WEBVTT - GONG: The Chuck Barris Story

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's

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<v Speaker 2>Chuck and Jerry's here too, and this is stuff you

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<v Speaker 2>should know. And if this were the Gong Show, we

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<v Speaker 2>would have been gone a very long time ago, I believe.

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<v Speaker 1>I think you mean Chucky Baby.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah that's right. Nice catch, because we're talking about Chucky Baby,

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<v Speaker 2>the original one, not you, the Chucky baby.

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<v Speaker 1>I got called that though back then because of this.

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<v Speaker 1>Oh really, Oh yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>Boy, you've been alive for a while.

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<v Speaker 1>I get I was about the same man. This was

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<v Speaker 1>right in my cultural wheelhouse from like seven to ten.

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<v Speaker 1>But yeah, that makes it a little young for you

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<v Speaker 1>or a little old for you, I guess.

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<v Speaker 2>Uh. Yeah, it was a I was a baby when

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<v Speaker 2>it started. I think I might have not been born

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<v Speaker 2>quite yet when it started, but yeah it was. Did

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<v Speaker 2>you watch as a.

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<v Speaker 1>Todd Okay, did you watch any Gong Show ever? Like?

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<v Speaker 1>Was it reruns or something?

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah? I saw some reruns. I was never I mean,

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<v Speaker 2>I can understand the Gong Show is a cult classic. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>and I totally get why. It just never got me

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<v Speaker 2>in that way, you know what I mean?

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<v Speaker 1>Hey, when you're seven, it's pretty great.

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<v Speaker 2>How bad you're like, come on, boobs.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>So we're not talking specifically just about the Gong Show.

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<v Speaker 2>We're talking about the guy who is routinely wrongly attributed

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<v Speaker 2>for creating the Gong Show. And the reason why is

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<v Speaker 2>because he was a legendary game show producer and he

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<v Speaker 2>hosted The Gong Show and his name was Chuck Barris.

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<v Speaker 2>But just to kind of clear the air right out

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<v Speaker 2>of the gate, the Gong Show is actually created by

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<v Speaker 2>Chris Beard, who would go on to become a legendary

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<v Speaker 2>creator of another cult classic called Sherman Oaks in the nineties.

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<v Speaker 2>I never watched that.

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<v Speaker 1>I've never heard of that.

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<v Speaker 2>I feel like I had heard of it, but I

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<v Speaker 2>really don't think I ever saw it. There's a lot

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<v Speaker 2>of the nineties I probably don't remember, but yeah, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>I don't think I watched Sherman. Oh.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. The nineties were our seventies.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, kind of like our seventies and our sixties combined.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. And the reason we're talking about Chuck Barriss is

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<v Speaker 1>not just the fact that he was way ahead of

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<v Speaker 1>his time in a lot of ways as far as

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<v Speaker 1>what kind of content he was putting on television like

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<v Speaker 1>a real visionary if you look back at what we're

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<v Speaker 1>seeing today and what he was doing at the time.

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<v Speaker 1>But the reason we're talking about Chuck Barris is because

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<v Speaker 1>he did that. And also, as we will learn in

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<v Speaker 1>Act three, well we'll learn it now, but we'll get

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<v Speaker 1>into it in AC three. Chuck Barris also wrote a

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<v Speaker 1>book in nineteen eighty four, after his TV career was

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<v Speaker 1>pretty much over, wherein he said basically that while this

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<v Speaker 1>was going on, he was a secret assassin for the

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<v Speaker 1>CIA and carried out at least thirty three murders on

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<v Speaker 1>behalf of the American government. And that was a book

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<v Speaker 1>called Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, also made into a

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<v Speaker 1>film of that same name, which makes this sort of

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<v Speaker 1>an obvious pick for something for us to go over.

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<v Speaker 2>I thought you're gonna say, like something new came up

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<v Speaker 2>about him or something like that recently. So how did

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<v Speaker 2>you think of Chuck Barris? Like, are you always just

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<v Speaker 2>walking around with Chuck Barris in the back of your mind?

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<v Speaker 1>I don't. It popped up somehow, and I was like,

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<v Speaker 1>because I saw that movie and I was like, oh, yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>that's so weird that Chuck Barris wrote a memoir in

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<v Speaker 1>which he said that he was a CIA assassin. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>like what was up? Like I never even like did

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<v Speaker 1>any research to see how untrue that may or may

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<v Speaker 1>not have been. So that was really kind of it.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah. In the movie I think that was George Clooney's

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<v Speaker 2>directorial debut, they treat it like, yeah, it's part of

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<v Speaker 2>his life and ericave Yeah, which was an interesting choice,

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<v Speaker 2>but also it kind of gets you out of like

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<v Speaker 2>really getting caught in the weeds of trying to explore

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<v Speaker 2>if it was true and if it's not, why he

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<v Speaker 2>did that. Yeah, I think it was a good move. Actually.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so here we go on the Baron of bad taste,

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<v Speaker 1>the King of dynamite television, I've got one, the King

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<v Speaker 1>of schlock and drum.

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<v Speaker 2>Roll, the Iatola of trash Ola.

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<v Speaker 1>Is that great and very of the time. That fits?

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the Iatola was on people's minds in the mid

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<v Speaker 2>to late seventies. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, this guy was

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<v Speaker 2>born in nineteen twenty nine. Apparently when you read about

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<v Speaker 2>interviews that he's given, like he was born in twenty nine,

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<v Speaker 2>thirty thirty one, thirty two. Yeah, Like he is not

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<v Speaker 2>huge on keeping up with consistent details. And I still

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<v Speaker 2>don't know whether that was intentional, Like was he toying

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<v Speaker 2>with people all this time or did he just not

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<v Speaker 2>pay attention to that kind of thing because he had

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<v Speaker 2>bigger stuff going.

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<v Speaker 1>On, Yeah, like killing people. Who knows, but he is

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<v Speaker 1>a guy from Philly, went to at the time Drexel

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<v Speaker 1>Institute of Technology now Drexel University in the fifties, wanted

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<v Speaker 1>to be a songwriter for Tin pan Alley for a

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<v Speaker 1>little while. Ultimately would write a song which we'll get to,

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<v Speaker 1>and then decided he wanted to get into tell and

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<v Speaker 1>became a page at NBC in nineteen fifty five, which

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<v Speaker 1>went nowhere because the daytime sales department he was a

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<v Speaker 1>page for at the time was eliminated. But that gave

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<v Speaker 1>him the TV bug.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that was what he wanted to do, was crack

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<v Speaker 2>into TV. He even went so far as to marry

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<v Speaker 2>the niece of the founder of CBS not, a woman

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<v Speaker 2>named Lynn Levy. Yeah. But yeah, in the context of

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<v Speaker 2>his ambitions, you're like, like, what's that, like, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>deliberate kind of thing. I guess it doesn't really matter.

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<v Speaker 1>Although yeah, he was married to her for nineteen years.

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<v Speaker 1>I will point that out, you know, so it seems

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<v Speaker 1>like a real marriage.

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<v Speaker 2>Talk about keeping up appearances.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>So, yeah, he started out like Kenneth from thirty Rock

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<v Speaker 2>didn't last and then I don't know how it happened,

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<v Speaker 2>but he ended up getting an assignment from ABC. So

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<v Speaker 2>he started at NBC, moved to ABC, and his sole

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<v Speaker 2>job was to go babysit Dick Clark to make sure

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<v Speaker 2>that he wasn't accepting bribes or being a corrupt host

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<v Speaker 2>of American Bandstand. That was his job in his twenties. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>and it was supposed to last just a couple of weeks.

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<v Speaker 2>It ended up lasting a year. And then very interestingly,

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<v Speaker 2>he kept copious notes. Every day he would write up

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<v Speaker 2>like a minute detailed account of everything that happened on

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<v Speaker 2>set that day, and he would also include jokes and

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<v Speaker 2>like parts of his philosophy and stuff like that, and

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<v Speaker 2>it turned into like a seven hundred page document that

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<v Speaker 2>ended up bailing Dick Clark out.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah. In the end, when Dick Clark testified in front

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<v Speaker 1>of the US House sub committee, it was about you know,

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<v Speaker 1>payella scandals of you know, pay for play basically for music,

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<v Speaker 1>which was illegal. It actually got him out like you said,

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<v Speaker 1>And Dick Clark was like, hey, buddy, I wonder what

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<v Speaker 1>you were scribbling on all those that whole year, But

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<v Speaker 1>you helped me out inadvertently, and now you got a

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<v Speaker 1>full time job in our daytime TV department here at ABC.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah. He also said, hey, by the way, have you

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<v Speaker 2>ever thought about getting into songwriting? And in fact, Dick

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<v Speaker 2>Clark set him up with Freddie Boom Boom Cannon, a

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<v Speaker 2>top recording artist at the time and a friend of

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<v Speaker 2>Dick Clark's, and he recorded a song Palisades Park that

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<v Speaker 2>Chuck Barris wrote, and it made it to like number

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<v Speaker 2>three on the Billboard charts. Yeah, I know it's and

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<v Speaker 2>I think in nineteen sixty two, I think it was. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>and the Beach Boys ended up covering it. So that

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<v Speaker 2>alone probably made him quite quite successful right off the bat.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, for sure, even though his songwriting career, I mean

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<v Speaker 1>that was kind of it for songwriting because his TV

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<v Speaker 1>career was taking off. By all appearances, was a very

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<v Speaker 1>hard worker and you know, I don't want to come

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<v Speaker 1>across as we're just you know, singing Chuck Barris's praises

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<v Speaker 1>constantly here. He changed the game in a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>ways in TV. But as we'll see, because it was

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<v Speaker 1>the seventies, that was a lot of misogyny tied into

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<v Speaker 1>stuff he was doing on TV, which we'll get to.

