12 Fascinating Facts About The Gong Show

The Gong Show, which debuted on June 14, 1976, was a rebellious answer to the more conventional variety talent shows of Ed Sullivan and Lawrence Welk. Hosted predominantly by the one-of-a-kind Chuck Barris, the show aired both daytime and primetime versions, with contestants given 45 seconds to wow celebrity judges before risking being "gonged" off the stage. Long before American Idol made the less talented famous, The Gong Show was offering notoriety to outrageously bad and sometimes crude amateur performances.

1. THE IDEA CAME FROM A CANADIAN SONGWRITER.

The inspiration for The Gong Show came after Canadian singer Tommy Hunter, also known as "Canada's Country Gentleman," shared with producer Chris Bearde a story about a man who had auditioned for his show. The concept resonated with Bearde, who then suggested turning it into a series for the CBC.

"Hunter told me about these guys who juggle and toss bowling pins in the air, hitting them on their heads without catching them," Bearde recalled. "Then they throw four bowling pins into the air, miss them all, and the guy turns to them and says, 'Now I want to do this blindfolded'... Let’s get Hunter in a nice tuxedo, and once we have him suited up, he’ll introduce everyone." When the CBC rejected the idea, Bearde teamed up with Chuck Barris to bring it to life in the United States.

2. THE GONG MAY HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY THE APOLLO THEATER.

Howard "Sandman" Sims—the Apollo Theater's "exterminator," known for running on stage with a cap gun and siren when a performer was booed—claimed in 1986 that his act was the inspiration for The Gong Show. According to Sims, the idea was to create a comedic scene to remove a performer from the stage without embarrassing them in front of the audience, if they weren’t good enough.

3. IT DIDN'T IMPRESS TEST AUDIENCES.

The Gong Show received "the lowest" ratings of any daytime show NBC had ever tested at that time. However, Madeleine David, NBC's director of daytime programming at the time, decided to air it anyway because enough people at the network "believed in it and cared about it."

4. THERE WAS A DIFFERENT HOST BEFORE CHUCK BARRIS.

Chuck Barris, who also served as the show's producer, initially brought in John Barbour to host. However, according to Barris, Barbour "just didn’t grasp the concept." (Barbour would later create Real People and produce a 1992 documentary on the JFK assassination.) The ratings under Barbour's hosting weren't great, and NBC demanded that Barris take over as host or face the cancellation of the show.

5. WEIRD AL YANKOVIC TRIED OUT FOR THE SHOW.

"I was in college," Yankovic recalled, "and a friend and I drove down to L.A. for the day and auditioned for The Gong Show. We performed a song called 'Mr. Frump in the Iron Lung.' The audience seemed to enjoy it, but we never got a callback. So, we didn’t make the cut for The Gong Show." Only about 10 percent of auditioners ever made it onto the show.

6. THE SHOW FEATURED SOME REMARKABLY TALENTED INDIVIDUALS.

Steve Martin was part of an act and later returned as a guest judge. Andrea McArdle appeared on the show and eventually landed the lead role in the Broadway musical Annie. Cheryl Lynn was offered a recording contract and went on to record "Got To Be Real." Mare Winningham won after she sang "Here, There, and Everywhere" under a pseudonym. Danny Elfman and his band Oingo Boingo performed on the show. Paul Reubens (a.k.a. Pee-wee Herman) estimated he appeared on the show around 15 times and even took home some prize money.

7. THE $516.32 GRAND PRIZE HAD A PURPOSE BEHIND ITS SEEMINGLY RANDOM AMOUNT.

Although Barris referred to it as "the highly unusual amount of $516.32,” the sum actually represented the Screen Actors Guild union scale minimum for a single day's work.

8. THE POPSICLE TWINS NEVER AIRED ON THE WEST COAST.

Occasionally, Chuck Barris would deliberately send acts that he knew the censors would reject, to distract them from blocking other more daring performances he wanted to showcase. The Popsicle Twins (officially known as the "Have You Got a Nickel?" act) were among those sacrificial acts, but NBC censors allowed them through. However, after complaints from East Coast viewers who saw two barefoot 17-year-old girls in shorts and T-shirts licking orange popsicles to the tune of "I'm in the Mood for Love," NBC pulled the feed before it could be broadcast to the rest of the nation.

9. NBC BANNED PANELIST JAYE P. MORGAN.

A few weeks after the Popsicle Twins incident in 1978, panelist Jaye P. Morgan shocked the studio audience by flashing them. Although it wasn't aired, the network took action and banned her from the show. This incident marked one of the final straws for NBC, leading to the cancellation of the daytime version of the show soon afterward. The flashing scene was later featured in The Gong Show Movie (1980).

10. CHUCK BARRIS WAS GONGED IN THE SERIES FINALE.

Barris appeared as a contestant on the show, performing Johnny Paycheck's "Take This Job and Shove It." He ended his performance by giving the camera the finger.

11. ROBERT DOWNEY SR. WROTE AND DIRECTED THE GONG SHOW MOVIE.

Midway through production, Barris chose to take on the role of director himself (Downey Sr. had no objections). The film ended up earning just over $6.6 million.

12. THEY MADE MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS TO REVIVE THE SHOW.

One attempt included a syndicated weekday revival of The Gong Show, hosted by San Francisco DJ Don Bleu, which aired from 1988 to 1989. This time, winners received $701. A decade later, the Game Show Network aired Extreme Gong, where viewers called in to judge acts. In 2008, The Gong Show with Dave Attell ran for eight weeks on Comedy Central, with the top acts winning $600.