Summary:
And now, let us introduce, for your viewing pleasure: • A bearded, demented-looking dentist taunts his hapless patient as he drills her teeth, flipping the drill's switch to the tune of "Stars and Stripes Forever." • A petite homecoming queen, obviously nervous, is duped into singing the National Anthem after she and fellow members of the choir have been introduced as collectively performing "The Star Spangled Banner." • A grossly overweight man tap-dances to music from "Swan Lake"; later his equally obese wife squeezes into a tiny tutu and, after fitting her head in a teacup, spins around while playing "Old Folks at Home" on the mandolin. • An Elvis impersonator sings "Hound Dog," but his voice is a monotone. Who didn't live for acts such as those on The Gong Show, the classic parody of ameteur talent contests? Chuck Barris was the straight man (yeah, right) to a panel of three celebrity judges – usually singer Jaye P. Morgan, comedian Arte Johnson (of Rowan and Martin's Laugh In) and Jamie Farr (of M*A*S*H*); plus one or more guests – each assigned the task of enduring and judging the ameteur acts that performed, either solo or in groups. Yes, some of the acts that performed had legitimate talent and did very well, although all of good acts were ameteurs because of Barris' strict rule against allowing professionals as contestants. However, the real fun came in watching those hilariously awful acts. Just a short list of acts might include: • The mustached-magician trying to get his "talented" pigeons to dance. • The teen-aged girls in pastel-colored prom dresses singing "People Who Need People" while dancing in a conga line. • The young comic who did impressions of modern-day actors performing Shakespeare. • An older woman whose dog had the knack for imitating other barnyard animals. • A man who broke eggs over his head while making faces in a sheet of Plexiglas. • "Professor Flamo" – a man who sang out in pain while lowering various body parts onto burning candles. Joey D'Auria was "Professor Flamo" and would later become Bozo the Clown on WGN (1984-2001). • An entire episode dedicated to contestants singing their rendition of "Feelings." ... and countless other acts that were wild and outrageous. Do those acts sound bad? Of course they did, and any one of the celebrity judges had the right to terminate the act by striking his/her mallet against an oversized "gong" (often, two or all three did, and several times, they fought to get to the gong...
Details
| Network: | ABC |
|---|---|
| Genre(s): | Comedy, Reality, Game Show |
| Seasons: | 2, 1, 1 |