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<v Speaker 1>Just wanted to sort of level set on that.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I think that was good.

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<v Speaker 1>But when he was working for ABC, he became worked

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<v Speaker 1>his way up to director of daytime Programs and initially

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<v Speaker 1>got on the map with them by making a pilot

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<v Speaker 1>about it was called People Poker, and it was sort

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<v Speaker 1>of the first sign that he wanted to do a

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<v Speaker 1>different kind of game show, like sort of a what

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<v Speaker 1>would become like a Jerry Springer type thing with a

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<v Speaker 1>game show component. With as far as People Poker goes

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<v Speaker 1>was people were on the show to guess the professions

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<v Speaker 1>of different other people in this pilot, which is I

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<v Speaker 1>believe as far as it went, he had all women

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<v Speaker 1>on the show. He had brain surgeons, police officers, and

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<v Speaker 1>sex workers, and it ended up that the cops and

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<v Speaker 1>the sex workers got into a literal fight and the

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<v Speaker 1>show obviously didn't go anywhere, and he left ABC not

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<v Speaker 1>too long after.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so that was huge that out on his own,

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<v Speaker 2>and in fact, shortly after that he founded Chuck Barris Productions.

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<v Speaker 2>That was nineteen sixty five, so probably as the door

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<v Speaker 2>was still swinging behind him at ABC, which, by the way,

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<v Speaker 2>you said he was the director of daytime Programs. Apparently

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<v Speaker 2>he didn't like that title, so he changed his official

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<v Speaker 2>title to Duke of Daytime. That's the kind of guy

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<v Speaker 2>he was. This guy's working his way up and that's

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<v Speaker 2>one of the things he does, right, So it does

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<v Speaker 2>make sense that he goes off and founds his own

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<v Speaker 2>production company with a twenty thousand dollars loan from his stepdad,

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<v Speaker 2>and that ended up paying off because in nineteen sixty

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<v Speaker 2>five he developed the dating game, turned around and sold

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<v Speaker 2>it to his former employer, ABC, and it was basically

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<v Speaker 2>off the bat, a smash hit in that it was innovative.

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<v Speaker 2>It was a pioneering game show. Up to this point,

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<v Speaker 2>like you said, this was all new. People answered questions

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<v Speaker 2>on quiz shows or there were puzzles or something like that.

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<v Speaker 2>No one was doing this kind of thing, and Chuck

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<v Speaker 2>Barris literally came up with it. He genuinely, sincerely came

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<v Speaker 2>up with it, and it was it just it put

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<v Speaker 2>him on the map and just kind of showed everybody

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<v Speaker 2>what he could do for better or worse like you

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<v Speaker 2>were saying.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And the Dating Game was huge. I mean I

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<v Speaker 1>watched a lot of Dating Game as a kid. Jim

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<v Speaker 1>Lang was the original host back then. Eventually Chuck Woolery

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<v Speaker 1>would take over. He'll be back in two and two

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<v Speaker 1>as we all know. Yeah, and if you've never seen

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<v Speaker 1>The Dating Game, the format was there are three potential

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<v Speaker 1>dates hidden on the other side of a screen, and

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<v Speaker 1>a woman interviews these three men and then supposedly goes

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<v Speaker 1>on a date with one of them. But what it

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<v Speaker 1>became known for eventually was was people coming on early

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<v Speaker 1>in their career who were underemployed or unemployed. Actors, so

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<v Speaker 1>Sally Field, Schwarzenegger, Tom Selleck, John hamm Andy Kaufman as

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<v Speaker 1>Laka like workshopping a character as you know, as a

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<v Speaker 1>contestant on the Dating Game.

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<v Speaker 2>As an eligible bachelor on the Dating Game. Oh yeah, locka.

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<v Speaker 1>It was a big deal. It was a huge show.

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<v Speaker 1>And I want to quickly plug this new movie from

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<v Speaker 1>Anna Kendrick, Woman of the Hour on Netflix.

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<v Speaker 2>If you heard of it, yeah, I haven't seen it yet,

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<v Speaker 2>though it's good.

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<v Speaker 1>Man Anna Kendrick's directorial debut. She knocked it out of

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<v Speaker 1>the Park. I think it's a really effective movie about

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<v Speaker 1>the true story of a dating game bachelor Rodney Alcala,

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<v Speaker 1>who was a serial killer and he was on the

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<v Speaker 1>game after he had been a serial while he was

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<v Speaker 1>a serial killer, won the dating game and the woman

0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:35.480
<v Speaker 1>who was the bachelorette refused to go on the date

0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:38.480
<v Speaker 1>with him because he was such a creepy weirdo. But

0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:44.080
<v Speaker 1>it's a really effective movie, Like she nails the threat

0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:48.880
<v Speaker 1>that a woman feels generally from men, like more effectively

0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:52.040
<v Speaker 1>than maybe I've seen anyone ever do it, Like crawling

0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:55.000
<v Speaker 1>out of your skin. Wow, just by this guy, like

0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:56.840
<v Speaker 1>being in a parking lot with her at night, like

0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:57.480
<v Speaker 1>that kind of thing.

0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:00.400
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. And plus also at that time too, that was

0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:04.320
<v Speaker 2>fully socially supported. Yeah, men could be total creeps and

0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.520
<v Speaker 2>put their hands on women, and it was pretty much like, yeah,

0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:09.679
<v Speaker 2>that's just the way things are at the time too.

0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:10.680
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Good movie though.

0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:14.199
<v Speaker 2>So he followed up the Dating game with the newlywoed

0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:18.760
<v Speaker 2>game Huge very similar, except well not that similar. I

0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.640
<v Speaker 2>mean the format was different enough that it's not the

0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:25.320
<v Speaker 2>exact same game. But he took married couples. We've talked

0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.079
<v Speaker 2>about this before, I think on our game shows episode,

0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:31.800
<v Speaker 2>and he would separate the husbands and keep the wives

0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.680
<v Speaker 2>back and ask them questions about what their husband would

0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:38.160
<v Speaker 2>answer say to some question. Then he'd bring the husbands

0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:41.480
<v Speaker 2>out and they'd go through and see if their answers matched,

0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.280
<v Speaker 2>and then invariably, like they would get it wrong, and

0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.199
<v Speaker 2>some wives would get mad if they got it right,

0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:49.200
<v Speaker 2>some couples would kiss. It was like, very cute. They

0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:53.840
<v Speaker 2>were newlyweds, right, But the content of both the dating

0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:58.320
<v Speaker 2>Game and the Newlywed Game were so raunchy that in

0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:01.760
<v Speaker 2>a lot of cases they were sayments of the dating

0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:03.839
<v Speaker 2>Game that Chuck Barriss was like, well, can't use that

0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:07.960
<v Speaker 2>because the guy mentioned as his junk in like a

0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:12.760
<v Speaker 2>really vulgar term. Yeah, Like like he was, yeah, exactly,

0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:16.120
<v Speaker 2>he said, uh, he said even he was surprised at first,

0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:18.760
<v Speaker 2>that's not what he was going for. But when it

0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.880
<v Speaker 2>started to when he could get enough of the innuendo

0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:27.720
<v Speaker 2>and everything out as produced shows that were aired and

0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:29.840
<v Speaker 2>the popularity that they were met with, He's like, well,

0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:31.439
<v Speaker 2>I guess this is the direction I'm going.

0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:34.320
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Uh. And so for the first time on TV,

0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:40.239
<v Speaker 1>you had people airing parts of their personal lives on television.

0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:43.840
<v Speaker 1>And you had people that Chuck Barriss even acknowledged, like

0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:46.760
<v Speaker 1>the prize money wasn't good on these shows, like they

0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:49.560
<v Speaker 1>were doing these shows to be on TV.

0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:54.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that was also partially deliberate on his his his part,

0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:57.760
<v Speaker 2>because I read an interview with him and he said

0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:01.959
<v Speaker 2>that like a wife bonk her husband over the head

0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.800
<v Speaker 2>with like the card that she has the answer written

0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:06.760
<v Speaker 2>on if he gets a question wrong when there's a

0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:09.320
<v Speaker 2>toaster at steak, but if you have like a yacht

0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.360
<v Speaker 2>at stake right, completely changes the dynamic of the game

0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:14.960
<v Speaker 2>and takes away all the fun. Yeah, we could have

0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:19.120
<v Speaker 2>won a yacht exactly. But at the same time, he

0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:22.640
<v Speaker 2>also said that, like the Newlywed game was also famous

0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:27.960
<v Speaker 2>for couples just going totally gaga over pretty mundane prizes. Yeah,

0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:30.640
<v Speaker 2>and the other couples would be upset or they'd look

0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.040
<v Speaker 2>kind of upset that they didn't win. And he said

0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:35.360
<v Speaker 2>that he would do pre interviews with people and ask

0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:37.680
<v Speaker 2>what their dream prize was, and then he would put

0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:41.080
<v Speaker 2>together three couples that all had the same dream prize,

0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:43.560
<v Speaker 2>so it would hurt that much more when they didn't

0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:46.360
<v Speaker 2>get it. So I don't know which one's true. Or

0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:49.960
<v Speaker 2>maybe both are true. But that's another example of him

0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:53.000
<v Speaker 2>speaking out of both sides of his mouth, which he

0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:53.560
<v Speaker 2>did a lot.

