The Gong Show Movie (1980) Universal/Comedy RT: 90 minutes Rated R (language, vulgar humor, nudity, sexual content) Director: Chuck Barris Screenwriter: Chuck Barris and Robert Downey Music: Milton DeLugg Cinematography: Richard C. Glouner Release date: May 23, 1980 (US) Cast: Chuck Barris, Robin Altman, Jaye P. Morgan, Murray Langston (The Unknown Comic), Mabel King, Lillie Shelton, James B. Douglas, Jamie Farr, Pat McCormick, Rip Taylor, Vincent Schiavelli, Gene Patton (Gene Gene The Dancing Machine), Rosey Grier, Ed Holland (Father Ed), Tony Randall, Della Barris, Phil Hartman, The Vatican 4. Box Office: N/A
Rating: * (as a movie)/*** (as a campy curiosity)
As a kid, I loved watching The Gong Show. For those who don’t know, The Gong Show was an amateur talent contest that ran on TV from 1976 to 1980. Participants, usually of questionable talent, would perform various acts and a panel of three celebrities would rate them on a scale of 0 to 10. The worst acts were “gonged” meaning that one of the judges would strike a gong, automatically eliminating them from the competition.
Hosted by Chuck Barris, it was known for being tasteless, sometimes offensive and always idiotic. I watched it with my father every night, so naturally I was excited when I heard about The Gong Show Movie. I thought he’d cave in and take me to see it even though it carried the dreaded R rating. I thought wrong. Not only that, it stayed in theaters for just one week before being pulled. It received overwhelmingly negative reviews and bombed at the box office. It’s never been available on video or DVD. It does show up on cable TV which is how I finally got to see it a few years back.
At this point, let me direct your attention to where I rated it. You’ll see that I gave The Gong Show Movie two ratings. Allow me to explain. By normal movie standards, it stinks! It’s bad on pretty much every conceivable level. Hence, the one-star rating. As an exercise in high camp, it’s a lot of fun. It has a very high kitsch factor due to it being a total product of its time. Something this outrageously bad could only have been made in the late 70s. Hence, the three-star rating. Any way you look at it, you have to admit that there’s never been anything quite like The Gong Show Movie.
The movie is basically a fictionalized week-in-the-life story about Barris (playing himself) as he deals with the various stresses of hosting a popular TV show. Among other things, he has to deal with a nervous network executive (Douglas) who’s constantly worrying about the content of the show. God forbid there’s anything offensive on it. People run up to him on the street and audition for the show. Barris is forced to watch endless bad acts. He barely gets a moment to himself. All of this puts a strain on his relationship with live-in girlfriend Red (Altman). He’s clearly a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It doesn’t help matters any when regular panelist/judge Jaye P. Morgan flashes her breasts on TV, a real life incident that resulted in her being fired from the show. Chuckie Baby (as he’s often referred to) finally loses it (“KREPLACH!!!”) and retreats to the desert to think things over. Everybody- friends, family, co-workers and various other associates- shows up and encourages him to return to the show with a rousing musical number, “Don’t Get Up For Me”. End of movie. Roll credits.
The Gong Show Movie promised to show fans the acts that couldn’t be shown on television. This would appear to imply that we’d get to see stuff that was too racy for TV. WRONG! The real reason we didn’t see most of these acts on TV is because they’re plain awful. Not funny awful, just awful! Very few of the acts in the movie are any good. Like the old guy who clucks like a chicken to “In the Mood”; Chuck keeps calling him back to the stage for encore after encore until the guy suffers a heart attack. I also liked “The Vatican Rag” in the movie’s final moments. There is one racy act in the movie that was actually on the show, the bit featuring two teenage girls eating popsicles in a very suggestive manner. That one damn near put Chuckie Baby out of a job (he was briefly replaced as host by Gary Owens).
Some of The Gong Show Movie makes no sense. For example, why does Tony Randall cameo as a contestant? On the upside, show regulars The Unknown Comic and Gene Gene The Dancing Machine (always my favorite on the show) make appearances.
Here’s the thing, The Gong Show was a definite product of the 70s. It’s so hopelessly dated now that it’s just hilarious. The Gong Show Movie was a bad idea on so many levels. Did anybody really think it would make a movie star out of Barris? I like the guy, I find him immensely entertaining, but he’s a personality, NOT an actor! He’s not much better as a director. The movie can be described as funny, but for all the wrong reasons. Supposedly, Barris is the one responsible for keeping The Gong Show Movie out of circulation and it’s easy to see why he’d want to do that. It’s a total embarrassment. Yet you can’t stop watching. It’s tantamount to a train wreck in that respect. On that level, The Gong Show Movie is worth watching at least once. It’s a very, VERY bad movie, but I still like it (sort of). As a cinematic curiosity, it rates an 8. As a movie ….. GONG!!!!
