36 Facts About Chuck Barris

Charles Hirsch Barris was an American game show creator, producer, and host.

Chuck Barris was known for hosting The Gong Show and creating The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game.

Chuck Barris was a songwriter who wrote "Palisades Park", recorded by Freddy Cannon and recorded by Ramones.

Chuck 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.

Chuck Barris was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 3,1929, the son of Edith and Nathaniel Chuck Barris, a dentist.

Chuck Barris was raised in Lower Merion Township and attended Lower Merion High School.

Chuck Barris's uncle was singer, songwriter and actor Harry Barris.

Chuck Barris graduated in 1953 from Drexel University where he was a columnist for the student newspaper, The Triangle.

Chuck Barris got his start in television as a page and later was part of the staff at NBC in New York City.

Chuck 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 to become the biggest hit of Cannon's career.

Chuck Barris wrote or co-wrote some of the music that appeared on his game shows.

Chuck Barris was promoted to the daytime programming division at ABC in Los Angeles and was responsible for determining which game shows ABC would air.

Chuck Barris told his bosses the game show concepts being pitched were worse than his own ideas.

In 1966 Barris began The Newlywed Game, originally created by Nick Nicholson and E Roger Muir, for ABC.

Chuck 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 from the excitement, vulnerability, embarrassment, or anger of the contestants or participants in the game.

Chuck Barris 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.

The somewhat shy Chuck 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, Chuck 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.

Chuck Barris dropped Barbour at the last minute; in order to save the show, Chuck Barris followed the advice of an NBC executive who suggested that he should host his own show.

Chuck Barris joined in with the eccentricity of the format, using unusual props, dressing in colorful and somewhat unusual clothing, he became yet another performer of the show, and for many viewers, quite a cult hero.

One of its most infamous incidents came on the NBC version in 1978, when Chuck Barris presented an onstage act consisting of two teenage girls, slowly and suggestively sucking popsicles.

In 1980, Chuck Barris starred in and directed The Gong Show Movie.

Chuck Barris continued strongly until the mid-1970s, when ABC cancelled the Dating and Newlywed games.

Chuck Barris hosted a short lived prime time variety hour for NBC from February to April 1978, called The Chuck Barris Rah-Rah Show, essentially a non-competitive knock-off of Gong.

Unlike with the 1970s version of Treasure Hunt, Chuck Barris did not have direct involvement with the production of the show itself.

Chuck Barris formed a distributor arm called Bel-Air Program Sales and an ad-sales barter called Clarion Communications.

Chuck Barris sold his shares of Barris Industries, Inc in 1987 to Burt Sugarman and left to move back to France and was no longer directly involved in his media company.

On September 7,1989, Chuck Barris Industries was renamed as the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company.

Chuck Barris published Della: A Memoir of My Daughter in 2010 about the death of his only child, who died in 1998 after a long struggle with drug addiction.

In 1984, Chuck Barris wrote an autobiography, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

Chuck Barris wrote a sequel to Confessions of a Dangerous Mind in 2004 called Bad Grass Never Dies.

The CIA denied Chuck Barris ever worked for them in any capacity.

In 1980, Chuck Barris married Robin Altman, 23 years his junior.

Chuck Barris died on March 21,2017, of natural causes at the age of 87 at his home in Palisades, New York, where he lived with Clagett.

Chuck Barris composed music and released them on the following 45 rpm records.

Songs with an asterisk are songs not composed by Chuck Barris, yet featured on the recordings:.