0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.080
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and the data shows that eighty percent of newlywed

0:14:57.080 --> 0:14:59.880
<v Speaker 1>couples in the seventies their dream prize was and all

0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:01.440
<v Speaker 1>spence paid trip to Acapulco.

0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:04.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, well that's what they got, whether they liked it

0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.000
<v Speaker 2>or not. The most exotic place in the world at

0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:07.240
<v Speaker 2>the time.

0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:09.520
<v Speaker 1>Man a Capolco was so big back then.

0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:10.240
<v Speaker 2>Mm hmm.

0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:12.960
<v Speaker 1>I didn't even know anything about Acapolco. Is it still around.

0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:16.360
<v Speaker 2>I believe it's still around. Don't think it's falling into

0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:17.080
<v Speaker 2>the ocean yet.

0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:21.040
<v Speaker 1>All right, So Barris is killing it with dating game

0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:25.040
<v Speaker 1>and newlywed game. He started just producing show after show

0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:27.720
<v Speaker 1>after show. The only one I will mention is the

0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.720
<v Speaker 1>only one from this list that I really watched, which

0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.160
<v Speaker 1>was the dollar ninety eight beauty show hosted by the

0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:34.600
<v Speaker 1>late great Rip Taylor.

0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:37.440
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I'm glad that was the one you chose. That

0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:39.640
<v Speaker 2>was I was like, what is that? And I researched

0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:41.200
<v Speaker 2>it and I was like, you have to be kidding me.

0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:43.320
<v Speaker 1>It was so good. The prize was a dollar in

0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:47.200
<v Speaker 1>ninety eight cents and Rip Taylor is just a legend

0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:51.720
<v Speaker 1>and you know, sort of an American gay icon in

0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:52.440
<v Speaker 1>the seventies.

0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:55.280
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the guy who were a really bad to pay

0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:56.800
<v Speaker 2>him with tow confetti all the time.

0:15:56.880 --> 0:15:57.360
<v Speaker 1>He's great.

0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:00.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he was great. So yeah, that the show was

0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:02.680
<v Speaker 2>one of the ones that Chuck Barriss really took a

0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:06.560
<v Speaker 2>lot of heat for. It was described by him as

0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:09.480
<v Speaker 2>a spoof of pageants, right, so they were making fun

0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.560
<v Speaker 2>of actual pageants, but the way that they made fun

0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:16.960
<v Speaker 2>of it was to humiliate and embarrass women who normally

0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.760
<v Speaker 2>wouldn't have participated in a traditional beauty contest, that's right.

0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.600
<v Speaker 2>Rather than celebrating them, they pointed out all the reasons

0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:26.440
<v Speaker 2>why they couldn't have made it on a real beauty contest.

0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:28.880
<v Speaker 2>It was just some of the quotes I read were

0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:33.040
<v Speaker 2>really really mean. And yeah, it was a hit show

0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:34.800
<v Speaker 2>at the time. I think it was just on for

0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.840
<v Speaker 2>a couple of years, but that seems to be about

0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:40.800
<v Speaker 2>how long his shows lasted. But they were like huge

0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.720
<v Speaker 2>flashes in the pan. Sometimes not all the time. He

0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.240
<v Speaker 2>had some flops, but he would you know, a show

0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:47.680
<v Speaker 2>like that would be on for a few years and

0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:48.680
<v Speaker 2>then it'd just be gone.

0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:52.240
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and just to stick up for myself a little bit.

0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:54.160
<v Speaker 1>The eight year old Chuck didn't realize he was being

0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:56.880
<v Speaker 1>fed Oh yeah, blatant misogyny at the time.

0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:02.240
<v Speaker 2>Yeah again, I mean that's how were It's really changed

0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:05.520
<v Speaker 2>for the better in so many ways, because yeah, I'm like,

0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:08.240
<v Speaker 2>I'm sure grown men were just laughing so hard at

0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.000
<v Speaker 2>those insults. It's just crazy.

0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:12.399
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I was probably like, my dad's laughing, So let

0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:17.040
<v Speaker 1>me bond with him exactly, or try to at least.

0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:20.240
<v Speaker 1>So no, no, no, do your laugh from the that's

0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:21.880
<v Speaker 1>not quite a laugh from the Halloween episode.

0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:24.520
<v Speaker 2>I can't redo it. It'll just be a disappointment.

0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.120
<v Speaker 1>Oh man, all right, before we break, we should mention

0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:31.080
<v Speaker 1>that he got into book writing in nineteen seventy four.

0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.359
<v Speaker 1>He would, like you said, going to write many books

0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:36.200
<v Speaker 1>and believe, at the end of his life even kind

0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:38.879
<v Speaker 1>of hoped you would be remembered for as an author

0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:42.320
<v Speaker 1>rather than the King of Shlock. But in seventy four

0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.000
<v Speaker 1>he published You and Me, Babe, You and Me Babe,

0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:50.680
<v Speaker 1>a fictionalized account of his marriage, which ended a couple

0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.600
<v Speaker 1>of years after the book came out. But he gained

0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:55.600
<v Speaker 1>the system, Like we talked about gaming the system for

0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.359
<v Speaker 1>the New York Times bestseller list. In that shorty episode

0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:03.119
<v Speaker 1>landed on that New York Time bestseller list. But you know,

0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:05.960
<v Speaker 1>that's how we started his book writing career. Yeah.

0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.199
<v Speaker 2>And at the time, this is nineteen seventy four, this

0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:11.240
<v Speaker 2>is like you pretty much were in the TV industry

0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:13.480
<v Speaker 2>to know to have heard really of Chuck Barris and

0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.480
<v Speaker 2>know what he was doing. He was not a cultural

0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.479
<v Speaker 2>icon yet, so that was there was a chance at

0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:21.480
<v Speaker 2>the time that he could have been remembered for an author.

0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.640
<v Speaker 2>But he made a huge, fateful decision in nineteen seventy six.

0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:28.679
<v Speaker 2>And we'll talk about that fateful decision right after this.

0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:56.359
<v Speaker 3>It slick, all right, we're back.

0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.119
<v Speaker 1>Josh left a quite a cliffhanger with the word that

0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.880
<v Speaker 1>Chuck Barriss made a very faithful decision, and that faithful

0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:08.880
<v Speaker 1>decision was to be the actual host of what would

0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:11.760
<v Speaker 1>be the thing he was known for, The Gong Show,

0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:16.000
<v Speaker 1>which ran for but two years in daytime, then a

0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.960
<v Speaker 1>couple of more years in syndication until nineteen eighty and

0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:25.040
<v Speaker 1>Bears said, initially, like I thought this would be basically

0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:27.280
<v Speaker 1>what we see now with like America's Got Talent, like

0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.280
<v Speaker 1>a real talent show with real amateur talent, but he

0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:32.879
<v Speaker 1>got a lot of bad people in there and decided

0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.399
<v Speaker 1>to go a different route and the show ended up

0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:42.159
<v Speaker 1>being very bad talent. That was I mean, the premise

0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:44.399
<v Speaker 1>of the show was they performed in front of celebrity,

0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:48.240
<v Speaker 1>a celebrity panel, and if it was so bad the

0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:50.840
<v Speaker 1>celebrity panel, one of them could or all of them

0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:53.400
<v Speaker 1>sometimes could get up and hit the gong, which would

0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:55.960
<v Speaker 1>end their performance. If they managed to make it through

0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.680
<v Speaker 1>without the gong, they would rate them on a scale

0:19:58.720 --> 0:19:59.720
<v Speaker 1>of zero to ten.

0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:04.840
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but the celebrity pan, and we're talking like celebrities

0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:10.240
<v Speaker 2>of twenty years before panel, or if they were active

0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.119
<v Speaker 2>celebrities like say Jamie Farr, they were like B list

0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:14.760
<v Speaker 2>maybe yeah, they were at.

0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.840
<v Speaker 1>The game show celebrities match game level stuff.

0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:21.600
<v Speaker 2>You're right, yeah, right, But they the celebrity judges on

0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.840
<v Speaker 2>the panel had to wait forty five seconds. He couldn't

0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:27.320
<v Speaker 2>bang the gong forty five seconds. So you'll see some

0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:30.320
<v Speaker 2>gong shows where Jamie Farr is just standing there at

0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:34.240
<v Speaker 2>the gong for that forty six second so he can

0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:36.640
<v Speaker 2>hit it. And then if they made it ninety seconds,

0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:39.400
<v Speaker 2>that's when they would judge and potentially win. Yeah, and

0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.840
<v Speaker 2>it was just so I found a description of it.

0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:50.840
<v Speaker 2>This is Encyclopedia Britannica. It was quote part talent show parentheses,

0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:57.280
<v Speaker 2>most contestants conspicuously lacked talent, part demented variety show. That's

0:20:57.359 --> 0:20:59.840
<v Speaker 2>that's Encyclopedia Britannica describing this.

