Totally agree! As you said, she was a good sport. She even removed her top at the end of a particularly roudy episode. (Unfortunately, that little stunt got her fired from the show. 😥)
Allen .Berge Well, this was the very act that got the show cancelled, so your parents' prohibition against watching The Gong Show ended up being a moot point. :-)
na thats what cable is for... but there is also the possibility we will have tranny teachers teaching our 6 yr olds in our public schools... and arresting any conservative hetero parents who try to prevent it.
@wolfshanze5980 I lived in almost seven of them and hands down the 80s are the very best of them all with it's art, fashion, music, movies, and music videos! "Video killed the radio star." MTV was borned in Aug 1981
The last few decades of the 20th century (1950s-1990s) were generally very good for popular culture (notably popular music and TV). Perhaps things slipped a little after the mid-1980s but nothing like as badly as they did post-2000. Films/movies have been more consistent (i.e. 1930s onwards). Fashion and classical music somebody else will have to comment on.
There’s an interview piece here on RU-vid with Chuck Barris regarding this. He said he would deliberately trot out acts for the censors knowing they wouldn’t pass muster, but they were asleep at the switch that day and let this one on the air. Chuck said he was then told by the head of NBC west coast that he needed ratings, not coc____ckers. There was just something about the Gong Show at that time. It’s not to say ‘you had to be there,’ because it’s still entertaining to watch now for the first time, but in the late 70’s, there was just something a little subversive about it, especially if you were in high school like I was. Maybe that you had to cut class or call in sick to watch it since it aired around noontime. Thanks for posting this!
This was meant to be one of the acts the show knew the censors would demand be cut from the show. The producers deliberately had acts like this in every episode they knew would get cut so they could slip other slightly less outrageous acts past the censors. For whatever reason, the network censor missed this one and it made it to air on the east coast feed. It was cut from the west coast feed. Have You Got A Nickel is cited as being the act that was the beginning of the end of the Gong Show.
I remember watching that episode as a kid. It took me awhile to get it. Afterwards I was very disappointed that Phyllis Diller and Jamie Farr gave such bad scores. Such an original Act
The 2 bad scores just show that Phyllis Diller was jealous of their talent (and/or ability to easily obtain popsicles), and corporal Klinger really was gay.
To think, NBC had The Gong Show on its daytime schedule in 1977 along with other game shows like The Hollywood Squares and Wheel Of Fortune! I love The Gong Show myself! I'd never put it down.
I've been ODing on Jay P Morgan and man, I'm in love all over. What class and raunch combined! She's in her mid 40's here (43?) and she's sexier than ANY broad in their 20's. They DO NOT make dames like this anymore! So I don't mind if I die. Life sucks in the 21st century.
My buddy and I were cutting class and we were at my place and I turned on the TV and The Gong Show was on so we decided to watch it before we took off and we saw this.
harley johnson - - O.M.G., I had no idea until you mentioned that! Thanks for sharing & R.I.P. to Mr. Chuck Barris www.google.com/search?kgmid=/m/016wdq&hl=en-US&kgs=c9d7ef50759334d7&q=Chuck+Barris&shndl=0&source=sh/x/kp&entrypoint=sh/x/kp
The show was cancelled after two years. Despite decent ratings it was often attacked. You can find much more transgressive stuff on TV today, what ever are you talking about?
@@modjohnsenglishdisco exactly... i said so above.. it wont be long we will have trans teachers showing our elementary school students much worse.. and arresting any hetero parents that try to stop it.... believe it or not situations like this are goin on all over america right now... and in the former english speaking colonies.
The story behind this: Often, the show would offer up "sacrificial lamb" acts to the NBC censors, with the full knowledge they'd never pass muster, just to make it look like they were serious about following content guidelines. This was one of those acts. However, for whatever reason the censors let it through! Chuck thought it was a mistake, but as his relationship with NBC was in the toilet anyway, he thought "Okay, you want this, you GOT it!" and that's how it ended up on the show.
Jaye P. Morgan is a great example of "reinventing yourself," She had been around since the 1950's, singing slow love ballads a la Edie Gorme or Dina Shore. As "lounge music" declined, she changed to more upbeat "standards", changed her name a bit, and adopted a more edgy personality. Now much older, she is back selling herself as a big band singer.
metatron1970 I think IIRC this was aired on the NBC version of the show which is why it aired on the east coast but by the time it was ready for west coast airing this particular act had been pulled.
metatron1970 The Gong Show was an NBC afternoon game show for 2 years. Not syndicated till years later. Used to watch it all the time ,mostly to see the Unknown Comic.
+ravynwolfe If you saw this, it wasn't on the intended day and channel. NBC only showed this in the Eastern Time Zone. They pulled the entire episode for the other 3 time zones.
It wasn't supposed to make it past the censors. It was one of the acts the show's producers called 'Sacrificial Lambs'. Acts that were so over the top they knew the network censors would demand they be cut from the show before the episode made it to air. Sacrificial Lamb acts allowed slightly less outrageous acts make it to air that the show producers figured the censors would have otherwise banned. This act slipped past the censors and made it to air.
Chuck was asked about this act on some interview and apparently..after the show..Chuck was called into the NBC Executive office and the executive yelled at Chuck by supposedly saying..." I want ratings! Not Cocksuckers!" And was almost cancelled by NBC because of this act.
The only complaint I ave is that they keep focusing on the one in the white shirt when, and it's very obvious, the one in the blue shirt is the one who knows what she's doing.
I saw it live on TV as a kid, only today did I hear the JP Morgan’s line, I was too mesmerized with the girls and the pig tails. The host and everyone else behind the scene probably hit on those girls all afternoon!!
The Gong Show was way more entertaining than America's Got Talent could ever be. Back in the 70s we thought streakers were funny, too, because they were.
This talented pair put on a legendary command performance at Sturgis following their notoriety shown here, as well branching out successfully in numerous wet-t contests, whenever they came across one.
To those thinking the girl in the white T-shirt is actress Debralee Scott, I made that mistake initially too. They have similar facial features, especially in profile, but I really don't think it likely thats Debralee, who by Sept '77 had already achieved some degree of renown from Kotter and especially Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. I find it difficult to believe she would suddenly appear as a contestant (or actor pretending to be a contestant) on The Gong Show by that point in her career. Still, I have to admit "Have you got a nickel?" Gave me the biggest laugh I've had all month.
You must not have noticed the girl in the blue shirt gives her popsicle to Jaye P Morgan just before she walks off the stage. Jaye P is sucking on the popsicle as they go to commercial.
