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203-657: Each show presented a competition of amateur performers of often dubious talent, with a panel of three celebrity judges. The original program's regular judges included Jamie Farr , Jaye P. Morgan , Arte Johnson , Patty Andrews , Phyllis Diller , Pat McCormick , Wayland Flowers , Anson Williams , Steve Garvey , Rex Reed and Rip Taylor . Throughout the program's run, several other celebrities occasionally appeared as judges including David Letterman , Steve Martin , Mort Sahl , Pat Paulsen , Chuck Woolery , Allen Ludden and Sandy Duncan . If any judge considered an act to be particularly bad, they could force it to stop by striking

406-534: A Gene Gene the Dancing Machine segment, Barris had been given an ultimatum by the network's Standards and Practices department to deliver less racy shows for his audience, which included many younger viewers, or NBC would cancel the program. NBC allowed Barris to continue the show for the rest of his contract, and Barris made no perceptible change in preparation for the finale. In the finale, staff member Larry Gotterer appeared as "Fenwick Gotterer" to host

609-409: A Gong Show incarnation since Extreme Gong in 1998. The first season of this version also features a regular segment featuring a staff performer leading the audience in a sing-along of the novelty song "Shaving Cream" , reminiscent of the recurring gag acts on the earlier version. The winner of each show received a gong trophy and an oversized check in the amount of US$ 2,000.17, later increased by

812-428: A Max Headroom mask and sunglasses in front of a sheet of corrugated metal imitating the moving electronic background effect used in the character's TV and movie appearances. However, oscillating audio interference obscured the audio portion throughout the 13-second video excerpt; WGN engineers were able to successfully restore the signal by changing the frequency of its Hancock Center studio transmitter link to override

1015-509: A USO tour , he requested Farr's service as his assistant. After two years of active duty, Farr returned to the United States, where he spent an additional two years on reserve . Shortly after his return, his father died and he decided to give up acting to help provide steady financial support for his mother. When Farr went to say goodbye to Skelton, Skelton handed him a stack of one hundred dollar bills to send home and told Farr he

1218-469: A local cable news channel that featured rolling news, weather and sports content and public affairs, sports-talk and entertainment news programs, along with having formerly acted as an overflow feed for WGN's sports telecasts. Originally utilizing its own in-house staff and resources from WGN-TV and the Chicago Tribune , CLTV consolidated its operations with WGN-TV on August 28, 2009, at which time

1421-697: A screen test for the film Blackboard Jungle , where he played the role of Santini. He was credited as Jameel Farah, as he would not take on the name Jamie Farr until 1959 after his stint in the army. While training at Pasadena Playhouse , Farr acted in bit parts including a role in The Blackboard Jungle (1955) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . He also worked at a chinchilla farm for extra money. Sherwood Schwartz noticed Farr on an unsold TV pilot and cast him on The Red Skelton Show in 1955, where he played Snorkel, whose large nose gave him an inhumanly strong sense of smell. He became

1624-590: A "Worst Act of the Week" award (later changed to the "Most Outrageous Act of the Week"), selected by the producers and each week's judges. The winner of this award was announced following the trophy presentation on the Friday show, and the performer received a dirty tube sock and a check for $ 516.32. The two biggest Gong Show -related showbiz successes were Andrea McArdle and Cheryl Lynn . Twelve-year-old McArdle appeared on an early episode in 1976, shortly before she won

1827-634: A "masterpiece for all the greatest world newspaper nerds", paraphrasing the WGN callsign's meaning). Bemused, sports anchor Dan Roan—who was presenting highlights of that afternoon's home game between the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions (which the Bears won, 30–10) when the initial hijack took place at 9:14 p.m.—commented, "Well, if you're wondering what happened, so am I," and joked that

2030-432: A 2001 interview with Salon.com that this particular act began making him reconsider his career. Despite its popularity and respectable ratings for a non-soap-opera midday show, NBC cancelled The Gong Show , with its final episode broadcast on July 21, 1978. At the time, there was much speculation as to the network's true motivations for dumping the popular show. Barris has commented that he heard that NBC's official reason

2233-769: A CBS owned-and-operated station] in Dallas–Fort Worth in July 1984 and, after it assumed retransmission rights from Eastern Microwave, KTLA in April 1988 ). For about eleven years afterward, the WGN-TV satellite signal carried the same programming shown within the Chicago market. As it gained national exposure, Channel 9 underestimated WFLD's ability to acquire top-rated, off-network syndicated programs. WFLD's respective owners during this timeframe—Field Communications and Metromedia ,

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2436-537: A Crowd ) and his 1973–77 series Treasure Hunt (toward which Barris had little or no input, according to host Geoff Edwards ), both failed to find audiences and Barris went further into his self-imposed exile from television. Barris would not have another hit series until the 1985 syndication revival of The Newlywed Game . Reruns of the NBC shows began in syndication in Fall 1979. The NBC and syndicated episodes were rerun on

2639-675: A Tenor , Tuesdays with Morrie , and Oklahoma! . Between 2007 and 2008, Farr, Chuck Woolery , and Bob Eubanks were rotating hosts of the $ 250,000 Game Show Spectacular at the Las Vegas Hilton . He also hosted a daily radio travel feature called Travelin' Farr . On Memorial Day 2007, Farr hosted a multiple-episode run of M*A*S*H on the Hallmark Channel where he provided commentary during commercial breaks. Between 2016 and 2018, he promoted M*A*S*H and other classic television series on MeTV and in 2022

2842-668: A book based on a story told by Klinger about a family of camels who brought the Wise Men to baby Jesus in his manger, with his wife in 2003. Farr collapsed during a dinner show in Edmonton in 2014 and was transported to the hospital. He finished out the week of shows until an understudy was found, then flew home to California, where he had a stent put into his heart to treat atherosclerosis . In 2018, after collapsing during rehearsals for Jack of Diamonds , he decided to retire from stage acting. Farr met his wife Joy Ann Richards,

3045-452: A business associate to Sinclair executive chairman David Smith —for $ 60 million. Under the terms of the deal, Sinclair planned to operating the station through programming and sales service agreements , and would hold an option to repurchase with eight years. Following public criticism of the proposed deal with Fader by FCC chairman Ajit Pai , Sinclair abandoned the deal and disclosed it would instead acquire WGN-TV directly. Despite this,

3248-738: A debt load of around $ 13 billion—making it the largest media bankruptcy in American corporate history—that it accrued from the Zell buyout and related privatization costs as well as a sharp downturn in revenue from newspaper advertising. After a protracted four-year process, on December 31, 2012, Tribune formally exited from bankruptcy under the control of its senior debt holders, Oaktree Capital Management , JPMorgan Chase and Angelo, Gordon & Co. On July 10, 2013, Tribune announced plans to split off its broadcasting and newspaper interests into two separate companies. WGN-TV and WGN Radio would remain with

3451-636: A documentary called The Chuck Barris Story: My Life on the Edge , which included rare footage from the Gary Owens pilot. At the height of the Gong Show' s popularity, NBC gave Barris a prime-time variety hour, The Chuck Barris Rah Rah Show . This was played somewhat more seriously than the Gong Show , with Jaye P. Morgan singing straight pop songs as in her nightclub and recording days, and bygone headliners like Slim Gaillard reprising their old hits for