0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:04.520
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean it was really really funny because the

0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:07.119
<v Speaker 1>talent was bad and you could laugh at that. The

0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.960
<v Speaker 1>panelists really yucked it up, and sometimes one would have

0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:13.480
<v Speaker 1>the gong hammer whatever you call the thing you hit

0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:16.160
<v Speaker 1>the gong with is the mallet, I guess and other

0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:18.480
<v Speaker 1>celebrity the panelists would be trying to rip it out

0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:20.159
<v Speaker 1>of their hands and like no, no, no, let it go.

0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:23.320
<v Speaker 1>They're all hamming it up. And Chuck Barris as host

0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:28.760
<v Speaker 1>was he's probably the weirdest TV show host in TV

0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:32.960
<v Speaker 1>show history, and just how he hosted a show and

0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:35.679
<v Speaker 1>how he behaved that the weird things he did it

0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:37.760
<v Speaker 1>was just very awkward and strange.

0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:42.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Like he would hide his face by pulling hats

0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:44.000
<v Speaker 2>like the gold hats that he would wear down over

0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:47.399
<v Speaker 2>his eyes, and he'd be talking to the audience like

0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:50.040
<v Speaker 2>like continuing on the show, but he clearly wanted to

0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:54.240
<v Speaker 2>crawl into that hat and hide. He was beyond awkward.

0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:56.960
<v Speaker 2>So when you put all this stuff together, like bad

0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:00.880
<v Speaker 2>talent acts that aren't trying to be bad in some cases,

0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:06.280
<v Speaker 2>a really weird, awkward host that's clearly uncomfortable hosting a

0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:09.600
<v Speaker 2>game show, and then you know these these, like you said,

0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:13.600
<v Speaker 2>celebrity judges on the panel, hamming it up like you

0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:16.240
<v Speaker 2>have a cult classic today. But at the time, there

0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:20.280
<v Speaker 2>was nothing even remotely like this that anyone had ever done. Ever.

0:22:20.480 --> 0:22:24.479
<v Speaker 2>It was totally groundbreaking. I was two, but even I

0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:27.080
<v Speaker 2>knew that at the time that that was a groundbreaking show.

0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:32.120
<v Speaker 1>You said, Mama, ground baking. That's right, yes, dear.

0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:34.520
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's exactly what she said too.

0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:37.920
<v Speaker 1>So I don't think we said that if you won,

0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:40.040
<v Speaker 1>you get a little Gong trophy and you get a

0:22:40.160 --> 0:22:42.840
<v Speaker 1>check for five hundred and sixteen dollars and thirty two cents,

0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:46.439
<v Speaker 1>which was the SAG minimum daily rate at that time.

0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:51.560
<v Speaker 1>And what the Gong Show, again in retrospect, became known

0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.600
<v Speaker 1>for in some ways was the fact that some real,

0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:59.040
<v Speaker 1>you know, talented people sometimes got their break there, sometimes

0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:01.040
<v Speaker 1>didn't necessarily get their break, but they were it was

0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:03.600
<v Speaker 1>the first time they'd ever done anything you know on

0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:08.639
<v Speaker 1>television before country singer songwriter box Car Willie was on

0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:12.359
<v Speaker 1>the band Oingo Boingo when they were the Mystic Knights

0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:13.200
<v Speaker 1>of the Oingo Boingo.

0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:15.840
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they would go on to Their biggest hit was

0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:16.879
<v Speaker 2>Weird Science.

0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:20.800
<v Speaker 1>Oh much other, I mean og Go boing Go was great.

0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:22.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but I mean their big hit was that, and

0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:24.840
<v Speaker 2>then the other one was dead Man's Party, which I

0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:27.760
<v Speaker 2>think they played tad a party and back to School.

0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:30.480
<v Speaker 1>Probably, And they're probably best known now for the fact

0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:33.159
<v Speaker 1>that their lead singer and songwriter was Danny Elfman.

0:23:33.760 --> 0:23:37.680
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so Danny Elfman. He was a huge composer, especially

0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:39.920
<v Speaker 2>in the late eighties early nineties. I mean he did

0:23:39.920 --> 0:23:42.639
<v Speaker 2>some really high profile stuff, one of which was the

0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:43.480
<v Speaker 2>Simpsons theme.

0:23:43.600 --> 0:23:44.640
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, Batman.

0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:48.080
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. He also a lot of Tim Burton stuff too.

0:23:48.640 --> 0:23:52.000
<v Speaker 2>He also did the theme. He composed the theme to

0:23:52.200 --> 0:23:55.119
<v Speaker 2>pee Wee Herman, pee Wee Herman's I don't know if

0:23:55.119 --> 0:23:57.840
<v Speaker 2>it was pee Wee's Playhouse, but certainly pee Wee's Big

0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:02.800
<v Speaker 2>Adventure he composed. And that's interesting because they actually could

0:24:02.800 --> 0:24:06.440
<v Speaker 2>have potentially crossed paths on the Gong Show because Owingo

0:24:06.480 --> 0:24:09.280
<v Speaker 2>Boingo wasn't the only one on there. Paul Rubins was

0:24:09.560 --> 0:24:11.560
<v Speaker 2>as he was kind of trying to start to develop

0:24:11.560 --> 0:24:12.800
<v Speaker 2>as Pee Wee Herman character.

0:24:13.400 --> 0:24:15.600
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he was on He was on The Dating Game

0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:18.280
<v Speaker 1>a few times as sort of the proto Pee Wee

0:24:18.280 --> 0:24:24.280
<v Speaker 1>Herman character. The Gong Show fourteen times, and he later

0:24:24.320 --> 0:24:26.560
<v Speaker 1>in his career credited Chuck Barris. He was like, if

0:24:26.560 --> 0:24:29.560
<v Speaker 1>it hadn't been for me getting just the SAG minimum

0:24:29.600 --> 0:24:33.480
<v Speaker 1>payment to be on that show, that made me able

0:24:33.520 --> 0:24:35.639
<v Speaker 1>to focus on my career and then my work with

0:24:35.680 --> 0:24:38.080
<v Speaker 1>the Groundlings improv group and not have to get another job.

0:24:39.600 --> 0:24:42.640
<v Speaker 1>And the fact that like I got to workshop this character,

0:24:43.760 --> 0:24:45.800
<v Speaker 1>it got me in the public eye. Like he really

0:24:45.880 --> 0:24:50.760
<v Speaker 1>kind of credited Chuck Barris with not only helping him,

0:24:50.760 --> 0:24:54.800
<v Speaker 1>but all kinds of struggling artists besides Oeo Bongo and Boxcar.

0:24:54.840 --> 0:24:58.080
<v Speaker 1>Willie Andrey and mccartial was a twelve year old who

0:24:58.119 --> 0:24:59.879
<v Speaker 1>performed on the Gong Show and she would get ca

0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:04.040
<v Speaker 1>as the Broadway lead in Annie because she was discovered

0:25:04.080 --> 0:25:07.000
<v Speaker 1>on that show. So you know, things like that were happening.

0:25:07.000 --> 0:25:09.240
<v Speaker 1>Another singer name, did you mention Cheryl Lynn?

0:25:09.560 --> 0:25:10.159
<v Speaker 2>I didn't know.

0:25:10.640 --> 0:25:13.119
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, she got a recording contract. Another singer because of

0:25:13.160 --> 0:25:14.840
<v Speaker 1>her appearance on The Gong Show.

0:25:14.920 --> 0:25:18.040
<v Speaker 2>So she was when she recorded that disco hit, got

0:25:18.040 --> 0:25:18.600
<v Speaker 2>to be real.

0:25:19.520 --> 0:25:20.400
<v Speaker 1>I don't know that song.

0:25:20.600 --> 0:25:24.919
<v Speaker 2>It's got to be real, Susu su su su sue.

0:25:25.080 --> 0:25:28.359
<v Speaker 2>I gotta have it, baby, you know that song?

0:25:29.119 --> 0:25:29.879
<v Speaker 1>I don't know.

0:25:29.920 --> 0:25:31.480
<v Speaker 2>Please don't make me continue.

0:25:32.080 --> 0:25:33.680
<v Speaker 1>That's okay, I'll look it up.

0:25:34.240 --> 0:25:37.080
<v Speaker 2>So, yes, she really said disco hit, among other things

0:25:37.119 --> 0:25:38.679
<v Speaker 2>from what I know. But there's one more thing I

0:25:38.720 --> 0:25:43.640
<v Speaker 2>wanted to to mention about Paul Rubins. He didn't always

0:25:43.680 --> 0:25:46.280
<v Speaker 2>do pee wee. One of the things he did, and

0:25:46.320 --> 0:25:47.879
<v Speaker 2>I could not find a video of it, but I

0:25:47.920 --> 0:25:51.880
<v Speaker 2>saw it written of He impersonated a dripping faucet as

0:25:51.920 --> 0:25:52.800
<v Speaker 2>one of his acts.

0:25:53.720 --> 0:25:54.360
<v Speaker 1>That's pretty good.

0:25:54.560 --> 0:25:56.200
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I thought that was very creative.

