Spent the rest of the afternoon taking down the spring decorations and putting up what I have for summer and the 4th of July. The folk art "USA" wooden angel letters, white fabric rose, and red, white, and blue tinsel garland went on the entertainment center. America Cares Bear (aka Americana Bear) went on the top of the DVD shelf with Simone the Squishmallows Lobster. The patriotic Beanie Bears sit with the other bears on top of the record crates. The new thicker bright blue tinsel garland and two of the cardboard cutouts went on and over the bedroom window. The stuffed summer flamingos and flag panting went on the children's hardbacks shelf. Hung the glittering beaded fish on the closet door. The two big red, white, and blue ribbons went on the front door and bedroom door.
Watched cult mysteries from England and Australia while I worked and had lunch, starting with The Persuaders! "The Long Goodbye" takes Brett and Danny to Scotland, where they discover a recently-deceased scientist's formula for a cheap synthetic fuel is missing. While Danny keeps ending up in the clutches of a group that's after the fuel, Britt tries to figure out which lovely lady is the real heir to the formula.
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries jumps overseas to Australia and from the 1970's to the 1920's for "The Green Mill Murder." Phryne Fisher is dancing at the local nightclub The Green Mill when one of the dancers dies on the floor. The sweet young man she was dancing with is accused of the crime. Turns out the victim was blackmailing just about every single person at the club, from the young man to his mother to the club's singer and her musician husband. Phyrne and her assistant Dot have to figure out who was fed up enough with the blackmail to kill over it.
Headed to Thomas Sharp School after the shows ended. Thankfully, despite a chaotic beginning in the library, things didn't go too badly. We only had 21 kids overall, 8 in my group. Other than the girls being annoyingly giggly in the bathrooms, there weren't any major problems. I think part of the reason may have been many of them got new books they bought during their big Read-a-Thon last month. I read a book about a boy who turns into a wolf in the full moon when he wears woolly underwear and another about a young girl who outwits a troll in order to save her family's farm to a couple of the kids after snack time.
They went even better outside, maybe because it was a gorgeous day. It was sunny, breezy, and in the mid-80's, not bad for early June. I didn't even have that many problems with the kids on the swings. They got into line and only fussed a little when they had to get off. The others chased each other, built mulch piles, and danced to "I'm Still Standing," "Footloose," "Pup Pup Boogie" from Paw Patrol, the theme from PJ Masks, and songs from Moana and Sing. We just took the remaining 5 kids inside to make beaded necklaces when I went home.
Took out the trash, grabbed dinner, and watched Match Game '74 when I got in. The first hour finished out the Gunilla Hutton-Richard Deacon week. The second introduced Jimmie Walker to the show and brought in sweet blonde character actress Lynda Day George and comedienne Kaye Stevens of the infamously noisy laugh. Kaye was so enamored with one handsome contestant, she literally jumped on the turntable to see him after he lost!
Finished the night at YouTube and Dailymotion with episodes of The Gong Show, which celebrates it's 50th anniversary on Sunday. Chuck Barris developed the most outrageous amateur show on TV as a spoof, with acts both talented and utterly terrible appearing side-by-side. Genuine celebrities judge the performers. If they're good (or mildly decent), they can get up to 10 points per panelists. If they're really terrible (and many were), one or more celebrities hit the gong and, thankfully, end the misery. Winners get a check for $500 and a Gong Show trophy.
Chuck Barris had never intended to be the host, but after Gary Owens dropped out of the pilot and John Babour wanted a straight amateur format, he took over. He was a little stiff at first, but by the end of the first season, he'd warmed up to the point where he might have been the craziest performer on the show. He's fun even in the very first episode I have here.
The Gong Show proved to be a little too provocative for network TV. Acts like the two teenagers who suggestively lick popsicles in an infamous episode from 1977 led to them being pulled off NBC by 1978. The show did better in syndication, where the wacky acts weren't any stranger than some of the people being interviewed on talk shows or seen in re-runs. The syndicated Gong Show ran until Barris finally overextended himself with the controversial 3's a Crowd and all of his shows were yanked in 1980.
Re-runs of the The Gong Show proved to be so popular in syndication, the show returned there in 1988. It was pretty much the same idea, with a neon set and slightly better acts. The lady who could do truly amazing things with hula hoops wins for best act of the episodes I watched tonight, though the honky-tonk piano player was pretty awesome, too. DJ Don Blu proved to be slightly too bland for such a nutty show.
Game Show Network debuted Extreme Gong in 1998. The celebrity panel was replaced by viewers calling in to vote for their favorite act...which proved to be unwieldy and annoying. In fact, only one act, a decent guy with a guitar, made it to the end of the first episode. Extreme Gong was also hampered by an ugly gray set that was likely meant to be someone's ancient living room and by very annoying and hyperactive host George Gray. It barely lasted a year.
The show had a better home on Comedy Central in 2008 as The Gong Show With Dave Atwill. The neon and celebrity panel return, but this time, they give them a score of 1 to 500. Atwill was easier to take than Gray and there were some good acts, but it wasn't funny enough to last longer than a few months.
The most recent incarnation of The Gong Show turned up as a summer replacement on ABC in 2017 and 2018. Mike Myers, in his Tommy Maitland persona, was the far more appropriate host. This version not only went back to the original scoring system, it also went back to the original orange set and blocky lettering. With standards changing, even men playing the stomach of a sumo wrestler and a magician pulling a rabbit out of his stomach made it in. They weren't even gonged. It was still a lot of fun, though not enough to last longer than two seasons.
Celebrate 50 years of the most controversial, the most outrageous, and the most unique performances ever on the air (and that's just the hosts) in the wackiest talent show to ever feature ordinary folks who dared to call themselves "amateur."
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