Confessions of a Dangerous Mind [Was Chuck Barris of TV's Gong Show also a CIA assassin???]

Publishers' Weekly, via Barnes & Noble ^ | Nov 2002 | Publishers Weekly Staff

[summer]

From The Critics:

Publishers Weekly

Originally published in 1982 but out-of-print for years, '70s television icon Barris's forgotten autobiography is being reissued to coincide with the December release of a major film adaptation. After two decades of relative obscurity, Barris's memoir may finally find an eager audience. Readers will probably best remember Barris as the creator and host of The Gong Show, but his resume also includes such classic shows as The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game, as well as a hit song, "Palisades Park," and a New York Times bestselling book, You and Me Babe (1970).

What will shock readers, however, is Barris's claim that, throughout his successful TV career, he was leading a double life as a decorated CIA assassin. While supposedly "scouting locations" to send his winning game show contestants, Barris was actually traveling to exotic locales to knock off America's Cold War foes.

Or so he'd have readers believe. While far-fetched, the tension-filled scenes of Barris's supposed CIA activities provide an ingenious counterbalance to the story of his meandering personal life, the snarling critics who attacked Barris for dragging television into the gutter and hilarious recollections of how wholesome contestants would become inexplicably filthy once on the set of The Dating Game.

Even though Barris's reputation as a wacky TV show host doomed this literary venture when it was originally published, it is in fact a remarkably well-crafted and entertaining book, both unflinchingly personal and at times laugh-out-loud funny. Twenty years later, it reads like a classic. (Nov.)

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

[AuntB]

The Gong Show...wow. My son was 2 or 3 years old when it was on...he's 26 now (Lord, I'm old!)....anyway, he got a paper bag, filled it with hats and everyday he would wait in front of the TV for it to come on. He lived for the thing! One day, on a trip, we stopped in a Pizza Parlor, where they had one of those riding, quarter per horsies that was out of order...over the coin deposit holder they had a paper bag with "out of order" written on it. My child disappears and there he is...with the bag on his head, screaming, HEY!!! CHUCKIE BABY!!! Everyone but me thought it was funny.....

[Fiddlstix]

I want to play my mood synthesizer......

Don't you mean Moog synthesizer?

[Pilsner]

I'll believe Chuck Barris was a secret agent... for K.A.O.S.

[mfulstone]

Back in the 70s, I heard a similar story about him from someone who had a deathly fear of him. She believed that Barris was one of the gov't agents that had destroyed her family. After investigations her claims about other things, I began to believe her.

[NC Conservative]

[gubamyster]

Don't you mean Moog synthesizer?

You're right. Like I said, I was laughing too much to type correctly.

[Benrand]

Bobby Van and Bert Convy were actually KGB double agents. That's why they are dead...

ANd from my contacts, I understand that that guy Mike from those bad infomercials is really Osama Bin Laden...you don't see that guy anymore, do you?

[Unknown Freeper]

I know nothing....except that he'll be back with more ssssssstuff!

I loved that show. When I was a young unknown one, my mom thought I was crazy. She said someone had to be sick to laugh so hard at that show. Come on, admit it. Didn't you all love it when you heard those horns blaring away knowing that Gene Gene was about to dance his way onto the stage?

[Constitution Day]

Off topic, but happy New Year, LP!

FRegards~
CD

[Waco]

"Mission Impossibile" may have been much more true to life than we kew?

[mrustow]

No harder to believe than Glenn Ford being a special ops in Vietnam. Can't judge a book by it's cover ( pun intended )

I found out that Ford did serve with the Marines in France during The War. While some fan sites claim Ford served two tours in Vietnam with the Green Berets, with all due respect, unlike during WWII, his acting career continued without interruption during the entire Vietnam War. (Having been born in 1916, he was also a little old for special ops.) If Ford served during that period, he was granted frequent breaks to do movies.

Glenn Ford's credits

[MainFrame65]

And Hedy Lamarr (actress) invented (and patented) a key communication technology during World War II. Her ideas eventually led to cellular networks. If you are curious, and wouldn't mind seeing a few pictures of a really beautiful brunette), do a search on her name and check it out.

[SauronOfMordor]

Julia Child was with the OSS in WW2. Why not Chuck?

And Dr Ruth (the sex therapist lady) was a sniper for the Israeli Army during the 1940's

[DeFault User]

Chuck Barris....

The Unknown Spook?

err, was that when Jerry Lewis was head of the CIA?

[TransOxus]

When I read the Barris book years ago, my reaction was it seemed far-fetched and another of his pranks. But then I wondered why some of the passages didn't flow "smoothly" as I read it - like some censor had taken scissors to cut out passages in some pages!!! Should read it again to see if I still get the same impression.

[tophat9000]

Barris was actually traveling to exotic locales to knock off America's Cold War foes.

I guess that would be giving them “The Gong” with extreme prejudges

[LonePalm]

And likewise to you and yours from Lone, Mrs., and all the Palm Fronds.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)</

[Doctor Stochastic]

Lamarr Link

[BillyRubin]

I found out that Ford did serve with the Marines in France during The War. While some fan sites claim Ford served two tours in Vietnam with the Green Berets, with all due respect, unlike during WWII, his acting career continued without interruption during the entire Vietnam War. (Having been born in 1916, he was also a little old for special ops.) If Ford served during that period, he was granted frequent breaks to do movies.
____________________________________________________________
Can't recall where, but , I heard that in the 1970's somewhere. I thought at the time he seemed a bit old for it, but I never heard it disputed

[Eva]

My husband once received a letter from an exemployee who wanted his old job back. He said that he had been using the job as a cover while working as an assassin for the CIA and had quit to take an assignment. He claimed that he was fed up with working for the government and decided that he liked the old job.