Charles Hirsch Barris (June 3, 1929 – March 21, 2017)[1] was an American game show creator, producer, and host, author, and songwriter.

Barris has made unsubstantiated claims that in parallel to his career on television, he was an active international assassin for the CIA in the 1960s and the 1970s, including in his 1984 memoir Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which was adapted into a 2002 film of the same name by director George Clooney and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, starring Sam Rockwell as Barris, and in which his alleged CIA career is mostly portrayed in an absurdist manner.

[4] Following his stint at NBC, Barris worked as a standards-and-practices person at the television music show American Bandstand for ABC.

Barris was promoted to the daytime programming division at ABC in Los Angeles and was responsible for determining which game shows the network would air.

The contestants' suggestive banter and its "flower power"-motif studio set were a revolution for the game show genre at the time.

The combination of the newlywed couples' humorous candor and host Bob Eubanks's sly questioning made the show another hit for Barris.

The show is the longest lasting of any developed by his company, broadcast until 1985, for a total of 19 full years on both "first run" network TV and syndication.

Somewhat shy, Barris disliked appearing on camera, though he once dashed onto the set of The New Treasure Hunt to throw a pie at emcee Geoff Edwards.

As with some of Barris' other projects (including The Newlywed Game), it was at one point possible to see The Gong Show twice daily, a relatively uncommon feat in the years prior to cable TV's expansion into the commercial market.

His jokey, bumbling personality, his accentuated hand-clapping between sentences (which eventually had the studio audience joining in with him), and his catchphrases (he would usually go into commercial break with, "We'll be right back with more er ... STUFF ...", occasionally paired with shifting his head to reveal the later ubiquitous sign behind the stage reading simply "STUFF", and "This is me saying 'bye'" was one of his favorite closing lines) were the antithesis of the smooth TV host (such as Gary Owens, who emceed the syndicated version of the show in its first season).

Dubbed "Chuckie Baby" by his fans, Barris was a perfect fit with the show's goofy, sometimes wild amateur performers and its panel of three judges (including regulars Jamie Farr, Jaye P. Morgan, and Arte Johnson).

In addition, there was a growing "cast of characters", including an NBC stage carpenter who played "Father Ed," a priest who would get flustered when his cue cards were deliberately turned upside-down; stand-up comedian Murray Langston, who as "The Unknown Comic" wore a paper bag over his head (with cut-outs for his eyes, mouth, and even a box of Kleenex) and "Gene Gene the Dancing Machine", who was arguably the most popular member of The Gong Show "cast".

One of its most infamous incidents came on the NBC version in 1978, when Barris presented an onstage act consisting of two teenage girls, slowly and suggestively sucking popsicles.

[10] In 1980, Barris directed and starred in The Gong Show Movie, which performed so poorly both critically and financially, it was pulled from theaters shortly after release.

A fourth version, produced by Will Arnett and hosted by fictional British celebrity "Tommy Maitland" (Mike Myers), aired on ABC beginning in 2017.

He also hosted a short lived prime time variety hour for NBC from February to April 1978, called The Chuck Barris Rah-Rah Show, essentially a non-competitive knock-off of Gong.

So strong were the feelings of the Autrys that The Newlywed Game came close to being expelled from the KTLA facilities, but the show was discontinued by the syndicator before any action occurred.

During the winter of 1980, Barris attempted to rebuild by bringing back another game show that was not an original of his, Camouflage, in which contestants answered questions for the chance to locate a "hidden object" (such as a toaster) concealed within a cartoon-type drawing.

A few years after Extreme Gong ended, Sony planned to revive the show again under its classic name and format for The WB Television Network, but this version was never realized.

In 2010, Barris published Della: A Memoir of My Daughter about the death of his only child, who died in 1998 after her long struggle with drug addiction.

In the book he states that he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as an assassin in the 1960s and the 1970s in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

A 2002 feature film version, directed by George Clooney and starring Sam Rockwell, depicts Barris killing 33 people.

After the release of the movie, CIA spokesman Paul Nowack said Barris' assertions that he worked for the spy agency "[are] ridiculous.