The Japanese cowboy, the magic trick with the pet Chicken and Hambone man was the favorite of the webmaster and We all loved the last act with the harmonica playing 85 yr old Italian.
My favorite was the Mike Mccollum band singing Down at Greasy Lee's. I'm told it is based on a true story over in Huntington beach. Well that's it. Enjoy.
My favourite Chuck Barris production was “The 1.98 Beauty Show”. Grand 1970s entertainment that was, lol. I mention this title since “The Dating Game” is such an obvious one (no offence intended to Dating Game fans, though).
The Unknown Comic!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BBZVQ4zBcU
Back when, I really wanted to whack that gong. Had no idea the whole thing was a front for a CIA assassin.
If you wanted to see Jaye P. Morgan flash the audience during Gene Gene The Dancing Machine, here you go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyQA5vNjihs&list=PLzndlEa8sx1wOdtSUQ7qWkTEpU-Vwy4Wp
This is a great contribution thank you!
We didn’t take ourselves so seriously back then. That’s the only thing I miss about the 1970s. That and Dr. Demento.
What about “You can call me Ray. You can call me Jay, etc etc”? That guy and the Unknown Comic had my dad in stitches every time.
Suggested reading, Barris interview.
http://www.salon.com/2001/03/06/chuck_barris/
Funniest moment on the gong show: “Do you know, that’s how I got my start” comment by judge J P. Morgan, responding to act “have you got a nickel (popsickle twins)”. The show got pulled from following time zones after initial airing on East Coast. Barris said he considered quitting the show due to trouble from the act.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDxDYIQL6Nc
BTTT for later
My favorite act ever, who got a perfect 30 on the day show, and was gonged on the night show and on “High-Low day”, was an a fellow wearing a Viking helmet, black pigtails, funny nose and glasses, lip synching to a 78 speed pop record from the ‘30’s or ‘40’s using a rubber snake as a prop. Sounds lame, but it was one of the silliest and funniest things I had ever seen, and I regret that I don’t remember the acts name, so I could see it again.
And Chuck Barris gets credit for celebrating Doug Rau Day on the daytime edition of the program.
I rate ‘The Popsicle Twins’ as the best!!!!
Mike McCollum is my cousin. We grew up next door to each other on Dow Ave. in Redondo Beach, CA. Lee's Cafe, or Greasy Lee's, was actually on the corner of Marine Street and Strand in Manhattan Beach. It is indeed a true story, severely abbreviated in the Gong Show rendition due to time restrictions. Lee threw a party for the local surfers who were his mainstay customer base, only he was the only one drinkin' because the rest of us were mostly underage. What Mike couldn't sing on the Gong Show was that Lee pinched that sweet young thang on one of her 17 year old breasts. Not the kind of thing I endorse, mind you, especially now that I'm in my 60's, but I'd be lyin' if I didn't admit that I laughed my ever-lovin' backside off as the girl ran out with her arms crossed across her chest like the bikini she was wearin' had been ripped clean off, which it hadn't.
Anyway, Greasy Lee really did go to jail that day and a dozen or so locals really did picket in front of the Cafe yelling, "Free Greasy Lee! Free Greasy Lee!" trying to raise money for his bail, which, if they didn't raise it all, they raised enough to contribute significantly to the cause.
The offending tongs ended up mounted on a wooden plaque displayed prominently for years behind the bar at Critters, which, looking at the map now, appears to have changed to North End Bar & Grill, so they may not be there anymore. I'd only be guessing, but I'm pretty sure that the incident happened 8 - 10 years before the band's appearance on the Gong Show. It was at least five or so years before that, I know that for sure. Mike is about 6 years older than me and was my first guitar "teacher." I started playing at 11 and Greasy Lee's was one of the first songs he taught me, so he would've been 17 or 18 around that time. By 1977 he was 28, and the rest of the band on the show were about the same age give or take. The song was a South Bay cult classic for several years before the Gong show appearance, having gotten airplay on the Doctor Demento show some time before the Gong Show from a scratchy recording that nobody seems to know the actual origins of, but which might be thought of as the "Mike McCollum Band Bootleg Basement Tapes." LOL So I was doing a Google search on just the name "Mike McCollum" to see if I could find an archive of the Demento shows and this thread/post came up in the results. I've been registered here for many years but hardly ever post, so I figured I'd test to see if my misspent youth had really destroyed my brain cells like the other cult classic, "Reefer Madness" said it would, and lo and behold, I actually remembered my login and password, so I went ahead and corrected the Huntington Beach mistake and got all nostalgic with y'all. Oh, and speaking of Reefer Madness, Mike's dad, Warren McCollum, played "Jimmy" in that movie. Look it up. Anyway, cheers, and thanks for the walk down Nostalgia Lane. Blues