0:25:56.840 --> 0:25:58.280
<v Speaker 1>It was, I mean, he was a groundling. He's a

0:25:58.320 --> 0:26:03.119
<v Speaker 1>very funny guy. He got he was. I mean, he

0:26:03.240 --> 0:26:06.080
<v Speaker 1>was known most for pee wee, obviously, and I think

0:26:06.080 --> 0:26:08.040
<v Speaker 1>he at times felt like he was sort of stuck

0:26:08.080 --> 0:26:10.119
<v Speaker 1>in that character. It became so big he couldn't do

0:26:10.119 --> 0:26:13.399
<v Speaker 1>anything else. But he was also very in love and

0:26:13.480 --> 0:26:15.480
<v Speaker 1>appreciative with that character. You know.

0:26:15.640 --> 0:26:18.400
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we saw his you mean, I went to Los

0:26:18.440 --> 0:26:21.760
<v Speaker 2>Angeles and saw his live pee Wee pee Wee's Playhouse.

0:26:21.840 --> 0:26:25.040
<v Speaker 2>But that was so it was really good. And yes

0:26:25.080 --> 0:26:27.240
<v Speaker 2>he was trapped in Pee Wee Herman for the most part.

0:26:27.280 --> 0:26:30.159
<v Speaker 2>But he did a great turn in Mystery Men as

0:26:30.160 --> 0:26:32.840
<v Speaker 2>the Spleen. Remember, Yeah, good guy.

0:26:33.359 --> 0:26:36.240
<v Speaker 1>He didn't get enough of those chances, unfortunately. But I

0:26:36.280 --> 0:26:38.360
<v Speaker 1>think we should do a Peewee episode at some point.

0:26:38.320 --> 0:26:42.159
<v Speaker 2>You bet, Let's do it a Pee Wee three parter.

0:26:43.680 --> 0:26:47.720
<v Speaker 1>All right, So the end would come for Chuck Barris

0:26:47.760 --> 0:26:50.160
<v Speaker 1>as far as his TV work goes, at his peak,

0:26:50.680 --> 0:26:53.240
<v Speaker 1>this is staggering. And this is you know, mind you

0:26:53.280 --> 0:26:56.040
<v Speaker 1>a time when there were three main television networks, it

0:26:56.080 --> 0:26:59.800
<v Speaker 1>was even pre Fox. As far as programming goes, he

0:27:00.119 --> 0:27:06.160
<v Speaker 1>supplying twenty seven hours a week of programming of TV

0:27:06.320 --> 0:27:09.040
<v Speaker 1>game shows, which is I mean, I don't know what

0:27:09.080 --> 0:27:13.760
<v Speaker 1>percentage of that overall, you know, of their overall programming

0:27:13.760 --> 0:27:16.160
<v Speaker 1>that was, but twenty seven hours a week is your

0:27:16.200 --> 0:27:18.480
<v Speaker 1>your king Daddy TV. If you're doing that, Yeah, you.

0:27:18.800 --> 0:27:22.600
<v Speaker 2>Literally can fill more than a full day of programming

0:27:22.680 --> 0:27:23.959
<v Speaker 2>every week of new stuff.

0:27:24.000 --> 0:27:29.320
<v Speaker 1>That's crazy, Oh, totally. And in nineteen eighty sort of

0:27:29.320 --> 0:27:31.040
<v Speaker 1>at the peak, I guess it was starting to wane

0:27:31.080 --> 0:27:33.640
<v Speaker 1>a little bit, he shut it down, sold his TV

0:27:33.720 --> 0:27:37.800
<v Speaker 1>company for supposedly one hundred million bucks, did little TV

0:27:37.880 --> 0:27:40.160
<v Speaker 1>here and there, But basically that was it for him.

0:27:40.440 --> 0:27:44.240
<v Speaker 1>And one of the reasons, and there are many, you know,

0:27:44.520 --> 0:27:47.720
<v Speaker 1>taste change and the people were sort of moving away

0:27:47.760 --> 0:27:49.120
<v Speaker 1>from that kind of thing a little bit, I think.

0:27:49.200 --> 0:27:51.680
<v Speaker 1>But the show called Three is a Crowd that he

0:27:51.760 --> 0:27:54.399
<v Speaker 1>pitched in the sixties and then would later do a

0:27:54.440 --> 0:27:56.359
<v Speaker 1>pilot for in the seventies had a lot to do

0:27:56.440 --> 0:27:57.160
<v Speaker 1>with his downfall.

0:27:57.359 --> 0:28:00.359
<v Speaker 2>My goodness. So the original version was one of the

0:28:00.359 --> 0:28:02.879
<v Speaker 2>most abhorrent ideas anyone's ever come up with for a

0:28:02.920 --> 0:28:05.800
<v Speaker 2>game show. It was you were going to have a

0:28:05.840 --> 0:28:09.560
<v Speaker 2>man and his wife, and then the man's mistress, and

0:28:09.680 --> 0:28:12.960
<v Speaker 2>the mistress and the wife would compete answering questions like

0:28:13.000 --> 0:28:15.200
<v Speaker 2>on the Newlywed Game to see who knew him better,

0:28:16.040 --> 0:28:21.679
<v Speaker 2>ivable imagine, And apparently they made a pilot. I can't

0:28:22.480 --> 0:28:25.960
<v Speaker 2>think about how ruined those people's lives were like, even

0:28:26.040 --> 0:28:28.439
<v Speaker 2>if it sounded like a lark at the time, like

0:28:28.600 --> 0:28:31.800
<v Speaker 2>just to just to go through that in actuality had

0:28:31.840 --> 0:28:35.320
<v Speaker 2>to be totally different from the idea of it. So

0:28:35.359 --> 0:28:38.080
<v Speaker 2>he revamped it a little bit and then replaced the

0:28:38.120 --> 0:28:41.560
<v Speaker 2>Mistress with the Secretary, and it was still the same format,

0:28:41.600 --> 0:28:45.000
<v Speaker 2>and even that alone proved to be extremely awkward and

0:28:45.080 --> 0:28:46.160
<v Speaker 2>uncomfortable to watch.

0:28:46.600 --> 0:28:49.200
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, thinly Veiled Mistress is what they should have called it.

0:28:49.320 --> 0:28:52.640
<v Speaker 2>Sure, Sure, So that didn't last very long, and that

0:28:52.680 --> 0:28:57.080
<v Speaker 2>one seemed to really draw the most ire. He got

0:28:57.200 --> 0:29:01.560
<v Speaker 2>the goal of the Grand Goble Award that year from

0:29:01.600 --> 0:29:05.560
<v Speaker 2>the National Organization for Women, which dubbed him the year's

0:29:05.680 --> 0:29:08.920
<v Speaker 2>largest living Turkey. And this he'd been doing this for

0:29:09.040 --> 0:29:11.960
<v Speaker 2>decades already. But that's how bad that show was. That Like,

0:29:12.000 --> 0:29:13.760
<v Speaker 2>they gave him that, and they said that this was

0:29:13.760 --> 0:29:17.040
<v Speaker 2>from his lifetime body of work. But that's how bad

0:29:17.120 --> 0:29:21.760
<v Speaker 2>Three's a Crowd was received. And apparently the United Auto

0:29:21.800 --> 0:29:25.600
<v Speaker 2>Workers also came out against it because they represented a

0:29:25.600 --> 0:29:29.920
<v Speaker 2>lot of women workers back then, So the UAW and

0:29:30.040 --> 0:29:33.920
<v Speaker 2>now came out against it really hard. And he ended

0:29:34.000 --> 0:29:36.160
<v Speaker 2>up just saying, like, you know what, forget it. I'm done,

0:29:37.080 --> 0:29:38.959
<v Speaker 2>not just I'm going to like fade in the background

0:29:39.000 --> 0:29:41.840
<v Speaker 2>and keep producing shows. He I think sold Chuck Bearris

0:29:41.880 --> 0:29:43.640
<v Speaker 2>productions and just retreated.

0:29:44.360 --> 0:29:48.600
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he retreated, but not before he made one final mistake,

0:29:48.840 --> 0:29:53.760
<v Speaker 1>which was in nineteen eighty the Gong Show movie pretty

0:29:53.800 --> 0:29:56.520
<v Speaker 1>much universally known as one of the worst movies ever made.

0:29:56.800 --> 0:30:02.280
<v Speaker 1>It was Robert Downey Sor was gonna write and direct

0:30:02.320 --> 0:30:05.560
<v Speaker 1>it as a slapstick comedy. Chuck Barris didn't like that direction,

0:30:06.080 --> 0:30:09.000
<v Speaker 1>so he took over as director, turned it to a

0:30:09.000 --> 0:30:12.560
<v Speaker 1>more serious thing about him. And you know Chuck Barris's

0:30:12.600 --> 0:30:16.160
<v Speaker 1>story of and how difficult it was to be sort

0:30:16.160 --> 0:30:18.880
<v Speaker 1>of known as the King of schlock, and it was

0:30:19.000 --> 0:30:24.080
<v Speaker 1>just a mess. Yeah. I didn't see it, but I

0:30:24.160 --> 0:30:26.520
<v Speaker 1>remember when it came out, and I even remember at

0:30:26.520 --> 0:30:28.600
<v Speaker 1>the time it being a massive failure.