3654-718: A fiberglass frog statue part of a larger public art piece. The frog is named after Farr and is dressed in a babushka and red lipstick in homage to Klinger. Originally at the Highland Meadows Golf Club, where the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic was held, it is now kept at Bittersweet Farms. There is also an academic scholarship bearing his name through the Greater Toledo Community Foundation. In 1983, Judd Silverman approached Farr about "lending his name" to

3857-546: A four-year contract involving the two stations. WGN carried the White Sox until 1972 , before returning to the station for one season in 1981 ; the White Sox moved its local telecasts to WGN-TV after an eight-year absence in 1990 . The Bulls began carrying their games with its inaugural season in 1966 ; after airing their games on WFLD for four years, the Bulls returned to WGN-TV for the 1989–90 season , overlapping with

4060-400: A full half-hour. NBC broadcast a one-hour prime-time Gong Show special on April 26, 1977, featuring in-studio special guests Tony Randall , Alice Cooper and Harry James and His Orchestra. The winning act on this special was The Bait Brothers, and the panelists were Jaye P. Morgan, Jamie Farr and Arte Johnson. During The Gong Show' s run, Barris became well known for his clashes with

4263-505: A full-time network affiliate.) Sinclair Broadcast Group announced their purchase of Tribune Media on May 8, 2017, for $ 3.9 billion, a deal publicly met with consternation among station employees due to concerns about the influence the conservative -leaning group could potentially have on WGN's news content. In order to meet regulatory compliance, Sinclair opted to divest WGN-TV to a limited liability company controlled by Baltimore -based automotive dealer Steven Fader—who has acted as

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4466-617: A full-time outlet of ONTV .) WGN-TV served as the Chicago affiliate of the United Network for its one month of existence from May to June 1967, when financial issues forced the shuttering of the fledgling network. In May 1969, the station relocated its transmitter facilities to the 1,360-foot (415 m)-tall west antenna tower of the John Hancock Center on North Michigan Avenue. The original Prudential Building transmitter remained in use as an auxiliary facility until

4669-589: A golf tournament. The following year, the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic , an annual LPGA tour stop, held its inaugural event in Sylvania, Ohio . Sponsored by Kroger , Owens Corning , and O-I Glass , the tournament raises money for children's charities, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of America . Farr hosted the event for 28 years until it was rebranded the Marathon Classic in 2012. As of 2023, it

4872-402: A large gong , a trope adapted from the durable radio show Major Bowes Amateur Hour . Barris would then ask the judge(s) in question why they had gonged the act, usually receiving a facetious response. Any act that survived without being gonged was given a score by each of the three judges on a scale of 0 to 10, for a maximum possible score of 30. On the NBC series, the contestant who achieved

5075-402: A limited number of off-network syndicated reruns, religious programs and feature films acquired for the Chicago feed). Starting with its addition to Comcast Xfinity 's Chicago-area systems on December 16, the changeover allowed cable and IPTV subscribers within the market—as local satellite viewers had been able to do for about two decades—to receive WGN America for the first time. (As a result of

5278-765: A live coaxial feed originating from New York City; this allowed Channel 9 to be able to carry a regular schedule of CBS and DuMont programs that could be transmitted as they aired in the Eastern Time Zone . WBKB-TV assumed primary rights to CBS programming on September 5, 1949; as such, WGN began dropping many CBS shows from its schedule but continued to carry certain network programs that channel 4 declined to broadcast (eventually being reduced strictly to CBS's weekday morning soap opera block by 1952). During its tenure with DuMont, WGN-TV became one of that network's strongest affiliates, as well as one of its major production centers. Several DuMont programs were produced from

5481-545: A mix of miniseries as well as first-run syndicated programs that would be featured on the partner stations (including Solid Gold , Star Search and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous , all of which aired on Channel 9 during the 1980s and early 1990s). Movies became a more integral part of WGN's schedule during the late 1970s and early 1980s. During this period, depending on whether sports events or specials were scheduled, Channel 9 usually aired four daily features—one in

5684-464: A mix of news, public affairs and paid programs on Saturday mornings. On February 19, WCIU-TV—which had become an English-language independent full-time as a result of Univision (from which it had aired programming on a part-time basis) moving to WGBO the month prior—reached an agreement with Time Warner to carry the Kids' WB lineup as well as to take on responsibilities of airing WB programs at times when WGN

5887-469: A mix of sporting events and a limited schedule of syndicated programs and local newscasts, operating part-time on weekday evenings and on weekends. (WLXT would cease operations on July 17, 1970.) A fourth competitor arrived on April 5, 1970, when Essaness Television Corporation signed on WSNS-TV (channel 44, now a Telemundo owned-and-operated station). WFLD and WSNS went head to head for supremacy as Chicago's second strongest independent station, and were

6090-518: A model, shortly after returning from military service. They married in 1963 and have two children, Jonas (c. 1969) and Yvonne (c. 1972), and a grandson named Dorian. In 2021, Farr told We Are the Mighty that James Jabara was his cousin. Farr has battled severe rheumatoid arthritis since the early 1990s. Farr was very close to Red Skelton , describing him as his "hero" and "mentor", and like "a second father" to him. He shared that Skelton

6293-436: A music-focused children's program hosted by Jackie Van (which WGN picked up in 1957, following its cancellation by WNBQ). In 1958, WGN-TV earned a Peabody Award —the only local television station to earn the accolade—for its short-lived children's program The Blue Fairy (which was hosted by Brigid Bazlen in the title role, and, along with Garfield Goose and Friends , was one of the first two children's programs produced by

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6496-580: A national audience and leaving United to handle national promotion of the WGN signal, instead of handling those responsibilities directly; this allowed the station to continue paying for syndicated programming and advertising at local rates rather than those comparable to other national networks. (Until Tribune began relaying the Chicago feed to the firm directly in 1985, the company was also not compensated directly by United Video for their retransmission or promotion of WGN's signal; Tribune, however, received royalties from cable systems for programs to which it held

6699-420: A national default feed for the network, as it was able to maintain sufficient national coverage at launch through conventional over-the-air and digital multicast affiliates in the 100 largest markets as well as supplementary coverage in the remaining 110 markets through The CW Plus , a small-market feed comprising primary and subchannel-only over-the-air affiliates as well as cable-only affiliates that were part of

6902-531: A packaged feed of WB network and syndicated programs provided to participating cable-based affiliates in the 110 smallest markets. In January 1999, Time Warner and Tribune mutually agreed to stop relaying WB programming over the WGN superstation feed effective that fall; when this move took effect on October 6, the WGN national feed replaced The WB's prime time and children's program lineups, respectively, with movies and syndicated programs. By 2002, game shows and additional talk and reality series had been added to

7105-577: A park where Farr spent a lot of his childhood was renamed the Jamie Farr Park, something he has referred to as "a highlight of my life and career." Tony Packo's Cafe , a restaurant referenced several times by Klinger on M*A*S*H , displays a hot dog bun signed by Farr at their establishment. In 2017, Farr and Klinger were the first two inductees to the Toledo Mud Hens ' Celebrity Hall of Fame. In 2023, an artist erected Jumpin' Jamie,

7308-592: A penny the following year. The final episode of the first season featured a memorial to Barris, who died prior to the series' premiere in 2017. On January 8, 2018, ABC announced that the revival would be picked up for a second season, officially confirmed Myers as the portrayer of Maitland and crediting Myers as an executive producer by name. The second (and final) season premiered on June 21, 2018. Celebrity guest judges for season 2 included Jimmy Kimmel , Jason Sudeikis , Brad Paisley , Dana Carvey , Alyson Hannigan , Ken Jeong , Kristen Schaal , and Rob Riggle . However,

