American Idol is nothing more than The Gong Show with muscles. It’s been done before. They took out a lot of the silly and the MC (Chuck Barris) and the gong of course, but this is a retread.
You know, you felt bad for some of the acts that were shocked that they had been gonged, but really, was it anything like the abuse they get now from the panel in the postmortem? Everything is ramped up these days and this is no different.
–fog
*** For the kids out there, a little backgroud on The Gong Show: ***
The Gong Show was a television variety show/game show spoof that was broadcast from 1976 until 1980. It was hosted by Chuck Barris.
Amateur performers would do vaudeville-like acts, while a panel of celebrity guests serving as the judges (among the most frequent of which were Jaye P. Morgan and Jamie Farr) would grade them. If any panel member wanted to end the act immediately, they could hit the gong and that was the end.
If the act survived without being gonged, they were scored by the judges and the winning contestant earned a prize of $516.32.
Chuck Barris (an established game show producer), who was not a good game show host, had a nervous habit of clapping his hands together while speaking. This developed into a running gag during the show, as the audience members clapped their hands in unison with Barris.
The show had certain characters who appeared as regular performers, such as the Unknown Comic (Murray Langston–who told bad jokes while wearing a paper bag over his head) and Gene Gene the Dancing Machine (a middle-aged AOAD with a green warm-up suit who danced while members of the crew threw stuff at him).
Among the many talents that appeared on the show was an unknown Paul Reubens (later known as “Pee-Wee Herman”).
In 1980, a Gong Show movie was produced–considered to be among the worst ever made.