0:30:28.920 --> 0:30:30.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it was a flop right out of the case,

0:30:30.800 --> 0:30:33.920
<v Speaker 2>not just with critics but with audiences too. And I

0:30:34.000 --> 0:30:37.160
<v Speaker 2>watched a couple of trailers for it, and I mean,

0:30:37.480 --> 0:30:39.840
<v Speaker 2>he didn't seem to have really gotten rid of the

0:30:39.840 --> 0:30:44.080
<v Speaker 2>slapstick element. So he tried to combine a serious, sympathetic

0:30:44.160 --> 0:30:48.040
<v Speaker 2>look at his life right slapstick, and yeah, it did

0:30:48.080 --> 0:30:50.840
<v Speaker 2>not work at all. If you've ever have you ever

0:30:50.840 --> 0:30:53.040
<v Speaker 2>seen Ring Master the Jerry Springer.

0:30:52.800 --> 0:30:56.000
<v Speaker 1>Movie, Oh no, is it a documentary or no?

0:30:56.040 --> 0:30:58.840
<v Speaker 2>It's a slightly fictionalized version where he plays himself kind

0:30:58.840 --> 0:31:01.480
<v Speaker 2>of like our TV show. But it is interesting, Like,

0:31:01.520 --> 0:31:04.920
<v Speaker 2>there's no way Jerry Springer didn't watch the Gong Show

0:31:05.000 --> 0:31:07.600
<v Speaker 2>movie and say, like, I want to remake that. It's

0:31:07.720 --> 0:31:08.760
<v Speaker 2>basically what he did.

0:31:09.760 --> 0:31:11.400
<v Speaker 1>You know. I think the lesson we can learn here

0:31:11.440 --> 0:31:13.400
<v Speaker 1>from our TV show, from that one and from the

0:31:13.400 --> 0:31:16.320
<v Speaker 1>Gong Show movie is it slightly fictionalized versions of a

0:31:16.360 --> 0:31:17.680
<v Speaker 1>real job. Don't go over to it.

0:31:17.760 --> 0:31:22.920
<v Speaker 2>They don't work, don't try, don't even do it. You

0:31:22.960 --> 0:31:25.040
<v Speaker 2>want to take a break and come back for the

0:31:25.120 --> 0:31:25.760
<v Speaker 2>rest of this.

0:31:26.440 --> 0:31:28.560
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean, I think everyone knows what's hanging out

0:31:28.600 --> 0:31:32.080
<v Speaker 1>there coming up in act three? Did Chuck Barris assassinate

0:31:32.160 --> 0:31:34.320
<v Speaker 1>people for a living while he was a TV producer?

0:31:34.560 --> 0:31:35.040
<v Speaker 1>Right for this?

0:32:00.360 --> 0:32:03.520
<v Speaker 2>Okay, Chuck, like you said. In nineteen eighty four, Chuck

0:32:03.560 --> 0:32:08.360
<v Speaker 2>Barris released an autobiography called Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

0:32:08.920 --> 0:32:13.200
<v Speaker 2>The subtitle was an unauthorized autobiography which is pretty funny,

0:32:13.640 --> 0:32:16.560
<v Speaker 2>and in it he recounts, apparently as far as the

0:32:16.600 --> 0:32:20.520
<v Speaker 2>critics concern were concerned, like pretty masterfully. He recounts his

0:32:20.560 --> 0:32:25.920
<v Speaker 2>life as a game show producer as a hated destroyer

0:32:26.000 --> 0:32:31.760
<v Speaker 2>of civility and taste, you know, across American culture, and

0:32:31.880 --> 0:32:34.600
<v Speaker 2>just how he dealt with that but some of the

0:32:34.640 --> 0:32:38.760
<v Speaker 2>other parts were also part of his life at the time,

0:32:38.960 --> 0:32:42.360
<v Speaker 2>mixed in where he was going abroad as a CIA

0:32:42.480 --> 0:32:46.640
<v Speaker 2>hitman and carrying out contract killings for the CIA, thirty

0:32:46.640 --> 0:32:50.000
<v Speaker 2>three of them by his count, and he would describe

0:32:50.040 --> 0:32:52.960
<v Speaker 2>these in graphic detail. Apparently there was one where he

0:32:53.200 --> 0:32:56.320
<v Speaker 2>writes about having broken some guy's front teeth because he

0:32:56.400 --> 0:32:58.600
<v Speaker 2>jammed the gun with the silencer in there, and it's

0:32:58.720 --> 0:33:02.720
<v Speaker 2>really graphic stuff, and he's writing about this totally matter

0:33:02.840 --> 0:33:06.400
<v Speaker 2>of factly and seemingly totally un ironic, as if he's

0:33:06.440 --> 0:33:10.320
<v Speaker 2>revealing to the world he was both this producer's legendary

0:33:10.320 --> 0:33:12.680
<v Speaker 2>producer and secretly at the same time a hitman.

0:33:13.480 --> 0:33:18.000
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and you know, the the idea was that he was.

0:33:18.080 --> 0:33:21.560
<v Speaker 1>It was the perfect cover because nobody would suspect Chuck Barris,

0:33:21.680 --> 0:33:24.160
<v Speaker 1>TV producer King of Schlock of doing something like this.

0:33:24.800 --> 0:33:28.720
<v Speaker 1>So the CIA just loved it. Did you see the movie?

0:33:28.960 --> 0:33:30.840
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I thought it was if I remember correctly, I

0:33:30.840 --> 0:33:31.800
<v Speaker 2>thought it was pretty good.

0:33:32.240 --> 0:33:35.200
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it was pretty good. It wasn't great, but it

0:33:35.200 --> 0:33:37.160
<v Speaker 1>was pretty good. It was it was a weird movie

0:33:37.200 --> 0:33:41.560
<v Speaker 1>and it was a weird book. When there were some critics,

0:33:42.680 --> 0:33:45.160
<v Speaker 1>I believe Jeff Simon from Buffalo News said that Chuck

0:33:45.200 --> 0:33:49.160
<v Speaker 1>Barris is alive and well and living in schizophrenia. Other

0:33:49.200 --> 0:33:54.760
<v Speaker 1>reviewers tried to suggest that it was a metaphor and

0:33:54.800 --> 0:33:57.240
<v Speaker 1>that it's really about a guy that's struggling so much

0:33:57.280 --> 0:34:02.120
<v Speaker 1>with his life as an outsider that it was you know,

0:34:02.240 --> 0:34:04.000
<v Speaker 1>it was all just metaphor.

0:34:03.800 --> 0:34:06.240
<v Speaker 2>Wait wait, you got to finish the rest like this

0:34:06.360 --> 0:34:10.160
<v Speaker 2>A Gorman guy really missed the mark if you ask me, all.

0:34:10.200 --> 0:34:12.880
<v Speaker 1>Right, suggesting with this conceit is that he spent his

0:34:12.920 --> 0:34:15.960
<v Speaker 1>life as an outsider, an assassin of sorts, dealing with

0:34:16.000 --> 0:34:18.319
<v Speaker 1>a species that frightens and baffles him.

0:34:18.440 --> 0:34:22.480
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's like terribly, terribly terrible.

0:34:22.680 --> 0:34:25.520
<v Speaker 1>I think a lot of leeway there for what Barris

0:34:25.719 --> 0:34:27.960
<v Speaker 1>was intending, and I don't know what he was intending,

0:34:28.000 --> 0:34:31.480
<v Speaker 1>and no one really does. The only interview with any

0:34:31.480 --> 0:34:33.520
<v Speaker 1>clear sort of indication that it was all a put

0:34:33.560 --> 0:34:37.120
<v Speaker 1>on was when he gave to Regis and Cindy Garvey

0:34:37.120 --> 0:34:40.040
<v Speaker 1>on the Morning Show when the book was released, when

0:34:40.080 --> 0:34:43.920
<v Speaker 1>he very, uh, you know, in a very straightforward way,

0:34:44.000 --> 0:34:46.400
<v Speaker 1>said I was not in CIA. I wanted to be

0:34:47.239 --> 0:34:50.399
<v Speaker 1>got an FBI background check, but then got my job

0:34:50.400 --> 0:34:52.480
<v Speaker 1>working in television, which is what I wanted to do,

0:34:53.160 --> 0:34:55.600
<v Speaker 1>and that the version of me in this book is

0:34:55.680 --> 0:34:59.080
<v Speaker 1>just a character. But he did say a character crucified

0:34:59.080 --> 0:35:02.640
<v Speaker 1>by the critics for inner chain the public. So there,

0:35:02.680 --> 0:35:05.320
<v Speaker 1>you know, there was maybe a little bit of metaphor

0:35:05.360 --> 0:35:06.080
<v Speaker 1>to it. After all.

0:35:06.239 --> 0:35:08.680
<v Speaker 2>What's weird to me is it doesn't seem that anyone

0:35:08.880 --> 0:35:12.120
<v Speaker 2>just took it as face value. Is not even a

0:35:12.160 --> 0:35:14.640
<v Speaker 2>metaphor just an interesting thing that he did in his

0:35:14.680 --> 0:35:18.279
<v Speaker 2>autobiography right punch it up. Everybody seems to just be

0:35:18.400 --> 0:35:23.279
<v Speaker 2>totally perplexed by it. The best explanation I saw apparently

0:35:23.320 --> 0:35:26.000
<v Speaker 2>he hinted in some interviews that he used it as

0:35:26.000 --> 0:35:29.160
<v Speaker 2>a device to point out that all of those critics

0:35:29.200 --> 0:35:33.480
<v Speaker 2>and people in like government who criticized him so openly

0:35:33.520 --> 0:35:37.120
<v Speaker 2>and so meanly in a lot of cases too, would

0:35:37.200 --> 0:35:40.680
<v Speaker 2>also have totally praised him for killing on behalf of

0:35:40.719 --> 0:35:44.279
<v Speaker 2>the American government. That seems like a stretch as well,

0:35:44.320 --> 0:35:47.360
<v Speaker 2>But it's better than Ed Gorman's interpretation, I think.