7511-427: A programming alternative to the market's three network-owned stations and as the market's leading independent for much of the next 39 years. After initial struggles due to its carriage of programs that could not accrue viewership sufficient to attract national advertisers, WGN began turning profitable by October 1957. On January 15, 1956, the station moved its transmitter facilities to a 73-foot tall (22 m) antenna on

7714-692: A regular on Skelton .He was drafted in 1957, and underwent basic training at Fort Ord in California He was made a Broadcast Specialist and worked on training videos in various roles at Fort Knox , the Army Pictorial Service , and Fort Huachuca before shipping out to Korea. Abroad, he was part of the Special Services and worked on the Far East Network . When Red Skelton traveled to Japan and Korea to do

7917-600: A result of the two Major League Baseball clubs—as well as the NBA 's Bulls—migrating some of their local game telecasts to cable-originated regional sports networks , Fox Sports Net Chicago (later FSN Chicago ) from 1999 until 2003 and then Comcast SportsNet Chicago (now NBC Sports Chicago ) beginning in 2004. Beginning in 2015, WGN-TV began sharing the over-the-air rights to Cubs games with WLS-TV, resulting in Channel 9 reducing its coverage schedule to 45 games per season as part of

8120-504: A schedule in 1976), the station began to regularly feature an overnight presentation of older black-and-white and some more recent theatrical and made-for-TV movies at 1 a.m. (later 3 a.m. by September 1983), along with a few recent first-run syndicated and older off-network syndicated programs. WGN-TV began to extend its reach outside of the Chicago area beginning in the mid-1970s, when its signal began to be transmitted via microwave relay to cable television providers in areas of

8323-504: A shared operation over UHF channel 60 launched, involving Metrowest Corporation -owned English-language outlet WPWR-TV (which primarily carried the sports-centered pay service Sportsvision ) and HATCO-60-owned Spanish-language outlet WBBS-TV (now UniMás owned-and-operated station WXFT-DT ). (WBBS took over channel 60 full-time after WPWR moved to channel 50 in January 1987, as a byproduct of Metrowest's 1986 buyout of HATCO-60's share of

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8526-547: A similar drawing format as its predecessor, but had individual contestants chosen randomly by a wheel spun by Kollmeyer each round (which was hooked to lights above each contestant's seat) play various mini-games. In September 1996, the station began carrying The Big Game multi-state drawing (replaced by Mega Millions in May 2002) each Tuesday and Friday; Powerball drawings were eventually added upon Illinois joining that multi-state lottery in January 2010. WGN America ceased carrying

8729-567: A standalone independent station following its launch. In exchange, The WB agreed to reduce its initial program offerings to one night per week (from two) in order to limit conflicts with WGN's sports programming. The superstation feed, which reached 37 percent of the country by that time, would extend the network's initial coverage to 73 percent of all U.S. households that had at least one television set. (Prior to that deal, The WB had considered affiliating with WGBO-TV, which Univision would later purchase and convert into an owned-and-operated station of

8932-475: A studio audience. Other spinoffs include The $ 1.98 Beauty Show hosted by Rip Taylor and The Gong Show Movie . Jamie Farr Jamie Farr (born Jameel Joseph Farah ; July 1, 1934) is an American comedian and actor. He is best known for playing Corporal Klinger , a soldier who tried getting discharged from the army by cross-dressing , on the CBS sitcom M*A*S*H . After M*A*S*H , Farr reprised

9135-642: A tape-delayed basis on Sunday mornings), after The WB replaced the block's two-hour weekday afternoon slot with the Daytime WB rerun block in January 2006. On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced the formation of The CW , a network that would initially feature a mix of programs originating on The WB and UPN—which Time Warner and CBS, respectively, would shut down in concurrence with The CW's launch—as well as new series developed specifically for

9338-521: A two-hour special), airing thereafter by association on WLS-TV until the final telecast of the retitled MDA Show of Strength in August 2014. WGN-TV served as the originating station for the Illinois Lottery beginning at its July 1974 inception. Live drawings initially aired as a half-hour Thursday night broadcast (then hosted by Ray Rayner) held at its Bradley Place studios. Channel 9 shared

9541-667: A two-hour-long special, WGN-TV Salute to Chicago . Originating from WGN Radio's studios at the Tribune Tower 's Centennial Building annex in the Magnificent Mile district, the inaugural broadcast included dedicatory speeches from McCormick, Chicago Mayor Martin Kennelly , U.S. Senator Charles W. Brooks and Governor Dwight Green . Performances were led by, among others, musician Dick "Two Ton" Baker , comedian George Gobel , and bandleader Robert Trendler and

9744-460: A year." Gong was one of those shows to be canceled, and Barris never hosted another series. The trauma from the Three's a Crowd's backlash was so severe, in the last several weeks of the Gong Show , Barris reportedly had "a small nervous breakdown" on-air, because he was "bored to death" with broadcasting. His next two series, revivals of the 1960s game show Camouflage (the replacement for Three's

9947-454: Is owned and operated by the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group , and is sister to the company's sole radio property, news/talk / sports station WGN (720 AM). WGN-TV's studios are located on West Bradley Place in Chicago's North Center community; as such, it is the only major commercial television station in Chicago which bases its main studio outside the Loop . Its transmitter

10150-762: Is called the Dana Open . Outside of Ohio, Farr has been nominated for an Emmy for his time on M*A*S*H , given the Comedy Achievement Honoree award at the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival , and inducted into the Boys and Girls Clubs of America Alumni Hall of Fame. In 1985, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . Two of the dresses he wore as Klinger had previously been worn by Ginger Rogers and Betty Grable and are now owned by

10353-529: Is located atop the Willis Tower in the Loop. The broadcast station signed on in 1948, under the ownership of the Chicago Tribune newspaper. WGN-TV later became a pioneering superstation ; on November 9, 1978, it became the second U.S. television station to be made available via satellite transmission to cable and direct-broadcast satellite subscribers nationwide. Later renamed WGN America,

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10556-774: The 2014 MLB season .) In addition, until it ceased offering sporting events in September 2019, WGN-TV also distributed its White Sox and Bulls telecasts to television stations in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa that are within their respective broadcast territories (including CW affiliate WISH-TV in Indianapolis and the subchannels of WGN sister stations WHO-DT in Des Moines and WQAD in Davenport, Iowa). WGN-TV's Cubs and White Sox game broadcasts also were often carried on

10759-536: The Bud Billiken Parade (from 1978 to 2011, with WCIU-TV obtaining primary rights to the broadcast beginning in 2012, before shifting exclusively to WLS-TV—which had been a partial rightsholder for the parade since 1984—in 2014). The station's Bradley Place studios, in addition to housing a large number of its own programs, have also served as the production facilities for nationally syndicated programs, including Donahue (which shifted production from

10962-799: The Chicago Daily News Building on West Madison and North Canal Streets, occupying space previously used by WMAQ radio from 1929 until relocating to the Merchandise Mart in 1935; WGN-TV also based its 586-foot (179 m) transmission tower atop the building. Originally broadcasting for 6 + 1 ⁄ 2 hours per day from 2 to 6 p.m. and from 7:30 to 10 p.m. seven days a week, Channel 9 started out as an independent station, then began carrying programming from DuMont on September 26, 1948, and also CBS on December 1. On January 11, 1949, WGN-TV—along with WNBQ and WENR-TV—began transmitting network programming over

