In 1976, when the Chuck Barris company sold The Gong Show to television, they launched two versions simultaneously: A Monday-through-Friday daytime version on NBC and a once-a-week syndicated version. To host the daytime, they originally selected John Barbour, who had recently been a TV critic on the local NBC news in Los Angeles. To host the evening version, they signed Gary Owens, who was best known for Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In and for his local L.A. radio show and for doing more voiceover work than any human being on the planet.
After the first week of the daytime show was taped, Barris decided Barbour was all wrong. It was one of those "different vision" problems. Barbour reportedly saw the show as something that might actually discover and nurture real talent. Barris wanted a show more like…well, what it became after he fired Barbour, trashed the shows that had been taped and took over hosting chores, himself. Mr. Owens hosted the nighttime show for the first year and then Barris took it over, as well. John Dorsey, who directed both versions, told me that it wasn't a dissatisfaction with Gary. It was because Barris just didn't want to pay someone else when he could do the job himself.
Our clip today gives you a little less than seven minutes of an Owens-hosted Gong Show with panelists Elke Sommer, Rex Reed and Jaye P. Morgan. The stunning blonde lady assisting Gary is Sivi Aberg, a beauty queen who turned up on a lot of TV shows in the mid-to-late seventies. The small person assisting him is Jerry Maren, whose career goes back to well before he was in The Wizard of Oz, and who is still a working actor. And you don't hear him on the clip but the show's announcer at the time was my buddy Jeff Altman, who is often seen on Mr. Letterman's program…or sometimes just heard. That's Jeff playing the bizarre State Trooper character who's been popping up recently in voiceover on Dave's Late Show.
Here's the clip. If you don't like it, you can stop it after 45 seconds by hitting your giant gong. You do have a giant gong, don't you?
