The mind reels at thought of new Gong Show

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on May 8th, 2008

Hey, Chucky Baby! Dig this from a Comedy Central press release:

COMEDY CENTRAL and Sony Pictures Television are bringing back a classic series with a twist. Lauren Corrao, president, original programming and development, announced the network has greenlit, The Gong Show with Dave Attell. The new series is scheduled to premiere on July 17.

Executive Produced by Happy Madison Productions and Andrew Golder (Identity and Win Ben Stein’s Money) in association with Sony Pictures Television, The Gong Show with Dave Attell will consist of eight to ten off-beat and hilarious acts that will be judged by a panel of three revolving celebrity judges. The search for talent has already begun and submissions are being accepted at gongshowcasting@aol.com.

Creator and reluctant host Chuck Barris will be a hard act to follow. And now that we’re hard-bitten, cynical adults, we’ll have a hard time believing that any of the wacky acts aren’t just some agents idea of how to get his client exposure on a cable television show (possibly leading to a reality series or guest spots on other Comedy Central productions). Of course, that’s not what they were the first time around… but we weren’t hard-bitten, cynical adults back then. And quite a few of us were high.

Check out the A.V. Club’s tremendous interview with Murray Langston. An excerpt:

Yeah. Gallagher came from Florida with Jim Stafford. Remember Jim Stafford? “My Girl Bill” and “Spiders And Snakes?” He was a hit back then. He had his own summer show and a bunch of hit records. Gallagher was one of his best friends, and was writing his act. He walked into my club one day, and I’m going, “Jim Stafford!” Like I said, he was a big hit at this time. He says, “I’ll get up and do a couple songs if you put my buddy on.” I said, “Sure, who’s your buddy?” The guy’s name was Gallagher. He did the watermelon thing the first time he was there and floored the place. But he had done it before. That wasn’t the first place he did it; him and Stafford, apparently, worked at a little place in Florida, where they were originally from. Stafford is making about $20 million a year now in Branson, Missouri. He’s very, very successful.Anyway, so those couple years I had the club, I lost everything, and I was busted, broke. I had no money, and The Gong Show has been on the air maybe six months. And if you were in the union, which I was, and you appeared on The Gong Show, you got a few hundred dollars. I heard that everybody was going on who needed money—actors were making up these little bits—so I said, “Well, I could use the money.” So I said, “Well, if I put a bag on my head and tell a couple jokes, nobody will know it’s me.” I didn’t want anybody to know it was me, because I’d just been on The Sonny And Cher Show. So I was embarrassed having to do…

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