The Gong Show


The Gong Show is an American amateur talent contest created by Chuck Barris in 1976 and franchised by Sony Pictures Television to many countries. Each performer was evaluated by a panel of three celebrity judges who could strike a gong to end a performance they disliked. A small cash prize has typically been awarded to each episode's winner. The Gong Show is known for its absurdist humor, and often features amateurish, racy or questionable performers interspersed with more legitimate acts. The actual competition was typically secondary to the outlandish acts, and the series is also known for its free-form style which featured various interruptions, digressions and running jokes.
The Gong Show was broadcast on NBC's daytime schedule from June 14, 1976, through July 21, 1978, and in first-run syndication from 1976 to 1980 and 1988 to 1989, briefly revived in 2008 hosted by Dave Attell, and was revived in 2017 for broadcast on ABC. The show was created and originally produced by Barris, who also served as host for the NBC run and from 1977 to 1980 in syndication. Its most recent version was executive-produced by Will Arnett and hosted by Tommy Maitland, a fictional character performed by Mike Myers.

Format

Each show presented a competition of amateur performers of often dubious talent, with a panel of three celebrity judges. If any judge considered an act to be particularly bad, they could force it to stop by striking a large gong, a trope adapted from the durable radio show Major Bowes Amateur Hour of the 1930s and 1940s. The host would then ask the judges in question why they had gonged the act, usually receiving a facetious response. Judges had to let each act run for a set minimum length of time before they could gong it, and any act that ended before reaching this length would be automatically disqualified.
Any act that survived without being gonged was given a score by each of the three judges on a scale of 0 to 10, for a maximum possible score of 30. On the NBC series, the contestant who achieved the highest combined score won the grand prize: a check for $516.32 and a "Golden Gong" trophy. In the show's opening monologue, Barris would describe the amount as "five hundred and sixteen big ones, and thirty-two little ones". The syndicated series' top prize was originally $712.05 and later decreased to $716.32. In the event of a tie, three different tiebreakers were used at various times during the show's run. Originally the studio audience determined the winner by applause, but this was later changed to a decision by the producers, and later by the celebrity judges. On a few, rare occasions, both winning acts each received a check and a trophy. No prize was awarded if all of the acts on a particular episode were gonged, which occurred at least twice. Runners-up received various prizes; Maureen Orth, on her February 24, 1977, appearance, reported receiving a clothes iron valued at $33.95 for her second-place finish.
The original program's regular judges included Jamie Farr, Jaye P. Morgan, Arte Johnson, Patty Andrews, Steve Garvey, Anson Williams, Rex Reed, Pat McCormick, Rip Taylor, Phyllis Diller, Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall. Throughout the program's run, several other celebrities occasionally appeared as judges including David Letterman, Steve Martin, Mort Sahl, Pat Paulsen, Chuck Woolery, Allen Ludden, David Sheiner, Carl Ballantine, Louis Nye, Wayland Flowers, Dick Shawn, Pat Harrington Jr., Abbe Lane, Gary Mule Deer, Ruth Buzzi, Joanne Worley, Michele Lee, Peter Lawford, Clifton Davis, Ken Berry, Soupy Sales, Henny Youngman, Sarah Vaughn, Pearl Bailey, Della Reese, Paul Williams, Sandy Duncan, Eva Gabor, Rue McClanahan, Candy Clark, Avery Schreiber, Ronnie Schell, Ed Bernard, Pamela Mason, Charlotte Rae, Milt Kamen, Fred Travalena, Johnny Paycheck, Mabel King, Liz Torres and Willie Bobo.
When Barris announced the final score, actor Jerry Maren ran onstage in top hat and tails, throwing confetti while balloons dropped from overhead.
The daily Gong Show also gave out a "Worst Act of the Week" award, selected by the producers and each week's judges. The winner of this award was announced following the trophy presentation on the Friday show, and the performer received a dirty tube sock and a check for $516.32.

Legitimate talent

Several legitimate performers received early exposure via The Gong Show. Twelve-year-old Andrea McArdle appeared on an early episode in 1976, shortly before she won the leading role in the hit Broadway musical Annie. Following Cheryl Lynn's Gong Show appearance in 1976, she received a recording contract with Columbia Records and recorded the Top 40 disco hit "Got To Be Real", released in 1978. Actress-singer Mare Winningham sang the Beatles song "Here, There, and Everywhere" on the program in 1976, which led to her being signed to an acting contract.
Among the other legitimate talents that appeared on the show were country singer Boxcar Willie; actor Kevin Peter Hall who later appeared as the original Predator in the 1987 film and as Harry in Harry and the Hendersons; comics and actors Paul Reubens and John Paragon ; actor Eddie Deezen; Joey D'Auria ; impressionist/comic Michael Winslow; novelty rock band Green Jellÿ; and an unknown band called The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo which evolved into Oingo Boingo, led by Danny Elfman who later found fame as a composer of film music.
In 1979, street gang leader Stanley Tookie Williams appeared on the show as a bodybuilder shortly before his arrest and subsequent conviction for murder. Dancer Danny Lockin, who had played Barnaby in the film Hello Dolly!, was murdered hours after winning the show taped August 21, 1977. Performer Rhonda Shear appeared on the program in 1979. Journalist Maureen Orth, then writing for Newsweek, won second-place on a 1977 show, appearing as "The World's Oldest Cheerleader."
Longtime urban legend, and some news sources, claimed that football player and coach Brian Billick made an appearance performing a routine known as the "spider monkey", but Billick has confirmed this is untrue.