11165-630: The Chicago Tribune and the News Syndicate Company properties would transfer to the McCormick-Patterson Trust, assigned to the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation in the names of the non-familial heirs of McCormick (whose two marriages never produced any children) and familial heirs of Patterson. (The trust was dissolved in January 1975, with a majority of the trust's former beneficiaries, including descendants of

11368-606: The Dayton, Ohio studios of WLWD [now sister station WDTN ] to the WGN-TV facilities in Chicago in 1974, where production of the daytime talk show remained before moving to WBBM-TV's Streeterville studios in January 1982), U.S. Farm Report (which originated from the Bradley Place facility from the agriculture program's national syndication debut in 1975 until production moved to South Bend, Indiana after Farm Journal ' s production unit assumed distribution rights from

11571-607: The Major League Baseball strike that year), WGN-TV would preempt portions of the telethon on Labor Day to carry Chicago Cubs or White Sox games held during the afternoon of the holiday. Through its national distribution, beginning with the 1979 event, donations to the WGN-produced local segments of the telethon were also pledged by viewers in other parts of the United States and Canada. The broadcast moved from syndication to ABC in September 2013 (by then reduced to

11774-501: The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA)'s " Love Network " station for Chicago, carrying the charity's annual telethon on Labor Day and the preceding Sunday night each September from 1973 to 2012 (in its original 21½-hour format that existed until 2010, the six-hour evening format used in 2011 and the three-hour prime-time-only format used in 2012). For most of its run on the station (except in 1994, due to

11977-1043: The Quincy Jones - and Tribune-owned consortium Qwest Broadcasting (forcing the sale of WGNX to the Meredith Corporation in order to acquire Qwest's Atlanta property, WATL ). Finally in December 2013, Tribune purchased Local TV 's 19 television stations, giving WGN new sister stations in nearby markets—ABC affiliate WQAD-TV in Davenport, Iowa (serving the Quad Cities region that encompasses parts of northwestern Illinois and southeastern Iowa ) and Fox affiliate WITI in Milwaukee —all three of which had pooled their local news reports as part of an existing content and broadcast management agreement formed between Local TV and Tribune in 2008. WGN-TV

12180-785: The Smithsonian National Museum of American History . In 2001, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations and in 2016 was given the Arab American Institute Foundation 's Special Recognition Award. WGN-TV WGN-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois , United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW . It

12383-614: The Times Square district of New York City on August 12, 2010. It was produced by The Radio Chick , and is the Sony authorized stage production. This production went into development in 2011–12 and now runs regularly in New York City, with engagements in other U.S. cities. On October 3, 2016, ABC and Sony Pictures announced a 10-episode summer 2017 revival of The Gong Show executive produced by Will Arnett . The broadcast of

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12586-545: The Tribune since 1924. The three-letter base call sign served as an initialism for "World's Greatest Newspaper", a tagline and slogan used by the Tribune since 1909. WGN-TV began test broadcasts on February 1, 1948, then informally signed on the air on March 6 to broadcast the 1948 Golden Gloves boxing finals from the Chicago Stadium . Regular programming commenced on April 5, 1948, at 7:45 p.m. with

12789-540: The USA Network and Game Show Network , although by the time GSN picked up the series, many episodes could not be broadcast because of musical performance clearance issues. No episodes from the first syndicated season (hosted by Gary Owens ) were rerun. A syndicated weekday revival of The Gong Show , hosted by San Francisco disc jockey Don Bleu , ran during the 1988–89 season from September 12, 1988, to May 26, 1989, with reruns airing through September 15. Each winner

12992-838: The 1987 film and as Harry in Harry and the Hendersons ; comics and actors Paul Reubens and John Paragon (best known as Pee Wee Herman and Jambi the Genie ); Joey D'Auria ("Dr. Flameo", later WGN 's second Bozo the Clown ); impressionist/comic Michael Winslow ; novelty rock band Green Jellÿ ; and an unknown band called The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo which evolved into Oingo Boingo , led by future film and television score composer Danny Elfman . In 1979, Crips founder and executed murderer Stanley Tookie Williams appeared on

13195-426: The 2017 revival included Arnett, Zach Galifianakis , Alison Brie , Andy Samberg , Elizabeth Banks , Tracee Ellis Ross , Joel McHale , Megan Fox , Courteney Cox , Dana Carvey , Will Forte , Jack Black , Jennifer Aniston , Ken Jeong , Fred Armisen , Maya Rudolph and Anthony Anderson . Among the more notable acts featured on the revival are the Radioactive Chicken Heads , making their second appearance on

13398-469: The 2017 revival premiered on ABC on June 22, 2017, hosted by previously unknown "British comedian" Tommy Maitland. Maitland was, in fact, a character portrayed by Mike Myers , although neither ABC nor Myers confirmed this and ABC officially credited Maitland as host and executive producer. Maitland's catchphrase was "Who's a cheeky monkey?" He also periodically used Barris's "back with more stuff" catchphrase to lead into commercials. Celebrity guest judges for

13601-442: The CW schedule. In conjunction with the launch announcement, Tribune signed a ten-year agreement involving sixteen of the group's 19 WB affiliates (including WGN-TV), which would join eleven UPN stations owned by CBS to form The CW's initial group of charter affiliates. Because The CW primarily chose its original affiliates based on the highest overall viewership in each market among the pool of existing WB and UPN affiliates, WGN-TV

13804-401: The FCC instead voted to bring the merger up for a hearing by an administrative law judge , prompting Tribune Media to terminate the deal on August 9, 2018, and file a breach of contract lawsuit. Following the collapse of the Sinclair merger, Nexstar Media Group agreed to acquire Tribune's assets on December 3, 2018, for $ 6.4 billion in cash and debt. The transaction received approval by

14007-446: The FCC on September 16, 2019, and finalized three days later. On May 1, 2024, it was announced that WGN-TV would rejoin The CW after the network's current affiliation agreement with WCIU-TV expires on August 31, with the return occurring the next day on September 1. As Nexstar is the majority owner of The CW, this makes WGN a network owned-and-operated station, the second-largest directly owned after KTLA. WGN-TV currently produces

14210-493: The Lottery awarded the telecast rights to its drawings and game show to CBS-owned WBBM—which beat out competing offers from WGN and WLS-TV, and saw the move as a way to help improve viewership for its third-place-ranked 10 p.m. newscast—effective December 28. WBBM's bid was chosen for its offers to hold the drawings during its late newscast (which ultimately produced no beneficial ratings impact) and agreed to handle promotional responsibilities and production costs. Citing in part

14413-400: The M*A*S*H job so he could buy groceries and pay rent; he never expected to be invited back for several more episodes. For several years, the producers and the studio dodged his requests for a contract, which Farr suspected was so they didn't have to increase his salary. He was finally hired as a series regular on M*A*S*H beginning with season 4 in 1975. Like Farr, the character of Klinger

14616-722: The McCormick and Patterson families, owning stock in the restructured Tribune Company entity—which assumed oversight of all properties previously overseen by the trust—afterward.) The station disaffiliated from DuMont when the network ceased operations on August 6, 1956, amid various issues stemming from its relations with Paramount Pictures that hamstrung DuMont from expansion. Because the three remaining commercial broadcast networks (ABC, NBC and CBS) had each owned television stations in Chicago by this time, WGN-TV became an independent station by default. Under executive vice president and general manager Ward L. Quaal (whose stewardship of

