The Gong Show Movie

1980 film

Chuck Barris
Robert Downey

Based onThe Gong Show
by Chris BeardeProduced byBudd GranoffStarring

Chuck Barris
Robin Altman
James B. Douglas
Mabel King
Jaye P. Morgan
Rip Taylor

CinematographyRichard C. GlounerEdited by

Jacqueline Cambas
James Mitchell
Sam Vitale

Music byMilton DeLuggDistributed byUniversal Pictures

Release date

May 23, 1980 (1980-05-23)

Running time

89 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBox office$6.6 million^[1]

The Gong Show Movie is a 1980 American slapstick film starring, co-written and directed by Chuck Barris, host and creator of the game show of the same name.^[2]

Plot

The film shows a fictional week in the life of Chuck Barris as the host and creator of The Gong Show, through a series of outrageous competitors, stressful situations, a nervous breakdown (which compels him to run away and hide in the Moroccan desert) and other comic hijinks in his life and work on the TV show. Among the highlights included a group of men dressed as a Roman Catholic priest and three nuns lip-synching Tom Lehrer's song "The Vatican Rag", a man blowing out a candle with flatulence, and the uncensored version of Jaye P. Morgan's infamous breast-baring incident.

Reception

The film premiered in May 1980 alongside The Empire Strikes Back and The Shining, beating the latter at the box office in its opening weekend but losing to the former. The film received uniformly negative reviews and was withdrawn from most theaters just days after its release.

Among the many bad reviews at the time was one from George Burns, who, after seeing the movie, went on the record and said, "For the first time in 65 years, I wanted to get out of show business."^[3]

Home media

The movie was occasionally seen on a few cable movie channels during the 1980s but had never been available on home video in any format until a Blu-ray release from Shout! Factory^[4] on March 29, 2016.

References

^ "The Gong Show Movie". Box Office Mojo.
^ Sandra Brennan (2015). "The Gong Show Movie". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Baseline & All Movie Guide. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02.
^ Jacobs, A. J. (June 11, 1999). "The Gong Show debuts". Entertainment Weekly.
^ The Gong Show Movie - Blu-ray | Shout! Factory