Long before America's Got Talent (AGT), Britain's Got Talent (BGT), The Voice and all the other talent shows from around the world, The Gong Show showcased interesting talent.
Was The Gong Show ahead of its time? Or just a quirky TV show from the 1970s?
Well, it certainly wasn't the first show of its kind. Seems to me, there was another one in the `50's of the same ilk. Before that was Major Bowes Amateur Hour and before that in the `30's was a radio show where people "with talent" would come on and try to win the prize of the day and, if they sucked, they got gonged. There''s an old Warner Brothers cartoon called, "I Love To Sing-A" that was all about that.
I'm told that my grandmother took my dad into a radio show to let him try for the prize and radio fame when he was a kid because he had a great singing voice. That would've been late `20's/early `30's. Story has it, she got him to go to the radio station with her but, when he was asked to sing, he refused based only on the fact that he just didn't feel like singing! I could've been the son of a famous singer!!
I heard the Chuck Barris was really a CIA agent.
At the very beginning of television was Doorway to Fame hosted by Johnny Olsen, who was the "Come on down!" guy for the first 14 years of The Price is Right. The show said it had 20,000 performers in just 2 years on the air, which would not have been possible. If it ran every single week of the year (which it didn't), that would have been around 200 performers on each half hour show.
And there was Ted Mack's Amateur Hour which ran from the 1940s all the way up until 1970. That show discovered Gladys Knight and Pat Boone.
The Gong Show was was never looking for serious talent, but Star Search did discover some actual stars, their biggest names were Brad Garrett from Everybody Loves Raymond and LeAnn Rimes.
I liked the Gong Show.
In fact, my sister was a constant on the show. She got gonged!
I always told her she couldn't sing but she didn't believe me I guess. She did believe the loud gong though.
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5Opinion
Yes, I loved watching it, and I also really loved the '$1.98 Beauty Contest'❤️
Opportunity Knocks was in the 60s. It's a good idea
too quirky. but people then liked it.
u It was a bit too silly for me.
I liked The Gong Show
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