Chuck Barris Marathon tonight:)

[game show guy]

Can't wait for it! I'm most excited to see the gong show, and dating game.

All talk about the marathon goes here

[mbc793]

I thought the marathon was cool, I missed the first Gong Show..drat. It was nice to see the Dating Game back from the 60's with Steve Martin and John Ritter, I thought it was funny.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'mbc793\' post=\'140074\' date=\'Dec 9 2006, 10:19 PM\']
I thought it was funny.
[/quote]
<Chuck Barris>Then again, I like the Pythagorus Theorem.<end/CB>

At least GSN threw me a bone and gave me a GONG episode I didn't previously have on tape (the 4/77 ep with Arte, Jaye and Anson).  Didn't really watch DATING or NEWLYWED.

[cweaver]

Arrrggghhhh!!!  I missed it and didn't set the recorder!  I really wanted those Dating Game eps with Ritter and Martin.

[BrandonFG]

From what I saw on Gong, this was a really enjoyable show that didn't take itself seriously at all, and that was the fun of it all. I think with the right host, this honestly could work nowadays. Chuckie Baby made the show work, but someone with the right level of zaniness and self-deprication could put out a competent revival. I know the show was proposed a couple of years ago, and should be put out there again, but try not to fall into the American Idol/America's Got Talent mold. The Gong Show, if anything, parodies those concepts, and the revival should stick to doing just that.

/And definitely no Extreme Gong.

[cweaver]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' post=\'140097\' date=\'Dec 10 2006, 12:11 PM\']
 but try not to fall into the American Idol/America's Got Talent mold. The Gong Show, if anything, parodies those concepts, and the revival should stick to doing just that.[/quote]

With those two shows being over-the-top "serious" event shows, I would think a Gong Show-type parody would work even better now.  Can you imagine that serious, melodramatic lighting...then someone comes out and whistles through their bellybutton or something?

[MrBuddwing]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' post=\'140097\' date=\'Dec 10 2006, 11:11 AM\']
From what I saw on Gong, this was a really enjoyable show that didn't take itself seriously at all, and that was the fun of it all. I think with the right host, this honestly could work nowadays. Chuckie Baby made the show work, but someone with the right level of zaniness and self-deprication could put out a competent revival.
[/quote]

As I'm sure we all recall, Gary Owens of "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" fame hosted a nighttime syndicated version of "The Gong Show" at the same time the daytime version was running until Chuck Barris decided to host both shows himself. I thought Owens was a nice, mellifluous contrast to Barris. Now, I suppose a Gong Show hosted by Owens only, with no Barris in sight, would not have worked as well - in other words, Owens worked because he was, for a time, an ongoing alternative to Barris - but I think he showed it could be done.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'MrBuddwing\' post=\'140113\' date=\'Dec 10 2006, 12:03 PM\']
As I'm sure we all recall, Gary Owens of "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" fame hosted a nighttime syndicated version of "The Gong Show" at the same time the daytime version was running until Chuck Barris decided to host both shows himself. I thought Owens was a nice, mellifluous contrast to Barris. Now, I suppose a Gong Show hosted by Owens only, with no Barris in sight, would not have worked as well - in other words, Owens worked because he was, for a time, an ongoing alternative to Barris - but I think he showed it could be done.
[/quote]
I've only seen one Owens ep, but he was certainly more competent than John Barbour.

Then again, a trained seal was more competent than Barbour.

[davemackey]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' post=\'140128\' date=\'Dec 10 2006, 02:51 PM\']
I've only seen one Owens ep, but he was certainly more competent than John Barbour.

Then again, a trained seal was more competent than Barbour.
[/quote]
I watched the Gary Owens "Gong Show" weekly 30 years ago. While Owens is truly one of our national treasures as a disc jockey and voiceover man (and a truly humorous chap), I think he would have been totally lost in the sort of show that the "Gong Show" eventually became, but was just right for what it was at the start. Owens "got it" while Barbour clearly did not.