Personnel

Barris as emcee

An established game show producer, Barris was originally creator and co-producer of The Gong Show and had no intention of hosting the show himself. Barris was a last minute replacement for original host John Barbour, who left the show after objecting to its satirical concept and pressing for more of a legitimate amateur-hour format.
Barbour would eventually serve as producer and co-host of the hit NBC Reality TV series, Real People.
Barris initially appeared somewhat nervous and uncomfortable as host, but before long he was working so loosely on camera that many viewers assumed that he was under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. In a videotaped interview with the Archive of American Television, Barris recounted that he was never intoxicated on camera and forbade the use of drugs by anyone in his production company.
Co-Producer Chris Bearde, formerly of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, soon clashed with Barris over the program's content, favoring more scripted comedy over chaotic nonsense. After a heated argument between Barris and Bearde over the future direction of the show turned violent with the throwing of chairs and other objects and finally came to blows, Bearde resigned, leaving Barris fully in charge of The Gong Show.

Musical direction

was a popular musician and bandleader during the 1940s and 1950s. He got the Gong Show job by default; as the longtime music director of NBC, he was responsible for any network project that required special music. Although DeLugg had previously arranged the theme for The Newlywed Game, Barris initially regarded him as "an anachronism"; however, Barris was soon pleased to discover that DeLugg's sense of humor was very much kindred to the facetious tone of the show and he appeared alongside Barris in recurring comedy skits as various characters including bad-joke perveyor, "Naso Literatus" and the aged philosopher, "Old Drool".
Veteran composer Joey Carbone provided musical arrangements for the late 1980s revival with his own lineup of studio musicians, known as "The Gong Show Guys".

Announcers

, who had worked for years as announcer for other Barris game shows, served as the main announcer on the Gong Show from 1976 to 1980. When Jacobs was sidelined with an extended illness, Jack Clark substituted from October 3 through December 23, 1977. Charlie O'Donnell served as announcer for the late 1980s revival.

Hostesses and regulars

Gong Show hostesses included Siv Åberg, actresses Marlena Clark and Markie Post, porn star Carol Connors and Barris' teenage daughter, Della. Some episodes would also have a special guest introduce Barris, ranging from celebrities such as Dick Van Dyke, Carol Burnett and Kate Jackson to show staffers and their relatives, including Jerry Maren's wife Elizabeth and Barris' own grandmother.
The Gong Show featured several regular performers, the most popular being Gene Gene the Dancing Machine, an NBC stagehand who impressed Barris with his energetic dancing and The Unknown Comic, the alter ego of comedian Murray Langston who told intentionally bad jokes while dressed in frowsy attire and wearing a brown paper bag with cutout eyes and mouth, over his head.

Broadcast history

NBC

NBC first broadcast the show at 12:30 p.m.. This was the network's least important time slot, as programs running at that time had to share the half-hour with a five-minute NBC newscast anchored by Edwin Newman. As a result, the first six-plus months of The Gong Show featured approximately twenty minutes of program content in a twenty-five-minute episode.
Many NBC affiliates in some larger markets opted not to run network programming during the noon hour at all, preferring to broadcast local news and talk shows instead. Thus The Gong Show made its debut mainly on medium-market and smaller stations or on large-market rival stations that had picked up the program from the NBC affiliate that had rejected it. For example, in Boston, then-NBC affiliate WBZ-TV did not run the series, allowing local UHF independent outlet WSBK-TV to broadcast it.
The Gong Show's time slot was given to a new soap opera, Lovers and Friends, on January 3, 1977, and the show replaced the cancelled Another World spinoff Somerset at 4:00 p.m. The time change allowed The Gong Show to expand to a full half-hour.
NBC broadcast a one-hour prime-time Gong Show special on April 26, 1977, featuring in-studio special guests Tony Randall, Alice Cooper and Harry James and His Orchestra. The winning act on this special was The Bait Brothers, and the panelists were Jaye P. Morgan, Jamie Farr and Arte Johnson.