BOOTLEG FILES 916: “The Gong Show Pilot Episode” (unaired taping of the initial concept for the popular game show).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the proverbial cracks.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely.
Maya Angelou once wrote, “I believe that every person is born with talent.” However, the celebrated poet may have offered that observation without having been exposed to “The Gong Show,” a crazed bundle of anarchy that ran on NBC as a daytime program from 1976-78 and as an evening syndication offering from 1976-80.
For many people of a certain age, the mere mention of “The Gong Show” will unleash brilliantly zany memories of the ebullient Gene Gene the Dancing Machine, the motormouthed Unknown Comic, the naughty Popsicle Twins, the bizarre yet endearing producer-turned-host Chuck Barris, the frequently too-playful celebrity judges – especially the lusty Jaye P. Morgan – and an endless skein of off-the-wall talent who took the concept of eccentric to lethal extremes. For a brief period, “The Gong Show” epitomized the cliché of the lunatics taking over the asylum.
However, the long-unseen pilot episode of “The Gong Show” that was produced in January 1976 recently emerged online and it bears minimal resemblance to the series’ inspired buffoonery.
Chuck Barris and his producing partner Chris Bearde conceived “The Gong Show” as a revival of the competitions such as “Major Bowes Amateur Hour” and “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” that were popular during the early days of television. The new show’s title referred to a gong that the celebrity judges would bang if they felt a performer was unsatisfactory or worse, thus terminating their act before it reached its conclusion. The judges would explain why they gonged the performer. For the contestants who were not gongs, they would be scored on a one to ten measurement, and the competitor with the highest score at the end of the episode would receive the grand prize – in the case of the pilot episode, that would be a highly generous $5,000 check, while the runners-up would each go home with a $1,000 consolation prize.
In view of the luxurious prizes (at least by 1976 standards), Barris and Bearde sought to keep the costs down on the pilot episode by shooting it at KGO-TV, the ABC affiliate in San Francisco. This unlikely setting served two purposes – it was cheaper to shoot the pilot outside of Los Angeles and the producers were pitching the show to ABC. Bearde was a comedy writer on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” and recruited the celebrity talent from that show’s ensemble – Gary Owens served as the host while Jo Anne Worley, Arte Johnson and Richard Dawson accounted for three of the four judges. Adrienne Barbeau, who was co-starring on “Maude,” was the fourth judge. Reportedly, the celebrities were not paid, but were given free transportation and hotel suites in San Francisco plus meals at one of the city’s fanciest Chinese restaurants.
The most obvious differences from the pilot episode and the series it spawned involve the show’s visual style – the pilot’s judges have two gongs and are seated within a more complex set design, while next to them is a scoreboard that keeps track of the contestants’ scores. There was also an animated opening sequence with a caveman and a gong.
When “The Gong Show” finally made it to the air, the set design was more efficient and the judging panel was reduced to three celebrities while the score board and the animated caveman were nixed.
As for the pilot’s contents – well, this version of “The Gong Show” was closer in spirit to Major Bowes and Arthur Godfrey. Except for an incoherently babbling balloon sculptor and a lady cellist with oversized footwear, this episode has none of the wonderfully warped performers that made the series infamous. Most of the talent is genuine and some – including several vocalists and a teenage ventriloquist – are at a professional level of showmanship. If the program had gone the straight route of talent show, it might have been a mildly successful series.
The problem with the pilot is that the celebrity judges weren’t entirely comfortable with their work. The mercurial Dawson pinballed between being cranky and gracious – he gonged a pretty belly dancer out of concern that her gyrations were inappropriate for family-hour viewing. Johnson gave the impression of being inebriated – at one point he disappeared to the floor and began speaking in the voice of his “Laugh-In” character Tyrone – while Worley and Barbeau were extremely sympathetic to the point of being borderline-maternal with the contestants. Owens mostly played his hosting gig straight, although at one point he overtalked Barbeau while trying to make a mild joke.
Barris and Bearde learned from the problems with the pilot and made changes when NBC picked up the show for its daytime lineup. Although Owens was retained for the evening syndicated version of “The Gong Show,” they brought in a new host for the daytime series with journalist-turned-comic John Barbour. But Barris felt Barbour was playing the part too seriously and fired him after the first five episodes were taped – Barris stepped in at the last second as host, for better or worse; Barris later replaced Owens for the syndicated version. The celebrity judges were reduced to a trio – Barbeau and Dawson never came back and Worley would turn up occasionally, but Johnson fine-tuned his shtick and became a semi-regular judge, joining the likes of Jaye P. Morgan and Jamie Farr in memorable mischief when the show shifted its focus to way-out humor.
The pilot episode never aired. It is now on YouTube with a timecode, so most likely it is being shared without permission. As a curio from the decade that good taste forgot, it is worth watching.
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