Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Zany Game Show Host And Producer Chuck Barris

Well, a couple of days ago, we lost Chuck Berry, now Chuck Barris has died.  The two have little to do with one another but their names were similar.
  Barris, created The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game, but is most famous for hosting The Gong Show.  The Gong Show featured amateur performers, who would attempt to get through their act in front of celebrity judges before their were "gonged",  The judges would hit an Asian type cymbal with a huge mallet when they could no longer stand the act. Usually, the bad acts were more entertaining than the good ones.  If all three would gong at the same time, Barris would say they were "gang gonged!   Barris differed from other game show hosts in that he always seemed to speak off the cuff.  He seemed more high energy and did not have the measured speaking style of other game show hosts of that era.
The 87 year old Barris is reported to have died of natural causes.

1 comment:

Ginger Dawn...A Spice Below The Horizon said...

I used to watch him on the Gong show.