That "300!" show has aired many times in the past (it was in the syndication package as well), and that one was from sometime in the late summer/early fall of 1977. Doug, you've probably pinned it down a little more exact.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'davemackey\' post=\'140153\' date=\'Dec 10 2006, 06:59 PM\']
That "300!" show has aired many times in the past (it was in the syndication package as well), and that one was from sometime in the late summer/early fall of 1977. Doug, you've probably pinned it down a little more exact.
[/quote]
Indeed I have, Dave.  8/5/77, to be exact.  And the tape GSN aired was the syndication cut (the other ep, whose exact airdate I haven't been able to pin down but aired originally in mid-April 1977, was taken from the NBC master).

Back in the old Usenet days, I used the moral from that 8/77 ep's fable as my sig ("If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, et al").

Good stuff.  

[davemackey]

[quote name=\'SRIV94\' post=\'140176\' date=\'Dec 10 2006, 11:01 PM\']
[quote name=\'davemackey\' post=\'140153\' date=\'Dec 10 2006, 06:59 PM\']
That "300!" show has aired many times in the past (it was in the syndication package as well), and that one was from sometime in the late summer/early fall of 1977. Doug, you've probably pinned it down a little more exact.
[/quote]
Indeed I have, Dave.  8/5/77, to be exact.  And the tape GSN aired was the syndication cut (the other ep, whose exact airdate I haven't been able to pin down but aired originally in mid-April 1977, was taken from the NBC master).

Back in the old Usenet days, I used the moral from that 8/77 ep's fable as my sig ("If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, et al").

Good stuff.  
[/quote]
And that was one of the key moments from the movie, with the camera freeze-framing on Barris' face as he was yelling "KREPLACH!!!!"

What y'all think of the docu? I don't think any or the revelations were earth-sharttering, and Barris playing coy as usual about his alleged CIA involvement was pretty much a given. One hour was not enough to do the entire Barris oeuvre to a proper turn - where were "Treasure Hunt" and "3's a Crowd"? But there were some good interviews but what left me cold was Jim Lange's insistence on acting only as narrator and not participant in the interviews... didn't he have anything important to say?

Also, I doubt the Popsicle Twins was the final nail in Gong's coffin, as the show in question aired in August of 1977 and the show chugged along on network for almost another year. If anything, it was the March 17, 1978 show where Jaye P. Morgan took her top off, that got it off NBC.

[PYLW]

I also felt that it was way too short. They didn't even mention his other shows such as "Treasure Hunt", "3's a Crowd", "Camoflauge" (Well, maybe for the better...), or his failed pilots. I thought it was a lot better than the Match Game one, though.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'davemackey\' post=\'140222\' date=\'Dec 11 2006, 03:12 PM\']
[quote name=\'SRIV94\' post=\'140176\' date=\'Dec 10 2006, 11:01 PM\']
Back in the old Usenet days, I used the moral from that 8/77 ep's fable as my sig ("If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, et al").

Good stuff.  
[/quote]
And that was one of the key moments from the movie, with the camera freeze-framing on Barris' face as he was yelling "KREPLACH!!!!"

Also, I doubt the Popsicle Twins was the final nail in Gong's coffin, as the show in question aired in August of 1977 and the show chugged along on network for almost another year. If anything, it was the March 17, 1978 show where Jaye P. Morgan took her top off, that got it off NBC.
[/quote]

Your dates are slightly off (unless you're talking tape dates rather than airdates)--the Popsicle Twins aired (or in some time zones, didn't air) in September 1977, and Jaye's flashing incident was the 5/12/78 ep (she actually did do the next week's shows before being "banned" from the rest of the daytime run, as they were most likely taped the day after).

I wonder if subconsciously Barris didn't exactly mind NBC's cancellation of GONG, even though he wound doing a couple of nighttime syndie seasons afterwards.  I'd guess the 1978-79 syndie season was being produced concurrently with the last of the NBC daytime eps, and they wrapped up that season shortly after taping the last daytime ep--then demand was strong enough that he kowtowed to doing one more season even though he was still going through his "midlife crisis on national television".

[Jimmy Owen]

The show was popular enough that a good number of stations stripped the reruns for a couple of years following the NBC run.  I got to see it twice a day, (from Flint and via cable from Detroit) so it was like it never left.

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'140494\' date=\'Dec 14 2006, 02:31 AM\']
The show was popular enough that a good number of stations stripped the reruns for a couple of years following the NBC run.  I got to see it twice a day, (from Flint and via cable from Detroit) so it was like it never left.
[/quote]
Sure, I remember those.  USA wound up airing those same rerun packages as well.