The Gong Show
The Gong Show is an American amateur talent contest franchised by Sony Pictures Television to many countries. It was broadcast on NBC's daytime schedule from June 14, 1976, through July 21, 1978, and in first-run syndication from 1976 to 1980 and 1988 to 1989, and was revived in 2017 for broadcast on ABC. The show was created and originally produced by Chuck Barris, who also served as host for the NBC run and from 1977 to 1980 in syndication. Its most recent version was executive-produced by Will Arnett and hosted by Tommy Maitland, a fictional character performed by Mike Myers (uncredited in Season 1). The Gong Show is known for its absurdist humor and style, with the actual competition secondary to the often outlandish acts presented; a small cash prize has typically been awarded to each show's winner.
For the 2008 version of the show, see The Gong Show with Dave Attell.The Gong Show
John Dorsey
Terry Kyne
Chuck Barris
John Barbour
Gary Owens (1976-1977 nighttime season)
Don Bleu
Dave Attell
Mike Myers as Tommy Maitland
United States
English
500 NBC[1]
20 Revival
Gene Banks
Diane Fell
Linda Howard
NBC Studios
Burbank, California (1976–79)
Golden West Broadcasting
Hollywood, California (1979–80)
CBS Television City
Hollywood, California (1988–89)
Sony Pictures Studios
Culver City, California (2017-18)
18 minutes (early NBC episodes)
23 minutes
42 minutes
Chuck Barris Productions (1976–80)
Chris Bearde Productions (1976–78, 1988–89)
Barris Productions (1988–89)
Barris Industries (1988–89)
Den of Thieves (2017–2018)
Sony Pictures Television (2017–2018)
NBC (1976–1978)
Syndicated (1976–77, 1977–80, 1988–89)
June 14, 1976 –
September 15, 1989
June 22, 2017 –
August 30, 2018
Broadcast history[edit]
NBC[edit]
NBC first broadcast the show at 12:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. Central). This was the network's least important time slot, as programs running at that time had to share the half-hour with a five-minute NBC newscast anchored by Edwin Newman. As a result, the first six-plus months of The Gong Show featured approximately twenty minutes of program content in a twenty-five-minute episode.
Many NBC affiliates in some larger markets opted not to run network programming during the noon hour at all, preferring to broadcast local news and talk shows instead. Thus Gong made its debut mainly on medium-market and smaller stations or on large-market rival stations that had picked up the program from the NBC affiliate that had rejected it. For example, in Boston, then-NBC affiliate WBZ-TV did not run the series, allowing local UHF independent outlet WSBK-TV to broadcast it.
Gong's time slot was given to a new soap opera, Lovers and Friends, on January 3, 1977, and the show replaced the cancelled Another World spinoff Somerset at 4:00 p.m. The time change allowed Gong to expand to a full half-hour.
NBC broadcast a one-hour prime-time Gong Show special on April 26, 1977, featuring in-studio special guests Tony Randall, Alice Cooper and Harry James and His Orchestra. The winning act on this special was The Bait Brothers, and the panelists were Jaye P. Morgan, Jamie Farr and Arte Johnson.[8]
Spinoffs[edit]
At the height of the Gong Show's popularity, NBC gave Barris a prime-time variety hour, The Chuck Barris Rah Rah Show. This was played somewhat more seriously than the Gong Show, with Jaye P. Morgan singing straight pop songs as in her nightclub and recording days, and bygone headliners like Slim Gaillard reprising their old hits for a studio audience. Other spinoffs include The $1.98 Beauty Show hosted by Rip Taylor and The Gong Show Movie.