The Gong Show

People may not realize it, but you really DID have to audition to get on the show. No Talet Bums would be lined up around the block waiting for their chance to try to get on the show. An episode of Sanford and Son and Carol Burnett were framed around getting on the Gong Show. How can you not pee your pants laughing when every singe act sang "Feelings". The $516.32 was the union scale and everyone got it, regardless if they got gonged or not, and yes they still get residuals to this day! Gene Gene the Dancing Machine (Gene Patton) was a stage hand who was sent out one day to dance and it took off. The house band, Miton DeLugg and his Band with a Thug were real people. And of course, Chuck seemed the most surprised when a bad act got gonged while being booed by the audience, "I can't believe they did that, you were doing so good" was classy in a classless show. Its too bad they couldn't keep their drug use under control, it really could have gone on a lot longer than it did!

I was in my single digits when "The Gong Show" was on the air. I remember watching this one and enjoying it. Even though I didn't know it was rigged (Jaye P. Morgan and her fellow judges convinced me it wasn't) it was great fun. You never know who'd show up or what outrageous act would be featured. They certainly had some very "racy" stuff from other people's recountings of the program.

I still remember Jaye P. Jamie Farr, Arte Johnson, Gene-Gene The Dancing Machine, The Unknown Comic, and that midget; but even today, I still have Chuck Barris etched in my 31-year old mind as the ultimate in manhood. Chuck was my first idol; I wanted to grow up to be just as cool as he was. I still really wonder why he'd start out wearing a tuxedo and then shedding parts of it gradually; sometimes even wearing a Philadelphia Flyers jersey. Maybe he was a Diana Ross fan LOL.

I wish I could see this show again in some capacity today. Perhaps some day "The Gong Show Movie" will be released on DVD if it hasn't already. Just to show you that the 70's was a great decade for entertainment; better than the 00's will wish to be.

I used to watch this show religiously back when I was in High School. If only my family had owned a VCR way back then (did they make them in '76--I don't remember). I would have taped every single episode, and I'd still be watching them today. "Star Search"? "American Idol"? Those "reality" shows are crap! The Gong Show was the polar opposite of this kind of show--the REAL real deal, not a pre-fab parade of future showbiz hacks doing pale imitations of current showbiz hacks while former showbiz hacks pretend to "judge" them. The Gong show was an out of control coke-fueled madhouse that presented a mind-blowing array of street performers, lounge acts, amateurs, and just plain street psychos doing their things! In other words, nobodies copying nobody being judged by virtual nobodies. Format? Script? A plan, even? For Chuck Barris and his cronies, all these things were only concepts, to be used or thrown away at will. What happened, happened; the show was what it was. Never before and never since has there been such entertainment on Television! If they put the entire series on DVD, I'd save up my money and buy two copies!

What a little gem of a show this was. If my memory serves me correctly this aired in the UK on Channel 4 twice a week in the early eighties long after the series had finished in America. A bold move I must say on the part of Channel 4 at the time, considering the fact that apart from Jamie Farr (MASH), and Arte Johnson (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In) none of the other members of the show were actually, house hold names with the British public.

Taking that and the show's formula, getting anyone off the street, with absolutely no talent what so ever to do a turn, then get marked for their efforts, (if they didn't get gonged first) it's amazing it ever got shown once a week, let alone twice! Thankfully it did and what wonderful 'Acts!!!' some of them were. The guy dressed in a dinner suit complete with Bowler hat and walking cane, coming to the front of the stage, then standing in a fixed position for one completely minute without saying a word. Then there was 'Granny Go Go'. A 70+ woman wearing a mini dress dancing wildly to a boogie on down sound of the time. How about the singing trio whose lyrics to their song contained just one line 'I don't know why?' Mind blowing stuff!

They did though have some class acts appearing on the show in between the dross. Willie Bo Bo, a panelist on the Gong Show from time to time, along with his band, gave an excellent up beat rendition of the '2001- A Space Odyssey' film theme, 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' that really went down well. A girl singer going by the name of 'Stony' did a very nice version of the song 'I Got the Music in Me' and The Valentine Brothers, a brilliant close harmony duo sang 'That's the Time I Feel Like Making Love to You'.

I guess we'll not see the like's of this on TV again? Thankful though I've managed to lifted off the seven episodes I have from VHS tape onto DVD, so I'll still be able to go back from time to time and relive them all over again!

The Gong Show was one of the best game shows to ever hit television. Chuck Barris was a genius in himself with several other hit game shows, such as The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game just to mention a few. People that appeared on The Gong Show had to be a little off to come on and perform some of the wild acts they did. The Panel, with the usuals such as Jaye P. Morgan, Arte Johnson and Jamie Farr were so unique in that anything went on the show, well anything that could get by the censors that is. This show still has a great following till this day, and is still one of the best there is.