0:35:48.040 --> 0:35:50.560
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean, it's sort of that. And you know,

0:35:50.600 --> 0:35:53.359
<v Speaker 1>I do agree with this as the American way as

0:35:53.400 --> 0:35:58.440
<v Speaker 1>far as entertainment goes, which is boo sex and yay violence.

0:35:59.560 --> 0:36:02.880
<v Speaker 1>But you know, there's a difference between you know, he

0:36:02.920 --> 0:36:06.080
<v Speaker 1>wasn't filming like tasteful love scenes. It was some pretty

0:36:06.080 --> 0:36:07.400
<v Speaker 1>blatant misogyny happening.

0:36:07.760 --> 0:36:11.200
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean and through over and over again. Even so, like,

0:36:11.200 --> 0:36:13.320
<v Speaker 2>like I was saying a couple of times at the time,

0:36:13.400 --> 0:36:16.520
<v Speaker 2>this is just how things were. So it really goes

0:36:16.560 --> 0:36:18.400
<v Speaker 2>to show just how much over the line he went

0:36:18.480 --> 0:36:21.960
<v Speaker 2>that he was roundly criticized and made fun of him,

0:36:22.000 --> 0:36:26.400
<v Speaker 2>mocked by people for the level of misogyny his shows displayed.

0:36:26.560 --> 0:36:30.080
<v Speaker 2>That's how misogynistic his shows were in a lot of cases.

0:36:30.680 --> 0:36:35.319
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, for sure. The CIA, for their as far as

0:36:35.360 --> 0:36:38.440
<v Speaker 1>they go, they were like, of course. In two thousand

0:36:38.440 --> 0:36:40.520
<v Speaker 1>and two, a spokesman named Tom chris Bell for the

0:36:40.560 --> 0:36:43.480
<v Speaker 1>CIA said, it's absurd. It sounds like he's been standing

0:36:43.480 --> 0:36:46.439
<v Speaker 1>a little too close to the gong all those years, which,

0:36:46.480 --> 0:36:49.200
<v Speaker 1>of course Chuck Barris said, yeah, of course, that's what

0:36:49.239 --> 0:36:50.880
<v Speaker 1>they're going to say. Have you ever heard the CIA

0:36:51.160 --> 0:36:52.759
<v Speaker 1>acknowledged someone was an assassin?

0:36:52.880 --> 0:36:55.720
<v Speaker 2>Right, it's a good, good, good point.

0:36:56.200 --> 0:36:58.240
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and it's seemingly a good way to sell books,

0:36:58.440 --> 0:37:00.200
<v Speaker 1>even though it didn't turn out that way, right.

0:37:00.320 --> 0:37:03.719
<v Speaker 2>No, it languished an obscurity for twenty years before his

0:37:03.800 --> 0:37:07.239
<v Speaker 2>friend Andrew Lazar, producer picked Up. Apparently sold less than

0:37:07.280 --> 0:37:11.800
<v Speaker 2>a thousand copies, which was about one percent of the

0:37:12.920 --> 0:37:15.200
<v Speaker 2>run the first and I guess well the first run.

0:37:15.680 --> 0:37:17.919
<v Speaker 2>They later re released it when the movie came out.

0:37:19.160 --> 0:37:20.920
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, one of his friends was like, you know,

0:37:21.040 --> 0:37:23.160
<v Speaker 2>I've always thought this was a pretty cool book. Let's

0:37:23.200 --> 0:37:26.680
<v Speaker 2>see what Charlie Kaufman can do to it. So they

0:37:26.680 --> 0:37:29.720
<v Speaker 2>had Charlie Kaufman write a screenplay based on the book.

0:37:30.280 --> 0:37:32.920
<v Speaker 2>And no one's ever seen that, No one, as far

0:37:32.920 --> 0:37:34.439
<v Speaker 2>as I know, well, I don't know that, no one's

0:37:34.440 --> 0:37:36.880
<v Speaker 2>ever seen it. There's a script out there that he wrote,

0:37:36.880 --> 0:37:40.480
<v Speaker 2>but it never got made because George Clooney came along and,

0:37:40.520 --> 0:37:43.160
<v Speaker 2>like I said, made the decision of Nope, we're gonna

0:37:43.160 --> 0:37:44.960
<v Speaker 2>present all this his face value. We're not gonna do

0:37:44.960 --> 0:37:48.440
<v Speaker 2>anything weird with it. We're just gonna basically shoot the

0:37:48.440 --> 0:37:50.800
<v Speaker 2>movie version of his book.

0:37:51.280 --> 0:37:56.560
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean, an interesting choice, and it was a

0:37:56.560 --> 0:38:00.520
<v Speaker 1>pretty good movie. Like Sam Rockwell was great as barrass

0:38:00.560 --> 0:38:04.839
<v Speaker 1>like the perfect casting. But man, Charlie Kaufman is so

0:38:06.000 --> 0:38:08.719
<v Speaker 1>unique in his take and spin on things. I would

0:38:08.760 --> 0:38:11.200
<v Speaker 1>have really loved to see in what that movie would

0:38:11.200 --> 0:38:11.440
<v Speaker 1>have been.

0:38:11.520 --> 0:38:13.920
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I wonder if the script is out there, surely

0:38:14.000 --> 0:38:16.680
<v Speaker 2>somebody had the wherewithal to be like, this needs to

0:38:16.719 --> 0:38:18.840
<v Speaker 2>be out there in the world.

0:38:19.000 --> 0:38:20.960
<v Speaker 1>Maybe we can get our hands on it. I remember

0:38:21.040 --> 0:38:23.759
<v Speaker 1>years ago my friend Stacy, who works still works in

0:38:23.760 --> 0:38:26.520
<v Speaker 1>the film business, would give me screenplays at the time

0:38:26.520 --> 0:38:28.719
<v Speaker 1>when she would get them from her jobs, just to

0:38:29.160 --> 0:38:30.759
<v Speaker 1>I was trying to learn how to write scripts, and

0:38:30.800 --> 0:38:33.520
<v Speaker 1>so it's always good to read scripts. And she gave

0:38:33.560 --> 0:38:38.600
<v Speaker 1>me one called The Orchid Thief like Charlie Kaufman, and

0:38:38.840 --> 0:38:42.000
<v Speaker 1>I read it, and I read it in a night

0:38:42.120 --> 0:38:44.960
<v Speaker 1>and called her the next day and I was like, Stacy,

0:38:45.040 --> 0:38:47.840
<v Speaker 1>I've never read anything like this before in my life, Like,

0:38:48.239 --> 0:38:51.880
<v Speaker 1>this is the craziest movie and narrative I've ever heard of.

0:38:51.920 --> 0:38:55.279
<v Speaker 1>And that would become adaptations, and that's the first time

0:38:55.280 --> 0:38:58.200
<v Speaker 1>I had heard of Charlie. Charliekaufman was reading that script

0:38:58.480 --> 0:39:00.400
<v Speaker 1>like before they even made the movie. This is in

0:39:00.480 --> 0:39:01.040
<v Speaker 1>pre production.

0:39:01.160 --> 0:39:03.719
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and then you follow that up with being John

0:39:03.719 --> 0:39:07.600
<v Speaker 2>Malkovich or vice versa. I can't remember. No, No, he's

0:39:07.600 --> 0:39:15.960
<v Speaker 2>so yeah, because John Cusack plays a cameo in adaptation, right, yeah, yeah,

0:39:16.040 --> 0:39:18.960
<v Speaker 2>I would like to read that script too, the movie itself.

0:39:19.400 --> 0:39:21.120
<v Speaker 2>Did you notice I don't know if this is just

0:39:21.160 --> 0:39:24.400
<v Speaker 2>my interpretation, but in the early two thousands, about the

0:39:24.440 --> 0:39:30.200
<v Speaker 2>first decade, movies were like overly polished, overly tight. Yeah,

0:39:30.480 --> 0:39:32.359
<v Speaker 2>the Bob Crane movie, what was that one?

0:39:32.960 --> 0:39:36.160
<v Speaker 1>Oh h At one point your favorite movie auto Focus?

0:39:36.280 --> 0:39:39.360
<v Speaker 2>Auto Focus? Right, Yes, it was just everything is just

0:39:39.560 --> 0:39:44.800
<v Speaker 2>too polish, too perfect, and I think that was the

0:39:44.800 --> 0:39:48.359
<v Speaker 2>Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was another good example. Catch

0:39:48.400 --> 0:39:50.760
<v Speaker 2>Me If you Can, I think, is the pinnacle example

0:39:50.800 --> 0:39:53.960
<v Speaker 2>of this where these movies are so refined and so

0:39:54.080 --> 0:39:57.120
<v Speaker 2>polished and so clearly done by Hollywood people who have

0:39:57.120 --> 0:39:58.640
<v Speaker 2>been doing it for so long that they've kind of

0:39:58.680 --> 0:40:02.960
<v Speaker 2>lost the not edge, but just the heart to what

0:40:03.000 --> 0:40:07.000
<v Speaker 2>they're doing that it's not actually particularly entertaining for me.

