Charles Hirsch Barris (June 3, 1929 – March 21, 2017) was an American game show creator, producer, and host. Barris was known for hosting The Gong Show and creating The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game. He was also a songwriter who wrote "Palisades Park", recorded by Freddy Cannon and also recorded by Ramones. Barris wrote an autobiography titled Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which was made into the film of the same name and directed by George Clooney.
Early life
Barris was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 3, 1929, the son of Edith (née Cohen) and Nathaniel Barris, a dentist. He was raised in Lower Merion Township and attended Lower Merion High School. His uncle was singer, songwriter and actor Harry Barris. He graduated in 1953 from Drexel University where he was a columnist for the student newspaper, The Triangle.
Career
Barris got his start in television as a page and later was part of the staff at NBC in New York City. Following his stint at NBC, Barris worked as a standards-and-practices person at the television music show American Bandstand for ABC. Barris produced pop music for records and television, and wrote "Palisades Park," which was recorded by Freddy Cannon and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks (June 23–30, 1962) to become the biggest hit of Cannon's career. Barris also wrote or co-wrote some of the music that appeared on his game shows.
Barris was promoted to the daytime programming division at ABC in Los Angeles and was responsible for determining which game shows ABC would air. Barris told his bosses the game show concepts being pitched were worse than his own ideas. They suggested that Barris quit his programming job and become a producer.
Barris formed his production company, Chuck Barris Productions, on June 14, 1965. His first success came in 1965 with The Dating Game, which aired on ABC. This show was hosted by Jim Lange and featured three contestants who competed for a date with a person blocked from their view. The contestants' sexy banter and its "flower power"-motif studio set were a revolution for the game show genre. The show ran until 1980 and was twice revived, later in the 1980s and 1990s. A Celebrity version of the show began in June 2021.
In 1966 Barris began The Newlywed Game, originally created by Nick Nicholson and E. Roger Muir, also for ABC. The combination of the newlywed couples' humorous candor and host Bob Eubanks's sly questioning made the show another hit for Barris. The show is the longest lasting of any developed by his company, broadcast until 1985, for a total of 19 full years on both "first run" network TV and syndication. Game Show Network airs a current version with Sherri Shepherd. Interviewed on the NPR program Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! on August 1, 2009, Barris said that The Newlywed Game was the easiest program he had developed: "All I needed was four couples, eight questions, and a washer-dryer."
Barris created several other short-lived game shows for ABC in the 1960s and for syndication in the 1970s, all of which revolved around a common theme: the game play normally derived its interest (and often, humor) from the excitement, vulnerability, embarrassment, or anger of the contestants or participants in the game. Barris also made several attempts through the years at non-game formats, such as ABC's Operation: Entertainment, a variety show staged at military bases akin to USO shows; a CBS revival of Your Hit Parade; and The Bobby Vinton Show, a Canada-based syndicated variety show for singer Bobby Vinton (produced in conjunction with Chris Bearde and Allan Blye). The last was his most successful program other than a game show.
The Gong Show
The somewhat shy Barris rarely appeared on camera, though he once dashed onto the set of The New Treasure Hunt to throw a pie at emcee Geoff Edwards. However, Barris became a public figure in 1976 when he produced and served as the host of the talent show spoof The Gong Show, which he packaged in partnership with television producer Chris Bearde. The show's cult following has endured, though it ran only two seasons on NBC (1976–78) and four in syndication (1976–80). As with some of Barris' other projects (including The Newlywed Game), it was at one point possible to see The Gong Show twice daily, a relatively uncommon feat in the years prior to cable TV's expansion into the commercial market.