14819-595: The NBC era. Gotterer presented the award as Barris had been escorted off the set by NBC security. Immediately after taping the final NBC episode, Barris was evicted from NBC's Burbank studios and The Gong Show set was moved to the studios of Golden West Broadcasters (now Sunset Bronson Studios ) in Hollywood. Production of the syndicated nighttime/weekend version of The Gong Show continued there for two years, following its daytime counterpart's cancellation. The entire syndicated run from September 1976 to September 1980

15022-571: The October 2007 separation of TBS from its Atlanta parent WTBS, WGN America had been the last remaining national superstation to be distributed to cable, IPTV, fiber optic and satellite television providers, whereas the other six remaining superstations are distributed outside their home regions mainly on satellite.) Due to the separation of the local and national feeds, WGN-TV did not carry WGN America's original drama series (such as Salem and Manhattan ) outside of preview promotions, limiting

15225-475: The Spanish-language network on December 30, 1994. United Video intended to provide an alternate feed of WGN with substitute programming for markets with a WB affiliate; however, no such measure was taken, creating network duplication in markets where over-the-air WB affiliates were forced to compete with the WGN cable feed.) WGN-TV (and its superstation feed) became a charter affiliate of The WB when

15428-550: The Stars . From November 1978 until October 2014, WGN America frequently simulcast WGN Sports broadcasts (mostly Cubs, White Sox and Bulls games) nationwide, when permitted under the station's sports contracts. (Tribune's President and CEO at the time, Peter Liguori , cited the limited viewership and advertising revenue generated from televising sports on a national basis relative to their contractual expense for its decision to stop carrying WGN's sports telecasts over WGN America after

15631-902: The WGN Orchestra (WGN's in-house band). Afterwards, a film previewed WGN-TV's initial program offerings. At the time it signed on, there were only 1,700 operational television sets in Chicago; that number would jump dramatically to around 100,000 sets by April 1949. WGN-TV was the second commercial television station in both Chicago and Illinois to sign on, as WBKB (channel 4) launched on September 6, 1946, but had operated on an experimental basis since 1940 as W9XBK. Two other stations joined WBKB and WGN-TV later in 1948: ABC 's WENR-TV (channel 7) on September 17 and NBC 's WNBQ (channel 5) on October 8. The Tribune quickly followed up WGN-TV's launch with WPIX in New York City on June 15, 1948. Initially, WGN television and radio operated from

15834-506: The WGN local and national feeds would decrease significantly during the 2000s and early 2010s as local exclusivity claims reduced the number of WGN-TV programs that Tribune could clear nationally in later years.) Of the four United Video-distributed superstations, WGN was the only one to increase its national coverage after the SyndEx rules were implemented, adding 2.2 million subscribers by July 1990; some systems also replaced WPIX and WWOR with

16037-672: The WGN national feed—which continues to carry the parade despite WGN America's December 2014 programming separation from WGN-TV—was given national simulcast rights), the Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade (which aired from 1949 to 2002), the Chicago Auto Show (from 1952 to 1992 and again since 1999) and the Philadelphia-based Mummers Parade (by arrangement with sister station WPHL-TV). Local events that WGN-TV aired in previous years have included

16240-656: The WGN stations was annexed into the facility (expanding the complex to 14.4 acres [6 ha]) in 1966. In subsequent years, the Tribune Company gradually expanded its broadcasting unit, of which WGN-TV-AM served as its flagship stations , a tie forged in January 1966, when the subsidiary (sans the WPIX television and radio stations, which continued to be controlled by the Tribune-managed News Syndicate Co. before being fully integrated into

16443-562: The WGN superstation feed during the early 1990s. Among the various community projects in which the station has been involved include the WGN-TV Children's Charities, a charitable foundation established in 1990 through the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation, benefitting various local organizations that help local children dealing with poverty and medical issues. On January 1 , 1993, Tribune launched Chicagoland Television (CLTV),

16646-461: The WGN-TV signal to a Satcom-3 transponder for distribution to cable and C-band satellite subscribers throughout the United States. (United Video uplinked the station's signal without WGN Continental Broadcasting's consent, using a legal exemption in the 1976 Copyright Act 's compulsory license statute allowing "passive" carriers to retransmit broadcast signals without first seeking the licensee's express permission.) This resulted in WGN-TV joining

16849-475: The acts on a particular episode were gonged, which occurred at least twice. Runners-up received various prizes; Maureen Orth , on her February 24, 1977, appearance, reported receiving a clothes iron valued at $ 33.95 for her second-place finish. When Barris announced the final score, little person actor Jerry Maren (a former Munchkin ) ran onstage in top hat and tails, throwing confetti while balloons dropped from overhead. The daily Gong Show also gave out

17052-440: The ad-hoc Action Pack syndication block on nights when sports events were not scheduled to air. By the time The WB adopted a six-night-a-week schedule (running Sunday through Fridays) in September 1999, the station had relegated its prime time film presentations to Saturday nights. Channel 9 chose not to clear the network's Kids' WB block, in favor of airing a local morning newscast and an afternoon sitcom block on weekdays and

17255-463: The aged philosopher, "Old Drool". Veteran composer Joey Carbone provided musical arrangements for the late 1980s revival with his own lineup of studio musicians, known as "The Gong Show Guys". Johnny Jacobs , who had worked for Barris for many years, was the main announcer from 1976 to 1980. When Jacobs was sidelined with an extended illness, Jack Clark substituted from October 3 through December 23, 1977. Charlie O'Donnell served as announcer for

17458-531: The calendar year, thereby giving WGN over-the-air exclusivity over all sporting events it is contracted to broadcast for the first time since 1993. The WB and The CW each contractually limited the number of network program preemptions, other than those caused by long-form breaking news coverage, that could occur on an annual basis; in compliance with these restrictions, WGN-TV purchased airtime on CLTV (from 1993 to 2002), WCIU-TV (from 1999 to 2015) and WPWR-TV (from 2015 to 2016) to carry certain game telecasts that

17661-633: The campaigns of Darrell Issa (2022), who grew up in Ohio and is of Lebanese ancestry, and Joe Leibham (2009). Farr has remained deeply loyal to his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, and the city has returned the sentiment. In 1977, he was awarded Toledo's version of the Keys to the City , a ceremonial glass. Scott High School named their new performing arts wing after him the same year. The University of Toledo awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1983 and, in 1998,

17864-481: The cancellation, many critics and industry analysts – including Gene Shalit and Rona Barrett – reported having heard comments from within the NBC programming department from "sources preferring anonymity" that the true reason behind the cancellation was Barris's refusal to tone down the increasingly risqué nature of the show. According to the sources, after the "Popsicle Twins" incident and an episode in which Jaye P. Morgan spontaneously exposed her breasts on air during

18067-406: The celebrity judges on The Gong Show . He also made frequent guest appearances on several other game shows, including The $ 100,000 Pyramid , Super Password , and Body Language . Following the end of M*A*S*H in 1983, Farr, Harry Morgan , and William Christopher reprised their roles for two seasons on the spinoff show AfterMASH , which followed their characters after the end of

18270-473: The central Midwestern United States that lacked access to an entertainment-based independent station. By the fall of 1978, the Channel 9 signal was transmitted to 574 cable systems—covering most of Western, Central and Southern Illinois as well as large swaths of Indiana , Wisconsin , Minnesota , Iowa, Missouri and Michigan —reaching an estimated 8.6 million subscribers. On November 9, 1978, Tulsa, Oklahoma –based satellite carrier United Video Inc. uplinked

