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He Created ‘The Dating Game,’ ‘The Newlywed Game’ and…‘The Gong Show’: Chuck Barris Dies at 87

Mar 22, 2017  •  Post A Comment

“Chuck Barris, the goofball host of ‘The Gong Show’ who also was the manic mastermind behind two other spontaneous game-show classics, ‘The Dating Game’ and ‘The Newlywed Game,’ has died,” reports The Hollywood Reporter, adding, “He was 87.”

The story notes that Barris “died Tuesday of natural causes at his home in Palisades, N.Y., his family announced through publicist Paul Shefrin.”

The obituary continues, “The Philadelphia native also penned the 1962 pop song ‘Palisades Park’ a tribute to the old amusement park in New Jersey that was a hit for Freddy Cannon and figured high on Barris’ list of career achievements.”

Writes The New York Times, “in 1965 [Barris] came up with a hit [TV show]: ‘The Dating Game,’ in which a bachelorette or bachelor would choose a date from among three unseen members of the opposite sex after asking them questions. He followed that the next year with ‘The Newlywed Game,’ another question-and-answer show that put just-married couples’ compatibility to the test.”

The Hollywood Reporter story, in talking about Barris’ “The Newlywed Game,” says that “In the show’s most precious moment, [host Bob] Eubanks asked one wife,”Where specifically is the weirdest place that you personally have ever gotten the urge to make whoopee?”

“‘In the ass?’ she answered. Her husband then turned over a card that revealed his response: ‘In the car.’”

Notes the Times, “Mr. Barris’s next game shows were less successful, but just as it seemed he was losing his touch, he came up with the concept that would catapult him to a new level of fame: ‘The Gong Show,’ which had its premiere on NBC in June 1976. The show featured a series of performers, most of them amateurs, and a panel of three celebrity judges. Mr. Barris himself was the brash, irritating host.”

To read more about Barris, please click here, which links to The Hollywood Reporter story, or here, which links to The New York Times obituary.

Here’s a short video we found on YouTube from 2007, wherein Barris talks about himself:

4 Comments

  1. A visionary well ahead of his time! RIP Chuck. You will be missed. FYI-Everyone should read his book The Big Question.

  2. Most of today’s reality shows find their basis in his programs.

  3. A great guy…I remember Tommy Tedesco (excellent session guitar player ) appearing on the show to play guitar–wearing a tu-tu. Hilarious.

    Mr. Barris will be missed.

  4. A great talent – nobody mentions he was the writer of the 1962 hit by Freddy Cannon, Palisades Park

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