss Sweden, was also on hand, acting more or less as the show's hostess. The judges were B, C and D list celebrities such as Artie Johnson from Laugh-in, or Jamie Farr (Klinger, MASH) and Jaye P . Morgan who ultimately was fired for flashing her breasts on camera during a show.
To confound the network censors, Chuck Barris would occasionally include acts he knew would get cut, to divert the censors attention away from those he wanted to preserve. One that slipped through was known as "The Popsicle Twins" which made it to air on the East Coast. The censors yanked the West Coast Feed of the show that night. Some speculate that this incident led to the ultimate cancellation of the Gong Show, which was still a widly popular program at the time is was cancelled by the network.
in 1988, Chuck Barris acquired the Guber-Peters Company. After the shows' runs ended, Sony Corporation acquired Guber-Peters Entertainment (included Barris Industries) for a reported $200 million. There have been several attempts to revive The Gong Show on TV, none of which captured the magic, or rose to the level of notoriety of the original. Extreme Gong, was a GSN original. A few years after Extreme Gong ended, Sony planned to revive the show again under its classic name and format for The WB Television Network, but this version was never realized. Sony and MTV Networks' Comedy Central collaborated on a fourth Gong Show revival as The Gong Show with Dave Attell in 2008; this did sell and aired on Comedy Central from July to September 2008.