18473-454: The channel did prior to its separation from WGN-TV, and switched from a royalty to a retransmission consent revenue model. As a result, WGN America immediately ceased simulcasts of WGN-TV's Chicago-originated local programming (which was limited to its weekday noon and [until that simulcast was dropped the previous February] nightly 9 p.m. newscasts, select news specials, public affairs programs, special events and sports telecasts, alongside

18676-634: The channel's operations were relocated from its original studio facility in Oak Brook to WGN-TV's Bradley Place studios and editorial control of CLTV was turned over to Channel 9's news department. CLTV's format soon became less reliant on live newscasts, focusing increasingly on repurposed newscasts and local programming from WGN-TV. Following its acquisition of Tribune Media, Nexstar shut down Chicagoland Television on December 31, 2019, after 27 years of operation. On November 2, 1993, Time Warner and Tribune (which would acquire an 11 percent interest in

18879-789: The city's major professional sports franchises—particularly the Chicago Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks —and several local and regional collegiate teams (including the Illinois Fighting Illini , the Northwestern Wildcats , the DePaul Blue Demons and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish as well as various Big Ten Conference universities) having regularly televised their games over channel 9. The Cubs and White Sox were

19082-402: The city's people and cultural heritage as well as WGN-TV's local programming efforts, and were accompanied by an imaging theme performed by legendary R&B singer and Chicago native Lou Rawls . The seven-note musical signature of the image theme was also incorporated into two associated music packages that were used for the station's newscasts and identifications between 1984 and 1993, while

19285-423: The claimant station or a syndication distributor to continue carrying a claimed program through an out-of-market station. To indemnify cable systems from potential blackouts, when the rules went into effect on January 1, 1990, United Video began offering a separate WGN national feed consisting of local and some syndicated programs as well as sporting events—except those subjected to league restrictions pertaining to

19488-593: The company reverted to its former name in October 2018). The split was completed on August 4, 2014, ending the Tribune ' s joint ownership with WGN-TV and WGN Radio after 66 and 94 years, respectively. However, WGN-TV continues to maintain a content partnership with the Tribune . On December 13, 2014, Tribune converted the WGN America national feed into a conventional cable channel that would focus on acquired and original programs, containing significantly more domestic and internationally acquired programming than

19691-755: The company's main station group following its 1991 sale of the Daily News ) was renamed the WGN Continental Broadcasting Company. In 1964, the company started Mid-America Video Tape Productions, which had eventually become WGN Continental Productions (later Tribune Entertainment). The group became known as the Tribune Broadcasting Company in January 1981, but retained the WGN Continental moniker as its de facto business name until 1984 and as

19894-548: The company. The transaction and concurring privatization of the company was completed upon termination of Tribune stock at the close of trading on December 20, 2007. Prior to the sale's closure, WGN-TV was one of two commercial television stations in the Chicago market, not counting network-owned stations, to have never been involved in an ownership transaction (along with WCIU-TV, which has been owned by Weigel Broadcasting since its February 1964 sign-on). On December 8, 2008, Tribune filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection , citing

20097-505: The copyright.) As such, WGN-TV became the first Tribune-owned independent station to be distributed to a national pay television audience (United Video would later uplink WPIX in May 1984, Netlink began distributing KWGN-TV in October 1987 and Eastern Microwave Inc. began distributing KTLA in February 1988 ) and the first superstation to be distributed by United Video (with WGN and WPIX being joined by Gaylord Broadcasting -owned KTVT [now

20300-486: The daytime hours; as fewer film packages were offered on the syndication market, its weekend schedule also began relying less on feature films and shifted to incorporate local lifestyle and tourism programs as well as additional first-run and off-network syndicated shows. On April 1, 2007, Chicago-based real estate investor Sam Zell announced plans to purchase the Tribune Company in an $ 8.2-billion leveraged buyout that gave Tribune employees stock and effective ownership of

20503-506: The defunct Tribune Entertainment in 2008), and At the Movies (which was produced from the facility from 1982 until 1990, three years after Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert left the program amid a 1986 contract dispute with Tribune Entertainment to develop Siskel & Ebert & the Movies with Buena Vista Television , which was produced out of WBBM-TV's studios and later WLS-TV's North State Street studios). Channel 9 formerly served as

20706-571: The drawing rights with WSNS-TV from March to May 1975 and again from September 1975 until August 1977, when WGN gained exclusivity over the telecasts. With the introduction of the Daily Game (now Pick 3) in February 1980, drawings began airing on the station at 6:57 p.m. nightly. After a three-year run on WFLD (which assumed drawing rights in January 1984), the Lottery migrated the drawing telecasts back to WGN-TV in January 1987. In August 1992,

20909-485: The drawings nationally on December 12, 2014; the Lottery ceased televising its daily drawings outright and moved the results for the Pick 3, Pick 4, Lotto with Extra Shot and Lucky Day Lotto (formerly Little Lotto until 2011) games exclusively to its website on October 1, 2015, upon switching to a random number generator structure. Throughout its history, WGN-TV has had a long association with Chicago sports, with most of

21112-408: The end of the show's run, an hour-long "Tournament of Talent" special was aired in August 1999, with twelve previous winning acts (chosen by viewers via a phone-in poll) competing for a payoff of $ 10,000. Comedy Central debuted a new incarnation called The Gong Show with Dave Attell , which lasted for eight weeks in the summer of 2008. The show's format was similar to the original, but its scoring

21315-480: The end of the show, only Alan Alda , who played Hawkeye Pierce , and Loretta Swit , who played Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan , had appeared in more M*A*S*H episodes than Farr. Farr was also one of two cast members who had actually served in Korea, the other being Mike Farrell , and the dog tags he wore as Klinger were his own from his time in the service. During the late 1970s, Farr appeared regularly as one of

21518-522: The event of an atom bomb attack on Chicago. As part of United Paramount Theatres (UPT)'s merger with ABC, on February 6, 1953, CBS assumed ownership of WBKB-TV through a $ 6.75-million acquisition designed to allow UPT to acquire ABC-owned WENR-TV (which subsequently assumed the WBKB call letters and management staff that previously belonged to channel 4), in compliance with FCC regulations that then forbade common ownership of two television stations within

21721-598: The fall of 1979, when it acquired the local rights to off-network series such as M*A*S*H , Happy Days and All in the Family , which helped it edge ahead of WGN-TV in the ratings by the end of that year. Not to stay outdone, after Tribune appointed Robert King to replace Sheldon Cooper (who was promoted to president and CEO of the upstart Tribune Entertainment syndication unit) as the station's general manager in 1982, WGN-TV began making its own efforts to acquire stronger first-run and off-network syndicated programs, gaining

21924-406: The finger during the song to accentuate his point. NBC censored the gesture, with the word "OOPS!" superimposed over a still shot of the set. Barris was gonged by Jamie Farr, who quipped, "Because that little fella's been saying that I've been long of nose, I'm also long of gong, fella." The group "Lobster Repair" (who performed Harry Belafonte 's song " Day-O ") won the final $ 516.32 and trophy of

22127-504: The first teams to be carried on the station, when on April 23, 1948, WGN aired a crosstown rivalry game that the Sox won, 4–1. (The Tribune Company wholly owned the Cubs from 1981 until 2008, and retained a minority interest in the team until January 2019.) Over the years, the number of Cubs and White Sox games on WGN had gradually decreased (down to about 70 per season for each team by 2008) as