0:40:08.160 --> 0:40:10.239
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I mean with Catch Me if you Can, it

0:40:10.239 --> 0:40:13.360
<v Speaker 1>makes sense because it's Spielberg. But Auto Focus was Paul Schrader,

0:40:13.480 --> 0:40:16.600
<v Speaker 1>so that's I mean, he's not known for being slick

0:40:16.640 --> 0:40:19.960
<v Speaker 1>in Hollywood, so that is a I just remember early

0:40:20.000 --> 0:40:21.359
<v Speaker 1>on when you and I were getting to be friends

0:40:21.400 --> 0:40:23.440
<v Speaker 1>at work, he talked a lot about Auto Focus.

0:40:23.560 --> 0:40:26.200
<v Speaker 2>I love that movie at first, Yeah, I do. I

0:40:26.239 --> 0:40:29.640
<v Speaker 2>haven't seen it for a while. Yeah, good movie, Yeah,

0:40:30.160 --> 0:40:32.319
<v Speaker 2>Greg Near what kind of casting was that?

0:40:32.480 --> 0:40:34.800
<v Speaker 1>It's just nuts. Yeah, he was good though.

0:40:34.920 --> 0:40:39.080
<v Speaker 2>So spoiler alert. Chuck Bears died. He died in twenty

0:40:39.120 --> 0:40:41.760
<v Speaker 2>seventeen at aged the ripe old age of eighty seven,

0:40:41.800 --> 0:40:45.000
<v Speaker 2>although it's not entirely clear he was eighty seven, eighty eight,

0:40:45.040 --> 0:40:47.959
<v Speaker 2>eighty six, Yeah, but that's what they put down in

0:40:48.000 --> 0:40:51.359
<v Speaker 2>his obituary at eighty seven. He also wrote some other

0:40:51.400 --> 0:40:53.799
<v Speaker 2>books over the years. He did a follow up to

0:40:54.000 --> 0:40:58.560
<v Speaker 2>Confessions of a Dangerous Mind called Oh what was it?

0:40:58.600 --> 0:41:01.480
<v Speaker 2>Called Badgrass Never Died. I think that he released in

0:41:01.480 --> 0:41:04.279
<v Speaker 2>two thousand and four, and he doesn't mention he talks

0:41:04.320 --> 0:41:06.680
<v Speaker 2>about a lot of the same scenes, does not mention

0:41:07.080 --> 0:41:10.520
<v Speaker 2>any of the CIA stuff in that one, which.

0:41:10.320 --> 0:41:12.000
<v Speaker 1>Is just is almost like a two over.

0:41:12.440 --> 0:41:14.719
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and I think he was toying with people. I'm

0:41:14.719 --> 0:41:17.759
<v Speaker 2>not sure, but that's my take. And he said that

0:41:17.800 --> 0:41:20.160
<v Speaker 2>he wanted to be remembered I think as a novelist.

0:41:20.239 --> 0:41:21.799
<v Speaker 2>I think you said, and that's just not how he

0:41:21.840 --> 0:41:24.320
<v Speaker 2>was remembered. But apparently he was a good enough author

0:41:24.400 --> 0:41:28.760
<v Speaker 2>that he's also remembered in part as a novelist.

0:41:29.520 --> 0:41:31.319
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Chuck Barris.

0:41:31.600 --> 0:41:36.279
<v Speaker 2>There's one other thing he invented, syndication. Chuck, Oh really, yeah.

0:41:36.320 --> 0:41:39.200
<v Speaker 2>He created a game called Parent Game, and in nineteen

0:41:39.239 --> 0:41:41.399
<v Speaker 2>seventy two, ABC was like, no, we don't actually want

0:41:41.440 --> 0:41:43.440
<v Speaker 2>to do this, so he bought the rights to the

0:41:43.480 --> 0:41:47.440
<v Speaker 2>game back from them and went directly to stations and

0:41:47.480 --> 0:41:52.160
<v Speaker 2>sold at to stations, hence creating the entire concept of syndication.

0:41:52.640 --> 0:41:55.040
<v Speaker 1>Oh wow, yeah, I mean a real visionary in a

0:41:55.080 --> 0:41:58.759
<v Speaker 1>lot of ways, and just a kind of a kooky guy.

0:41:58.840 --> 0:42:02.160
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Well, Chuck said he was kind of a kooky guy,

0:42:02.200 --> 0:42:04.320
<v Speaker 2>and as anyone who's ever listened to stuff you should

0:42:04.320 --> 0:42:07.000
<v Speaker 2>know before knows that Chuck just unlocked listener mail.

0:42:09.760 --> 0:42:13.560
<v Speaker 1>That's right. Quick correction on ADHD guys, And we do

0:42:13.680 --> 0:42:15.520
<v Speaker 1>want to read this one because it's kind of an

0:42:15.560 --> 0:42:18.320
<v Speaker 1>important thing we got wrong. Oh no, I want to

0:42:18.320 --> 0:42:20.719
<v Speaker 1>point out a minor correction. Towards the end. It was

0:42:20.760 --> 0:42:23.399
<v Speaker 1>mentioned a couple of brand named drugs that are amphetamine

0:42:23.440 --> 0:42:31.400
<v Speaker 1>based stimulants, Adderall Vivens and Straterra. Straterra, though Guys, is

0:42:31.680 --> 0:42:35.200
<v Speaker 1>one of the non stimulant ADHD medications. It is a

0:42:35.239 --> 0:42:40.120
<v Speaker 1>selective nora epinephrine reuptake inhibitor and is not a controlled substance.

0:42:40.640 --> 0:42:42.640
<v Speaker 1>I couldn't help point it out because I'm a pharmacist,

0:42:42.640 --> 0:42:46.000
<v Speaker 1>and miscategorizing a pharmaceutical I could keep listeners from trying

0:42:46.040 --> 0:42:49.520
<v Speaker 1>something that could help them if they're adverse to amphetamines.

0:42:49.760 --> 0:42:52.359
<v Speaker 1>Point regardless, I have to say I've always been meaning

0:42:52.400 --> 0:42:54.439
<v Speaker 1>to send in an email. Thanks for the work you've

0:42:54.440 --> 0:42:57.680
<v Speaker 1>done Avid Listener for five years and it's truly fascinating

0:42:57.680 --> 0:43:00.560
<v Speaker 1>to learn about the variety of topics. And I really

0:43:00.640 --> 0:43:02.919
<v Speaker 1>love the chemistry you guys have between each other.

0:43:03.040 --> 0:43:03.600
<v Speaker 2>They get it.

0:43:04.320 --> 0:43:05.960
<v Speaker 1>And that is from Michael on.

0:43:06.560 --> 0:43:08.920
<v Speaker 2>Thanks a lot, Michael, we really appreciate that that was

0:43:08.960 --> 0:43:12.839
<v Speaker 2>a huge miss and thanks for following up and letting

0:43:12.960 --> 0:43:15.560
<v Speaker 2>us tell everybody else that we got it wrong, because

0:43:15.600 --> 0:43:18.560
<v Speaker 2>that is pretty important. And we got a lot of

0:43:18.560 --> 0:43:21.240
<v Speaker 2>emails from a lot of people about the ADHD episode,

0:43:21.239 --> 0:43:22.680
<v Speaker 2>So thanks to everybody who wrote.

0:43:22.520 --> 0:43:25.120
<v Speaker 1>In big time. It would seemed like a pretty important

0:43:25.160 --> 0:43:26.800
<v Speaker 1>suite to a lot of folks in that means a

0:43:26.840 --> 0:43:27.160
<v Speaker 1>lot of time.

0:43:27.280 --> 0:43:29.880
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, for sure, we actually got people who are like

0:43:29.960 --> 0:43:33.319
<v Speaker 2>I had no idea that I had ADHD until I

0:43:33.400 --> 0:43:35.480
<v Speaker 2>listened to this episode and realized you were talking about me.

0:43:35.520 --> 0:43:39.239
<v Speaker 2>Beat for beat, like I can't. That's just nuts that

0:43:39.320 --> 0:43:44.239
<v Speaker 2>were running around diagnosing people with ADHD with the podcast.

0:43:44.719 --> 0:43:48.239
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and I had even several personal friends that knew

0:43:48.239 --> 0:43:51.479
<v Speaker 1>they had HD ADHD that were like, I never knew

0:43:51.520 --> 0:43:53.800
<v Speaker 1>this part of my life was due to that even

0:43:54.400 --> 0:43:57.560
<v Speaker 1>And you know that's great. It makes us feel good, Yeah.

0:43:57.360 --> 0:44:00.319
<v Speaker 2>For sure. So if you want to make us feel good,

0:44:00.400 --> 0:44:02.120
<v Speaker 2>or you want to point out something we got wrong,

0:44:02.200 --> 0:44:05.040
<v Speaker 2>doesn't matter, you can do it via email. Send it

0:44:05.080 --> 0:44:11.720
<v Speaker 2>off to stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.

0:44:11.880 --> 0:44:14.759
<v Speaker 1>Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

0:44:14.840 --> 0:44:19.000
<v Speaker 1>more podcasts myheart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

0:44:19.120 --> 0:44:20.960
<v Speaker 1>or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.