Bang A Gong

"The Gong Show" is reincarnated! Without Chuckie Baby! On Comedy Central. Variety Veteran game show impressario ("The Dating Game" "Newlywed Game") Chuck Barris ended up fronting the original "Gong show" which went on NBC in July 1976.

Barris did double duty as producer and host after he gonged John Barbour.

Dave Attell is the new host. But nobody can do it like Chuck "We'll be back right with more stuff!" And his cast of crazy characters: Jaye P. Morgan, Jamie Farr, The Unknown Comic, Milton DeLugg and his Band With A Thug, Gene Gene The Dancing Machine, Arte Johnson, Rex Reed, Rip Taylor. An unknown David Letterman was a judge and gonged some guy who turned to him and barked "Who are you?"

Bawdy Jaye P. "Morgoni" as Barris referred to her was axed from the daytime version after she flashed her boobs on-air.

"The Gong Show" still pounds the strings of my heart. In 1976 I was a Tee Vee news anchor doing the noon news. Every day after the news my boss - then executive producer Bob Horner now president of NBC News Channel - and I would head to a quirky bar in the middle of a cornfield, savor the best cheeseburgers on the planet, imbibe "shells" of beer, and watch "The Gong Show" on an ancient TV mounted on the wall. I see Bob about once a year and we never fail to bring up the good old "Gong Show" days...