22330-427: The first time in 21 years that it was not affiliated with a major broadcast network—on September 1, filling timeslots previously occupied by CW network shows mainly with additional syndicated programs on weekdays and an expanded weekend morning newscast, station-produced lifestyle programs and syndicated educational programs on weekends. Beginning the same day, all CW programming concurrently moved to WPWR-TV (resulting in

22533-588: The following programs, some of which were previously rebroadcast on CLTV: Channel 9 became known for its heavy schedule of local programs during the period from the 1950s through the 1980s, including some influential programs: In addition, Channel 9 broadcasts several local events including the Chicago Thanksgiving Parade (which has aired since 2007, under an agreement with the Chicago Festival Association in which

22736-424: The format in January 1954) to begin transmitting local programming in color; along with other color telecasting upgrades to its production and master control facilities, WGN was also the first television station in the world to use equipment (provided by Ampex ) capable of videotape recording and playback of color telecasts. The first live program on the station to be broadcast in the format was Ding Dong School ,

22939-471: The former Centennial Building facility for the Chicago American (retitled Chicago Today in 1969), where the newspaper maintained office and publishing operations until it ceased publication in 1974; the space is currently occupied by a Dylan's Candy Bar location. An adjacent 20,000-square-foot (1,858 m ), single-story building that housed certain non-production-related operations for

23142-409: The former superstation feed was converted into a conventional basic cable network in December 2014, enabling it to be added to local cable providers, and later soft re-launched as NewsNation in September 2020. A charter affiliate of both The WB and of successor network The CW, WGN-TV reverted to being an independent station in 2016 before returning to the network in 2024. WGN-TV, WGN radio and

23345-451: The frozen treats. The nature of their act led to the two girls being referred to as the "Popsicle Twins". While the girls were able to complete their act without being gonged, they were given low scores by two of the judges. Phyllis Diller gave them a zero, while Jamie Farr followed with a marginally better 2. Jaye P. Morgan awarded them a 10, quipping, "Do you know that's the way I started (in show business)?" and proceeded to eat one of

23548-554: The girls' popsicles. Surprisingly, the girls' act was approved by the NBC censors, who apparently did not see anything wrong with it during the rehearsals. However, after the episode was shown in the Eastern Time Zone, NBC cut the act from the later tape delay broadcast for western time zones. KNBC , alerted to the content, was able to preempt it. The act was not cut from all the tapes, and the "Popsicle Twins" incident has been seen in reruns and retrospectives. Barris said in

23751-569: The half-hour with a five-minute NBC newscast anchored by Edwin Newman . As a result, the first six-plus months of The Gong Show featured approximately twenty minutes of program content in a twenty-five-minute episode. Many NBC affiliates in some larger markets opted not to run network programming during the noon hour at all, preferring to broadcast local news and talk shows instead. Thus Gong made its debut mainly on medium-market and smaller stations or on large-market rival stations that had picked up

23954-555: The highest combined score won the grand prize: a check for $ 516.32 (a "highly unusual amount", in Barris's words; reportedly the Screen Actors Guild 's minimum pay for a day's work at the time) and a "Golden Gong" trophy. In the show's opening monologue, Barris would describe the amount as "five hundred and sixteen big ones, and thirty-two little ones". The syndicated series' top prize was originally $ 712.05 (the first episode

24157-431: The home game television blackout after taking over the franchise's ownership following his father's death). WGN-TV carried Chicago Bears regular season football games as a DuMont affiliate during the 1951 NFL season , after which the team moved their telecasts to ABC (and by association, ABC O&O WBKB-TV [now WLS-TV]) under a limited contract; the Bears aired their first game on WGN in 55 years on October 1, 2012, when

24360-780: The impact that the potential of having to phase out its sports telecasts to fulfill network commitments would have on the superstation feed's appeal to cable and satellite providers elsewhere around the United States. Ironically, despite its concerns with taking the WB affiliation, WGN had also vied to become the Chicago affiliate of the United Paramount Network ( UPN ), a joint venture between Chris-Craft/United Television and Paramount Television that announced its launch plans on October 21. On November 10, 1993, Paramount announced it had reached an agreement to affiliate UPN with then- Newsweb Corporation -owned WPWR-TV, which, upon

24563-492: The initial charter outlets of MyNetworkTV , a joint venture between Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television meant to fill the two weeknight prime time hours that would be opened up on UPN- and WB-affiliated stations that were not chosen to become CW charter outlets. The CW did not commission the WGN national feed—which became known as Superstation WGN in November 2002 and then as WGN America in August 2008—to act as

24766-415: The late 1980s revival. Hostesses included Siv Åberg (a Swedish -born model and actress who appeared on Barris's syndicated New Treasure Hunt ), actress Marlena Clark , porn star Carol Connors and Barris's teenage daughter, Della. NBC first broadcast the show at 12:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. Central ). This was the network's least important time slot, as programs running at that time had to share

24969-606: The later drawing timeslot, the live evening results were shifted to 9:22 p.m. Midday drawings for Pick 3 and Pick 4 were added upon their introduction on December 20, 1994. (The 12:40 p.m. drawings were shown during WGN's noon newscast on weekdays, while the Saturday drawing was usually not shown live nationally because of programming substitutions.) In addition to the live drawing results, WGN also carried two lottery-produced weekly game shows. From September 16, 1989, to December 19, 1992, and from January 8 to July 2, 1994,

25172-439: The latter half of the 1990s, most of The WB's remaining national coverage gaps began to be filled through standalone affiliations with UPN charter affiliates, leftover independents and former noncommercial stations as well as dual affiliations with various existing network outlets (mainly UPN stations) within the top-100 media markets, and through the September 1998 launch of The WeB (subsequently renamed The WB 100+ Station Group ),

25375-417: The latter of which acquired WFLD in 1982 as part of Field and partner company Kaiser Broadcasting 's concurring exits from the television industry—were particularly aggressive in their programming acquisitions as they leveraged their independent stations in other major and mid-sized markets for the strongest programs among those entering into syndication . Channel 32 began strengthening its syndication slate in

25578-517: The leading role in the hit Broadway musical Annie . Following Lynn's Gong Show appearance in 1976, she received a recording contract with Columbia Records and recorded the Top 40 disco hit " Got To Be Real ", released in 1978. Among the other true talents that appeared on the show were country singer Boxcar Willie ; actor Kevin Peter Hall who later appeared as the original Predator in

25781-490: The license and subsequent sale of the allocation to the Home Shopping Network .) WGN and WFLD remained the market's strongest independent stations as they both had more robust programming inventories than their competitors. In August 1983, WGN-TV unveiled one of the most successful station image campaigns in the United States with the launch of the "Chicago's Very Own" campaign. (The slogan—to which WGN holds

