Chuck Barris
You could call him the godfather of reality TV. The inimitable Chuck Barris ruled the TV airwaves in the 70’s with his outrageous, and outrageously successful, “Gong Show.”
He says, “It was a great time, it was four years of fun."
The still charming Chuck, now 72, sat down only with "Extra" to talk about the ups and downs of his colorful life. There's a renewed interest in Barris' mostly bizarre life since George Clooney decided his controversial book “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind' would make a great movie. “Galaxy Quest's” Sam Rockwell will play Barris.
Some big names today, like David Letterman, got their humble start on Chuck's shows.
But reminiscing with Chuck over other classic clips, you find out it wasn't all fun and games for him at the time. He says, “I never really looked at this show when I was performing it because it was, at the time, embarrassing for me."
While Chuck had enjoyed tremendous behind-the-scenes success with shows he created - "The Dating Game" and "The Newlywed Game" among them - it was the “Gong Show” that put him in the spotlight, though not always in a positive light.
Chuck pushed the envelope with risqué acts, like two young girls being sexually suggestive with Popsicles. And critics had a field day, calling the show “objectionable” and calling Chuck, "The Ayatollah of Trasherola." He says, “It just ruined me. I'm just not able to take that kind of criticism."
After four years on the “Gong Show,” Chuck sold his production company for a reported $100 million and exiled himself to France. But the ever-unpredictable Barris would be back for another act. In 1984, he wrote an autobiography where he wrote that behind the scenes he was also a CIA assassin. It was a claim he clarified with Connie Chung at the time. He said, “I once applied for the CIA and while I was going through the process I went off to do TV. But I often wondered what would have happened had I done both."
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