Author Topic: Gong Show Question (Read 3437 times)

That Don Guy · « **on:** February 14, 2009, 12:00:52 AM »

I know there was only one of the originally planned as regular "Tournaments of Champions" on The Gong Show, which they called "Hi-Lo Week" because they included both their best acts and some of the gonged ones. However, I never heard (a) how it worked (was there one overall winner, or one per day), (b) who actually won the whole thing, and © just what did they get as a prize. Anybody remember?

(I do remember a couple of guys who portrayed a two-headed, one-bodied singing/harmonica duet, and that they appeared on Martin Mull/Fred Willard's Fernwood 2-Nite in the summer of 1977; was it them?)

-- Don

Robair · « **Reply #1 on:** February 14, 2009, 09:10:23 AM »

The individual daily winners received another $516.32 and a paid appearance at Rodney Dangerfield's nightclub.

I believe The Bait Brothers were one of the grand champs for that week, and yes, they had some renown as one of the series' most memorable oddball acts.

davemackey · « **Reply #2 on:** February 17, 2009, 06:43:04 AM »

[quote name=\'Robair\' post=\'208153\' date=\'Feb 14 2009, 09:10 AM\']
The individual daily winners received another $516.32 and a paid appearance at Rodney Dangerfield's nightclub.

I believe The Bait Brothers were one of the grand champs for that week, and yes, they had some renown as one of the series' most memorable oddball acts.
[/quote]
They appeared in the Gong Show Movie and I believe they even did The True Don Bleu's version of the show in '88. Call me crazy but I LIKED Don Bleu's Gong Show!

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #3 on:** February 17, 2009, 07:00:34 PM »

Quote

Call me crazy but I LIKED Don Bleu's Gong Show!

What I didn't like about it was the "celebrities" they used. On the episode most of us have from the trade curcuit, the celebrities were Argus Hamilton, Molly Cheek and Raymond Azteca. To this date I don't know who any of them are. I don't think they bookings got any better for the rest of the run either. At least in the '70s version of the show I knew who most of the celebrity judges were - they weren't "E-list" unknowns!

Dbacksfan12 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 17, 2009, 07:14:46 PM »

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'208368\' date=\'Feb 17 2009, 07:00 PM\']
On the episode most of us have from the trade curcuit, the celebrities were Argus Hamilton, Molly Cheek and Raymond Azteca. To this date I don't know who any of them are. [/quote]A quick search revealed that Molly Cheek was on Garry Shandling's show on Showtime (she was also in American Pie) and that Argus Hamilton is a comedian who made a couple of appearances on Laugh-In. I was unable to find who Mr. Azteca was, however.

SRIV94 · « **Reply #5 on:** February 17, 2009, 07:42:02 PM »

[quote name=\'Modor\' post=\'208369\' date=\'Feb 17 2009, 06:14 PM\']
I was unable to find who Mr. Azteca was, however.
[/quote]
Doing some quick Googling, Ramone Azteca was a character played by John Paragon. Paragon was a member of the Groundlings, whose membership included at one time or another Paul Reubens, Edie McClurg, Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, Adam Carolla, John Cervenka (slight ObGS references with him--Cervenka announced LOVE CONNECTION and played Burt Luddin), Cassandra Peterson ("Elvira"), Conan O'Brien, Will Ferrell and many, many more (much of the current cast of SNL as well).