The Gong Show

I remember this show from my youth. Every once in a while there'd be a performer with some talent but most of the time this show belonged to some pretty weird contestants. They would be painfully bad but would still get upset when they were gonged. Of course "Chuckie baby" and his clapping would keep the show going. Then "Gene Gene the Dancing machine" would dance his classic dance. The judges were minor celebrities that didn't take their jobs too seriously. Like I said this was a pretty weird show that couldn't be taken at face value as a "talent" show but just a crazy show that eventually became stale. It made "Chuckie baby" a household name (and a ton of money), and it was a fun way to waste a half hour.

In discussing how mean American Idol has gotten lately, a lot of people point back to the Gong Show as the initiator of public TV humiliation. Anybody who thinks that never saw this show.

The show basically had two kinds of acts: the really ridiculous, and the really good. People with genuine talent were usually given high marks and compliments by the judges, who were all show-biz veterans and who knew talent when they saw it (I recall after one such act, Arte Johnson exclaimed, "I'm gonna get you a job!").

The other acts were supposed to be either wildly bizarre or just plain dumb. This gave everyone a chance to enjoy it for a few moments, knowing that the gong was soon in the offing. When the gong sounded, everyone laughed, including the people in the act itself. And Chuck Barris would shake his head in mock indignation and say "Gee, I don't know why they did that..." and as he escorted the act offstage, he cooed "Be of good cheer."

It was all played for laughs. Nobody was told they were horrible, nobody was told they had no talent, nobody was told they were too fat.

Add to this the great music, the amazing creativity of the contestants, and the one-line jokes between acts, and you had a great half-hour of comedy.

What a little gem of a show this was. If my memory serves me correctly this aired in the UK on Channel 4 twice a week in the early eighties long after the series had finished in America. A bold move I must say on the part of Channel 4 at the time, considering the fact that apart from Jamie Farr (MASH), and Arte Johnson (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In) none of the other members of the show were actually, house hold names with the British public.

Taking that and the show's formula, getting anyone off the street, with absolutely no talent what so ever to do a turn, then get marked for their efforts, (if they didn't get gonged first) it's amazing it ever got shown once a week, let alone twice! Thankfully it did and what wonderful 'Acts!!!' some of them were. The guy dressed in a dinner suit complete with Bowler hat and walking cane, coming to the front of the stage, then standing in a fixed position for one completely minute without saying a word. Then there was 'Granny Go Go'. A 70+ woman wearing a mini dress dancing wildly to a boogie on down sound of the time. How about the singing trio whose lyrics to their song contained just one line 'I don't know why?' Mind blowing stuff!

They did though have some class acts appearing on the show in between the dross. Willie Bo Bo, a panelist on the Gong Show from time to time, along with his band, gave an excellent up beat rendition of the '2001- A Space Odyssey' film theme, 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' that really went down well. A girl singer going by the name of 'Stony' did a very nice version of the song 'I Got the Music in Me' and The Valentine Brothers, a brilliant close harmony duo sang 'That's the Time I Feel Like Making Love to You'.

I guess we'll not see the like's of this on TV again? Thankful though I've managed to lifted off the seven episodes I have from VHS tape onto DVD, so I'll still be able to go back from time to time and relive them all over again!

I was on the gong show 1978 I won with a guitar/ vocal for Loretta Lynns You Ain't Woman Enough To Take My Man

my parents passed away and could not find their VHS tape of it any info will help I am willing to pay for a copy if someone thinks they my have one I still have the paperwork and the trophy but not a copy of my performance

Thank you

Mary Lyn Dias.

I used to watch this show religiously back when I was in High School. If only my family had owned a VCR way back then (did they make them in '76--I don't remember). I would have taped every single episode, and I'd still be watching them today. "Star Search"? "American Idol"? Those "reality" shows are crap! The Gong Show was the polar opposite of this kind of show--the REAL real deal, not a pre-fab parade of future showbiz hacks doing pale imitations of current showbiz hacks while former showbiz hacks pretend to "judge" them. The Gong show was an out of control coke-fueled madhouse that presented a mind-blowing array of street performers, lounge acts, amateurs, and just plain street psychos doing their things! In other words, nobodies copying nobody being judged by virtual nobodies. Format? Script? A plan, even? For Chuck Barris and his cronies, all these things were only concepts, to be used or thrown away at will. What happened, happened; the show was what it was. Never before and never since has there been such entertainment on Television! If they put the entire series on DVD, I'd save up my money and buy two copies!