ABC to Revive The Gong Show

Following in the success of Celebrity Family Feud, The $100,000 Pyramid, Match Game and To Tell the Truth, ABC has another game show revival in the works that will be launched in 2017, The Gong Show.

Will Arnett, who starred in the sitcom The Millers will be the executive producer of the reboot of the bizarre talent show that was created and hosted by Chuck Barris.  No word on who will be the new host.

The Gong Show made its debut back in June in 1976 on NBC.  The original host was John Barbour, but he was fired after the pilot so instead of the network scrapping the show, Madeline David, who was the vice president of daytime programming for NBC suggested to Barris that he host the show himself because she felt he knew the concept the best and he was bad as the acts that appeared on the show.

On June 14, 1976, veteran announcer Johnny Jacobs intoned "From Hollywood, almost live.  It's The Gong Show!"  Then Barris would introduce the acts, who were judged by a panel of three celebrities.  Frequently appearing on the panel were Jamie Farr, Arte Johnson, Jaye P. Morgan, Phyllis Diller and Anson Williams.  One of the most unusual guest judges was Dodger Stadium peanut vendor Roger Owens.  At the end of each show he was on, he would distribute peanuts to audience members.  A lot of the acts were bizarre and terrible so if an act was really bad, a celebrity would hit a gong and that would be the end of the act.  Barris would usually ask why the panelist gonged the act and the reply would be hilarious.

Also adding to the mayhem were The Unknown Comic and stagehand Gene Patton as Gene Gene the Dancing Machine.  Occasionally, there would be Chuckie's Fables with The Mighty Gong Show Players.

In addition to the daytime version, there was also a nighttime syndicated version that was first hosted by Gary Owens and later by Barris.  When Owens hosted, he would tell viewers "All acts know beforehand that they may be gonged."

Unfortunately, Twin Cities TV viewers did not see the first six months of The Gong Show because KSTP-TV, the NBC affiliate at that time was committed to a local talk show with Steve Edelman and Sharon Anderson titled Twin Cities Today.  When NBC moved The Gong Show to 3 PM in January 1977,  the station did air The Gong Show, even when the network moved the show back to its original time period in December of that year.

The Gong Show was cancelled on July 21, 1978 after two seasons to make room for a new alternative to soap operas and game shows, a talk show titled America Alive.  But there would be three attempts to revive the show.  The first was in 1988 with former KDWB disc jockey True Don Bleu as the host.  It only lasted a season.  Game Show Network revived the show under the title Extreme Gong.  It was another one season run.  The last attempt was on Comedy Central with comedian Dave Atell hosting.  It had the shortest run of the revivals, lasting only eight episodes.

Can the new version of The Gong Show be another prime time game show hit for ABC?  Wait until next year.