RIP Chuck Barris

[Nvr2Thick]

Chuck Barris passed away on Tuesday. I always thought Barris was an interesting character. He made his fortune behind the scenes at various game shows, and developed his fame as the unlikely host of The Gong Show. While he didn't create The Gong Show it was largely driven by his personality. I watched a few reruns yesterday, amazed at the show's odd merging of vaudeville and '70s excess.

 

 

Chuck Barris, Producer and Personality of ‘Gong Show’ Fame, Dies at 87

By NEIL GENZLINGER MARCH 22, 2017

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/22/arts/chuck-barris-dead-gong-show-creator.html

[rvwnsd]

He said it first, but I'll say it here first: he finally got gonged.

[bostonman]

I remember the The Gong Show as a kid - it was like the proverbial car wreck on the highway that you couldn't not watch, lol. Sometimes truly funny, sometimes truly schlocky, sometimes truly "WTF," and Barris was the obnoxiously relentlessly hyperactive host that somehow you ironically still couldn't get enough of. The Times obit is very right, IMO, in linking the show to the reality shows of our day. Except that in a lot of ways, I think The Gong Show was better.

 

Very much a genius in his own way, I think.

 

I wonder what he thought of our current faux-president?

[+ purplekow]

Wasn't Chuck Barris some sort of agent for the US or is my mind slipping again?

 

It seems upon further review that he claimed to be an assassin for the CIA.

 

He also wrote this ditty:

 

[Larstrup]

This will always remain one of the best moments ever on TV.

 

[Good Grief]

I thought he was sorta not really bad looking....

 

http://jaydeanhcr.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/ywcmf4rmxk020kr.jpg

[Nvr2Thick]

I thought he was sorta not really bad looking....

 

http://jaydeanhcr.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/ywcmf4rmxk020kr.jpg

 

As a young teen in the '70s I was obsessed with swarthy, hairy-chested men. One of the thrills of watching The Gong Show for me was the tease of Barris's open shirt as well as his perpetual smile and boundless, probably cocaine-fueled energy. I've always been attracted to masculine men who were not classically handsome. Chuck Barris's masculine Semitic looks were no exception.

[Larstrup]

I thought he was sorta not really bad looking....

 

http://jaydeanhcr.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/ywcmf4rmxk020kr.jpg

He had a great ass. He reminds me of Harvey Levin from TMZ.

[Larstrup]

As a young teen in the '70s I was obsessed with swarthy, hairy-chested men. One of the thrills of watching The Gong Show for me was the tease of Barris's open shirt as well as his perpetual smile and boundless, probably cocaine-fueled energy. I've always been attracted to masculine men who were not classically handsome. Chuck Barris's masculine Semitic looks were no exception.

 

There's no doubt that cocaine has brought us some of the most wonderful moments in our entertainment and possibly personal histories which in turn has resulted later in some of our most tragic breaking news stories of demise and death.

 

Life remains a confusion of indulgences. We all benefit and suffer from it so enjoy it while it lasts.

[+ WilliamM]

As a young teen in the '70s I was obsessed with swarthy, hairy-chested men. One of the thrills of watching The Gong Show for me was the tease of Barris's open shirt as well as his perpetual smile and boundless, probably cocaine-fueled energy. I've always been attracted to masculine men who were not classically handsome. Chuck Barris's masculine Semitic looks were no exception

 

In the 1970s, I worked with a woman who was often in the same class with Chuck Barris in grades 1-12. She liked him a lot, but was never a close friend. I believe they attended school in a relatively up-scale suburb of Philadelphia, perhaps Lower Merion.

[Larstrup]

[Larstrup]

Lest we forget...

 

[Larstrup]

Pee Wee Herman. A gift born.

 

[Zman]

Ah the Gong Show. As a child of the 70s it brings back some fond memories. I didn't really like the GS all that much. It was just something to watch until better games shows like Match Game came on. But I certainly never forgot the show.

 

Barris appeared on Letterman I think when the movie of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind came out. I couldn't find the clip though. It was a weird interview since he'd basically been retired from show business for years and years. I think he had some contractual obligation to promote the film even though it took like 20 years to get made or something after the book came out.

[Larstrup]