Author Topic: What REALLY Happened to GONG? (Read 6898 times)

SRIV94 · « **on:** July 29, 2003, 04:52:33 PM »

OK, in no way am I going to try to compare GONG and MG, but seeing the thread about MG's last taped episode leads me to asking this about GONG:

I recall an interview done with Chuck Barris when the original CONFESSIONS book came out, saying that the decision to stop production on GONG was his to make. But there are some pieces of the puzzle that don't quite fit. The NBC run of GONG ended 7/21/78 (with three weeks of new shows following three weeks of reruns). But I've heard rumblings that production on GONG from beautiful downtown Burbank (I know--not technically correct but I can't shake the LAUGH-IN reference) continued for the 1978-79 nighttime version (and that some of those episodes taped well beyond the date of NBC's cancellation). Perhaps those rumblings are incorrect--I don't know for sure as none of the last two syndie seasons of GONG aired in Chicago in first-run (although a few cropped up in the rerun packages). And Chuckie did keep GONG going in 1979-80, after shifting production away from 3000 W. Alameda.

So what's the true story? Were the ratings that bad that NBC didn't want to keep the show going? Or was Barris, who claimed in later interviews he was having a mid-life crisis on national TV, really anxious to curb production (in spite of doing two more syndie years--albeit many fewer episodes than had it continued on NBC daytime), against NBC's wishes (or maybe with NBC's blessing)? Or was it something between Barris and network--the \"Popsicle Twins\" and \"Jaye flashes\" episodes could conceivably have caused a rift (although it's hard to fathom ABC or CBS not having some scintilla of interest if NBC wanted to abandon ship--unless the ratings were indeed that bad)? Or am I overlooking something--besides the fact that GONG isn't a game show in the strictest sense (which is another argument for another time) ;-) ?

Anyone with any thoughts--please feel free to share. Thanks!

Doug

PeterMarshallFan · « **Reply #1 on:** July 29, 2003, 05:15:37 PM »

I think it was the Popsicle Twins-Jaye P. Flashing one-two punch that did it. And IMO, I think NBC was embarrassed by the show slightly. That may be why ABC and CBS never picked it up.

rugrats1 · « **Reply #2 on:** July 29, 2003, 06:41:51 PM »

Though of course, ABC was in cahoots with the syndicated version -- as I recall, during the contestant search plug that they did at the end of the commercial break on the syndied shows, the announcer said something like \"employees of ABC and their families are not eligible\", to that effect. (Shows seen on NBC had a similar disclaimer, but with obvious differences.)

Robair · « **Reply #3 on:** July 29, 2003, 10:26:14 PM »

[quote name=\'rugrats1\' date=\'Jul 29 2003, 05:41 PM\'] Though of course, ABC was in cahoots with the syndicated version -- as I recall, during the contestant search plug that they did at the end of the commercial break on the syndied shows, the announcer said something like "employees of ABC and their families are not eligible", to that effect. (Shows seen on NBC had a similar disclaimer, but with obvious differences.) [/quote]
All that really means is that ABC was the \"network of record\" for the syndicated Gong, and it was their Standards and Practices department that oversaw the show and made sure it was aboveboard.

The syndicated Gong was one of a bunch of shows Chuck voluntarily shut down in 1980, remember, which included \"The Newlywed Game\", \"The Dating Game\", \"Treasure Hunt\" and \"3s a Crowd\". The following year Barris packaged a non-game hosted by Stephanie Edwards, \"Leave It to the Women\" (remember that one, gang?), but at that point Chuck was so burnt by \"Gong\" he needed a breather. When game shows started to pick up again in the mid 80's he was back with \"Newlywed\", \"Dating\" and \"Gong\".

PeterMarshallFan · « **Reply #4 on:** July 29, 2003, 10:27:22 PM »

[quote name=\'Robair\' date=\'Jul 29 2003, 09:26 PM\'] [quote name=\'rugrats1\' date=\'Jul 29 2003, 05:41 PM\'] Though of course, ABC was in cahoots with the syndicated version -- as I recall, during the contestant search plug that they did at the end of the commercial break on the syndied shows, the announcer said something like "employees of ABC and their families are not eligible", to that effect. (Shows seen on NBC had a similar disclaimer, but with obvious differences.) [/quote]
All that really means is that ABC was the "network of record" for the syndicated Gong, and it was their Standards and Practices department that oversaw the show and made sure it was aboveboard.

