Chuck Barris, the creator of television’s long-running “The Dating Game” and “The Newlywed Game” who later hosted the offbeat cult classic “The Gong Show” — and who claimed in a memoir to have been a CIA assassin — died Tuesday at his home in Palisades, N.Y. He was 87.
A spokesman, Paul Shefrin, announced the death, but the cause was not disclosed. Barris had surgery for lung cancer in 2000.
In a career with few parallels in show business, Barris also wrote a Top 5 pop song, a best-selling novel and was credited — or blamed — for launching a spate of raunchy reality shows that grew out of his creations in the 1960s and 1970s.
He held several jobs in television early in his career. One involved monitoring “American Bandstand” host Dick Clark to make sure he was not taking payola from record companies. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s to be in charge of daytime programming for ABC-TV.
He wrote a song, “Palisades Park,” that reached No. 3 on the Billboard pop charts in 1962 for singer Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon. Within a few years, Barris was out of work and had run through his record royalties.
Borrowing money from his family, he formed a production company that introduced a game show in which a young “bachelorette” questioned three young men hidden behind a wall. She then selected one of the men to accompany her on a date. (Occasionally, a man asked questions of three women.)
When “The Dating Game” premiered on ABC in December 1965 (“from Hollywood, the dating capital of the world”), critics called it a new low in television. It was considered crass, demeaning and sexually suggestive — which it was, by design. The show became a hit.
In 1966, Barris launched a second show, “The Newlywed Game,” with four recently married couples who answered comical and intimate questions about their partners. Because the word “sex” could not be used on television at the time, host Bob Eubanks often asked questions about “making whoopee,” which led to giggles, embarrassing comments and millions of viewers.
Both of Barris’ shows ran until the mid-1970s, with daytime and prime-time versions, and Barris produced several other shows during the same time, including “The Parent Game,” “How’s Your Mother-in-Law?,” “The New Treasure Hunt” and “The Game Game.”
In 1976, he dug an even deeper basement with “The Gong Show,” which was meant to be a parody of TV talent shows. The first host was fired because he didn’t get the joke, forcing Barris to take over as the goofy master of ceremonies, wearing bizarre headgear as he barely controlled a wild carnival of blue humor and sheer bad taste.
A few performers, such as country singer Boxcar Willie, launched careers on “The Gong Show,” but most were unceremoniously ushered offstage at the sound of a gong. Winners received a prize of $516.32.
Besides Barris’ manic hosting style, the show was known for the awkward gyrations of Gene Gene the Dancing Machine and the groan-inducing jokes of the Unknown Comic, who wore a paper bag over his head.
“The Gong Show” became a huge hit in the late 1970s, especially among young people. Others were appalled.
“The Gong Show” was canceled in 1980, and a film version that year was a flop. Barris sold his production company for a reported $100 million and moved to France.
In 1984, he published a book purporting to be a memoir, “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” in which he made the claim that while he was producing game shows, he was secretly working as an international assassin for the CIA.
The book received little attention at the time, but it attracted a cult following and was made into a feature film in 2002, with actor Sam Rockwell portraying Barris. “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” marked the directing debut of George Clooney, who played Barris’ CIA minder.
When asked if Barris ever worked for the CIA, agency spokesman Tom Crispell told the Los Angeles Times: “It sounds like he has been standing too close to the gong all those years. Chuck Barris has never been employed by the CIA and the allegation that he was a hired assassin is absurd.”
His only child, Della Barris, from his first marriage, often introduced her father on “The Gong Show.” She died of a drug overdose in 1998. Barris published a memoir about her in 2010.
