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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

Posted on 12/31/2002 6:23:42 PM PST by 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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: assassin; chuckbarris; cia; thegongshow
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To: summer
I heard a local interview on this about two weeks ago. It was an outlandish claim, and during the interview CB wouldn't address the details at all.

I'll check this thread tomorrow. Happy New Year Everybody!!
61 posted on 12/31/2002 10:41:09 PM PST by Fred Mertz
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To: MainFrame65
That's Hedley!
62 posted on 01/01/2003 12:02:03 AM PST by chaosagent
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To: Fred Mertz; All
Thank you for your response on this thread.

I am wondering now about the truthfulness of his CIA claim, mostly because of these two articles, below, especially the long autobiographical article from Salon.

Chuck Barris just seems to have been way too busy in his tv career to also have had time to go running around assassinating people for the CIA, despite his claim he murdered 33 people. I don’t know what to believe.

I just know that one my best friends from school was the only other female in the school who thought, as I did at the time, that Chuck Barris is definitely one of the sexiest men alive. And, if I am ever in so sick I have to be in a hospital, I want to be watching videotapes of the GONG SHOW! (I may even put that in my will.) :)

A current interview, Jan 1, 2003, from Jewsweek: CLICK HERE for this article:

From Jewsweek: The Viduy of Chuck Barris

The new film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is based on the life of Gong Show host Chuck Barris. In it the Jewish television legend claims he was a game show host by day and a CIA assassin by night. A Q&A with Barris helps clear the air ... a little.



Chuck Barris then.


Chuck Barris now.


BEING CHUCK BARRIS: Chuck Barris (right) and Sam Rockwell, who portrays Barris in the new film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

The lengthy autobiographical article about Chuck Barris from SALON, dated March 2001, can be seen if you CLICK HERE.:

From Salon: Chuck Barris
Long before "Survivor," the eccentric who created "The Gong Show" discovered that people will do anything to get on TV, and others will watch them….



Chuck Barris, Host of The Gong Show.
63 posted on 01/01/2003 6:24:46 AM PST by summer
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To: summer

GONG!!!

64 posted on 01/01/2003 9:38:26 AM PST by Fintan
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To: BillyRubin
After checking several Glenn Ford fan sites last night, I noticed that one mentioned "good will" tours Ford made to Vietnam. My hunch is that either through sloppiness or idolatrous exagerration, one of Ford's fans turned those "tours" into "tours of duty," maybe another fanatic turned them into service with the Green Berets, and the other fanatics merely copied the tall tale on their sites.

In any event, such fibbing was never necessary. The man served his country honorably in WWII. There's no need to turn him into a Superman.

65 posted on 01/01/2003 11:57:24 AM PST by mrustow
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To: Fintan
LOL....I always loved the cheap tackiness of that set because it was so perfect for the show. It looked like the set designer had a total budget of $50 and that was it.
66 posted on 01/01/2003 7:26:05 PM PST by summer
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To: summer
I have no doubts that at least 33 people died from shear mental depravity from having to watch the gong show daily.

Maybe these are the 33 to which he is referring.

67 posted on 01/31/2003 9:37:58 PM PST by The_Media_never_lie
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To: The_Media_never_lie
LOL...
68 posted on 02/01/2003 5:36:00 AM PST by summer
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To: summer; Blue Jays
Good Evening All-

Just watched Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and didn't find it to be too good of a movie...even if it is supposed to be based on a true story.

It might be interesting to read the Chuck Barris autobiography, but then again, I might then be subjecting myself to the rantings of a lunatic. Has any other CIA-related information surfaced since this thread was active last year?

~ Blue Jays ~

69 posted on 02/07/2004 8:50:53 PM PST by Blue Jays (Rock Hard, Ride Free)
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To: Blue Jays
Not that I know of.
70 posted on 02/08/2004 5:50:28 AM PST by summer
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