On Tuesday, March 21, the game show world lost one of its creators and innovators when Chuck Barris passed away from natural causes at the age of 87.
Barris was the creator of the classics The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game and The Gong Show. He revolutionized game shows by focusing on emotions and humor rather than knowledge.
He began his broadcasting career by working as an NBC page. In the early 60s, Barris worked in the Standards and Practices department at ABC, keeping tabs on American Bandstand. A native of Philadelphia, Barris would work with another Philadelphian, long-time host Dick Clark. He would also write a song that would become a hit for Freddy (Boom Boom) Cannon in 1962 titled Palisades Park. The song peaked at number three.
Barris would later head west to Los Angeles to become the West coast head of daytime programming. His rejection of other producers ideas led him to become a game show producer. In the summer of 1965, he launched his own production company by borrowing $20,000 from his stepfather David Bortin. He used the money for his first show that would replace a daytime talk show that was a ratings bomb after it replaced the original Price is Right called The Young Set and on December 20, The Dating Game made its debut on ABC along with Supermarket Sweep. Hosted by San Francisco disc jockey Jim Lange, the show was simple. It featured three bachelors and a woman (sometimes the tables were turned) who questioned them for a period of time and when time expired and a commercial break, the woman got to choose the bachelor based on the answers to her questions.
Despite critics lambasting the show because of its suggestive content (a common thread among Barris' shows) The Dating Game became a hit for the network that had an abysmal track record in daytime, going up against reruns of The Dick Van Dyke Show on CBS and a rare morning soap opera on NBC Paradise Bay. It also led Barris to create another show that would become his biggest success. It was The Newlywed Game. The show would be the first of several shows hosted by then 28 year old Bob Eubanks, a Los Angeles disc jockey who also promoted The Beatles concert at The Hollywood Bowl. Four couples competed to find out how well they knew each other. The couple with the most points won a grand prize that they selected. The show was also known for using the word "whoopee" because Standards and Practices wouldn't allow the use of the word "Sex" or the phrase "make love."
The Newlywed Game debuted on July 11, 1966 opposite CBS's mega hit word game Password. But CBS preempted Password to air a news conference with then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara that ABC didn't air until later. Disgruntled game show fans would sample the new show and withing several months, The Newlywed Game would cut into Password's dominance and it would be canceled in September 1967.
By October 1966, ABC needed a half hour show to replace The Tammy Grimes Show, a sitcom that was a big flop and was axed after four episodes. Its replacement was The Dating Game and the show became a solid lead in to the network's hit sitcom Bewitched. In January 1967, The Dating Game moved to Saturday night and was followed by a nighttime version of The Newlywed Game.
Other Barris creations that debuted in 1967 were Dream Girl of '67, a year long beauty pageant, The Family Game, hosted by Bob Barker and How's Your Mother in Law that was one of the first game shows hosted by Wink Martindale. In 1968, Barris branched out into variety shows with the show Operation: Entertainment that aired from various military bases. The show lasted only one season.
Barris would enter the syndicated market in the fall of 1969 with a psychological game show titled The Game Game, which was hosted by Jim McKrell. Though it lasted only one season, McKrell would go on to grater success as host of NBC's Celebrity Sweepstakes in 1974.
Television would be changing in the 1970s when the Federal Communications Commission enacted The Prime Time Access Rule in 1971 that meant that the networks could only show three hours of programming each night. It also meant the end of the nighttime Newlywed Game, a year after ABC canceled the prime time Dating Game. Barris' first entry into the access market was a Newlywed Game clone titled The Parent Game, which was hosted by radio personality Clark Race. It didn't click with viewers and lasted only one season. In 1974, Barris revived Treasure Hunt, which was originally hosted by comedian Jan Murray. Only woman could be contestants on the show which played on their emotions as they chose one of 30 boxes that could be "a jackpot in prizes" or a worthless prize called a klunk. The top prize was a check for $25,000. Host Geoff Edwards, who also hosted NBC's Jackpot had to memorize 30 sketches. He had to do them without using cue cards. The show ran for three seasons, ending production in 1977.
Barris' biggest as well as controversial hit was a talent show in reverse titled The Gong Show. It was going to be hosted by John Barbour but he couldn't undersdtand the show's campy premise. So he was gonged and taking over the hosting reigns was none other than Barris himself. He was known for his hand claps and floppy hats as he presided over acts that would performed until they were gonged for being too awful.. He would ask one of the three celebrity judges why he/she gonged the act and the response would often be hilarious. Frequently appearing as judges were Jamie Farr, Jaye P. Morgan, Arte Johnson and Rex Reed.
Also adding to the show's mayhem were The Unknown Comic and Gene Gene the Dancing Machine, who was really NBC stagehand Gene Patton.
Unfortunately, Barris got himeslf and the show in hot water with the network when an act named "Have You got a Nickel" appeared on stage and two teenage girls came on and all they did was lick their popsicles. The NBC switchboard in New York was swarmed with complaints and the act was eventually censored to the rest of the nation. Also, there was an episode where Morgan flashed her breasts and she never appeared on The Gong Show again. It would be the final nail in the coffin for the show which was canceled after a two year run in 1978.
It was also in 1978, that Barris debuted a show titled 3s a Crowd that asked the question "Who knows a man best. His wife or his secretary?" Complaints from feminists groups rolled in and the show ended its run after 21 weeks. But revivals of The Dating Game and Newlywed Game were going strong until advertisers threatened back out because of the show's racy content.
In 1980, Barris made his first movie titled The Gong Shoe Movie which turned out to be a major flop. He would decide to get out of television by ending production on his shows. Though there were only two other Barris shows that aired in syndication that were revivals of Camouflage, a game show from the early 60s and a five day a week version of Treasure Hunt, it would be the end of the Barris empire He would later sell his company and start another on in the mid 80s that brought revivals of The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game and The Gong show to syndication. BTW, the 80s incarnation of The Gong Show was hosted by former KDWB DJ True Don Bleu.
Though Barris didn't have another network game show since NBC canceled The Gong Show in 1978, his legacy lived on in shows such as Love Connection and Studs. But good news for fans of The Gong Show, ABC is bringing back the wild and crazy talent show back in prime time this summer. No host has been named but the executive producer is actor Will Arnett. The best way to wrap up this Barris tribute would be to quote his commercial lead in when he hosted The Gong Show "We'll be back with more stuff right after this message."
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