The syndicated Gong was one of a bunch of shows Chuck voluntarily shut down in 1980, remember, which included "The Newlywed Game", "The Dating Game", "Treasure Hunt" and "3s a Crowd". The following year Barris packaged a non-game hosted by Stephanie Edwards, "Leave It to the Women" (remember that one, gang?), but at that point Chuck was so burnt by "Gong" he needed a breather. When game shows started to pick up again in the mid 80's he was back with "Newlywed", "Dating" and "Gong". [/quote]
I thought Chris Bearde solo-produced Gong in '88--hadn't Chuck fled to France by then?

zachhoran · « **Reply #5 on:** July 29, 2003, 10:44:33 PM »

[quote name=\'Robair\' date=\'Jul 29 2003, 09:26 PM\']
The syndicated Gong was one of a bunch of shows Chuck voluntarily shut down in 1980, remember, which included "The Newlywed Game", "The Dating Game", "Treasure Hunt" and "3s a Crowd".

[/quote]
TH wasn't in production in 1980. Camouflage was, however, at the time of the shutdown, and 3s a Crowd stopped production a couple months before. Barris' company was back a year later with two failures: the talk show Leave it to the WOmen and a daily syndie version of Treasure Hunt.

SRIV94 · « **Reply #6 on:** July 29, 2003, 10:55:11 PM »

[quote name=\'PeterMarshallFan\' date=\'Jul 29 2003, 09:27 PM\']I thought Chris Bearde solo-produced Gong in '88--hadn't Chuck fled to France by then?[/quote]
Bearde did have the title of executive producer of GONG88, but Jeff Wald (Helen Reddy's ex?) and Scott Sternberg (who produced some but not all of the DATING and NEWLYWED revivals for Barris Industries) had co-executive producer credits. And it was copyrighted under \"Barris Industries\".

Doug

davemackey · « **Reply #7 on:** July 31, 2003, 05:16:16 PM »

[quote name=\'Robair\' date=\'Jul 29 2003, 09:26 PM\'] All that really means is that ABC was the "network of record" for the syndicated Gong, and it was their Standards and Practices department that oversaw the show and made sure it was aboveboard.
[/quote]
The ABC relationship ran deeper. The ABC O&O's were the first major station group that bought the syndicated \"Gong\" (and the test show was taped at ABC's San Francisco station, KGO). The ABC-Gong relationship lasted for the first three years of the four-year syndication run; in the fall of 1979 the CBS O&O's had a crack at the show (production also moved off the NBC lot to (I believe) Hollywood Center Studios), but by then any network mention was stripped out of the contestant plugs.

Ian Wallis · « **Reply #8 on:** August 01, 2003, 09:47:16 AM »

By the late '70s, many cities were running \"Gong Show\" 5 days a week. When the syndie run started in 1976 it ran 1 day a week, and the NBC version was 5. After the show was dropped from NBC in 1978, did the syndie \"Gong\" move to a 5-show-a-week run, or were those stations just airing reruns of earlier shows for 4 days?

I haven't been able to figure this out by looking at the celebrity listings in my old TVGuides.

SRIV94 · « **Reply #9 on:** August 01, 2003, 10:40:24 AM »

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Aug 1 2003, 08:47 AM\'] By the late '70s, many cities were running "Gong Show" 5 days a week. When the syndie run started in 1976 it ran 1 day a week, and the NBC version was 5. After the show was dropped from NBC in 1978, did the syndie "Gong" move to a 5-show-a-week run, or were those stations just airing reruns of earlier shows for 4 days?

I haven't been able to figure this out by looking at the celebrity listings in my old TVGuides. [/quote]
Beginning in the fall of 1978, reruns of GONG were offered as a daily strip. Most references to NBC were taken out (like the Johnny Jacobs announcement to audition: \"employees of [NBC, ] the production company and members of their families are not eligible\", and new fee plugs were inserted [and the reference to NBC in the \"furnished prizes and/or paid a fee\" spiel was replaced by \"the production company\"]). These same reruns wound up running for three years on USA, starting in 1984. The 25-minute shows from 1976 were padded with clip compilations called \"Best of THE GONG SHOW.\" While the reruns were showing, GONG continued once a week (in 1978-79) or twice-a-week (in 1979-80) first-run production--these aired in most markets in the 7PM/7:30 slots (sadly, for me, Chicago wasn't one of them--although we did get the daily rerun strip).

There were other moments that were bleeped--the show from the final week where nobody won bleeped out references to \"final week\" (ironically, that Firestone edit ended up in GSN's GONG package)--this was because the strip reruns were designed to run in any order.

Doug

Jimmy Owen · « **Reply #10 on:** August 01, 2003, 10:44:42 AM »

Those were two packages, the strip was composed entirely of reruns of the daytime show. There were markets, Detroit and NYC come to mind, where one station aired the first run prime access show and another showed the reruns (either before 6pm or after 11pm.) EDIT: Doug wrote his whole post while I was thinking of what to say!