25984-1795: The licensee for WGN-TV and WGN Radio thereafter. The company gained its third television and second radio station in 1960, when it purchased KDAL-TV (now KDLH ) and KDAL in Duluth, Minnesota from the estate of the late Dalton LeMasurier (Tribune sold KDAL-TV in 1978 and KDAL radio in 1981); the company would later purchase KCTO (subsequently re-called KWGN-TV ) in Denver from J. Elroy McCaw in 1966. Tribune's later television purchases included those of WANX-TV (subsequently re-called WGNX, now WANF ) in Atlanta (in 1983); KTLA in Los Angeles (in 1985); WPHL-TV in Philadelphia (in 1992); WLVI-TV in Boston (owned from 1994 to 2006); KHTV (now KIAH ) in Houston (in 1995); KTTY (now KSWB-TV ) in San Diego (in 1996); KCPQ and KTWB-TV (now KZJO ) in Seattle (in 1998 and 1999, respectively); and WBDC-TV (now WDCW ) in Washington, D.C. (in 1999). Six other stations—including KDAF in Dallas – Fort Worth and WDZL (now WSFL-TV ) in Miami —were added through its purchase of Renaissance Broadcasting in July 1996, and two more were added through its November 1999 acquisition of

26187-439: The local availability of these programs to subscribers of DirecTV and Dish Network and through WGN America's streaming agreement with Hulu . WGN-TV would regain national availability in the spring of 2015, when Channel Master included the Chicago feed among the initial offerings of its LinearTV over-the-top streaming service. On May 23, 2016, after a year of protracted negotiations pertaining to financial terms (including

26390-487: The market's top-rated independent by the end of the decade. WGN-TV would gain two additional UHF independent competitors over the course of eight months in the early 1980s. On September 18, 1981, Focus Broadcasting signed on Joliet -based WFBN (channel 66, now WGBO-DT ), initially running a mix of local public-access programs during the daytime hours and the Spectrum subscription service at night. Then on April 4, 1982,

26593-595: The master control computer "took off and went wild". (The perpetrators of the WGN and WTTW intrusions have never been caught or identified.) On May 18, 1988, the FCC reinstituted the Syndication Exclusivity Rights Rule ("SyndEx"), a rule—previously repealed by the agency in July 1980—that allows television stations to claim local exclusivity over syndicated programs and requires cable systems to either black out or secure an agreement with

26796-478: The mid-to-late 1990s, WGN-TV continued to be referred to on-air as either "WGN Channel 9" or simply "Channel 9"; by 1999, the station began to be referred to mainly by the WGN call letters (as had been the case with the national feed since 1997). By that time, WGN replaced its late-night feature film presentations (except for the Saturday Action Theater showcase) with syndicated sitcoms. During

26999-506: The morning, and two to three films per night—Monday through Friday, and between three and six films per day on Saturdays and Sundays. Among its regular film showcases were WGN [Television] Presents (which aired during the late access slot weeknights from 1948 to 1995, on Saturdays until 1979 and on Sundays until 1997) and Action Theater (a showcase of action and adventure films that ran on midday Sundays from 1952 to 1956 and, later, in Saturday late access from 1979 to 2001). In February 1977,

27202-429: The most celebrated being Tiny Tim .) After a violent argument between Barris and Bearde over the future direction of the show came to blows and resulted the throwing of chairs and other objects, Bearde resigned, leaving Barris fully in charge of The Gong Show . Milton DeLugg was a popular musician and bandleader during the 1940s and 1950s. He got the Gong Show job by default; as the longtime music director of NBC, he

27405-405: The network censors, intentionally bringing in risque acts as a diversion to allow some of the less racy acts to slip by. In 1977, one of these bait acts, called "Have You Got a Nickel?", made it onto the show. The act consisted of two teenage girls, both wearing shorts, sitting cross-legged on the stage floor and silently eating popsicles in a manner that suggested they were performing fellatio on

27608-435: The network in August 1995) announced the formation of The WB Television Network . Tribune committed six of the seven independent stations it owned at the time to serve as charter affiliates of The WB, though it initially exempted WGN-TV from the agreement, as station management had expressed concerns about how the network's plans to expand its prime time and daytime program offerings would affect WGN's sports broadcast rights and

27811-440: The network launched on January 11, 1995. Upon joining The WB, WGN's programming remained basically unchanged, continuing to feature syndicated programs, feature films, and locally produced shows. As The WB initially offered prime time programs only on Wednesdays at launch, Channel 9 filled the 7 to 9 p.m. time slot leading into its late-evening newscast with feature films or, from September 1995 until September 1997, programs from

28014-576: The network's daytime talk show block —which had been reduced to one hour (from two) in September 2011—one hour earlier (at 2 p.m.) than other CW affiliates in the Central Time Zone , aligning with the block's East Coast airtime. WGN-TV gradually evolved its programming slate during the late 2000s and 2010s, adopting a news-intensive format (expanding its newscast production to 70 hours per week by 2016), and shifting its weekday daytime lineup towards mainly first-run talk and game shows during

28217-458: The network's January 16, 1995, launch, would become the largest UPN affiliate not to be owned by either of its parent companies. On December 3, 1993, Tribune reached a separate agreement with Time Warner that would allow WGN-TV to serve as The WB's Chicago affiliate and allow its companion superstation feed to act as a de facto national WB feed until the network was able to fill remaining gaps in affiliate coverage in "white area" markets that lacked

28420-420: The network's higher-rated affiliates in terms of overall viewership, often drawing more viewers than Fox-owned WFLD—even in prime time, despite the latter's Fox programming. Channel 9 carried the entire CW schedule from the network's launch, including its children's program blocks (Kids' WB, The CW4Kids/Toonzai , Vortexx and One Magnificent Morning ); however, from September 2013 to September 2016, WGN had aired

28623-552: The next several years: the first heaviest concentrations of availability outside the Midwest developed in the Central U.S. (where WGN's telecasts of Chicago Cubs baseball, Chicago Bulls basketball and The Bozo Show became highly popular) and gradually expanded to encompass most of the nation. Tribune and station management treated WGN-TV as a "passive" superstation, asserting a neutral position over United Video relaying its signal to

28826-493: The now-defunct regional cable news channel Chicagoland Television (CLTV) were the three flagship properties of Tribune Broadcasting , itself part of the Tribune Media conglomerate (formerly known as the Tribune Company until August 2014), until the company's purchase by Nexstar was completed in September 2019. The Chicago Tribune Company , headed by Chicago Tribune editor and publisher Robert R. McCormick and

29029-476: The number of games that could be shown on out-of-market stations annually—that aired on the WGN Chicago signal, and substitute programs not subjected to exclusivity claims. (The feed was originally structured similarly to the concurrently launched WWOR EMI Service feed of Secaucus, New Jersey –based WWOR-TV , albeit with a larger amount of shared programming. However, the amount of common programming between

29232-439: The only independents in the market besides WGN that were able to turn a reasonable profit; in contrast, WCIU and all of the other competitors that came afterward lagged behind in terms of both ratings and revenue. (WSNS would bow out of the competition in 1982, when, after two years of carrying the over-the-air subscription service only at night on weekdays and for most of the daytime and evening hours on weekends, it converted into

29435-558: The orchestra's music director . On January 25, 1950, the WGN stations relocated their operations to the Centennial Building. Renovated to accommodate production and office facilities for WGN-TV, the facility included one master (which was situated on inflated rubber bags to eliminate outside noise and vibrations) and two auxiliary studios as well as a sub-basement studio situated 75 feet [23 m] below street level that could allow WGN-TV-AM and WGNB to continue broadcasts in

29638-636: The original entity, which was renamed Tribune Media and was restructured to focus on the company's broadcasting, digital and real estate properties; the newspaper division—which, in addition to the Chicago Tribune , included publications such as the Los Angeles Times , the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Baltimore Sun —was spun off into the standalone entity Tribune Publishing (known as Tronc from June 2016 until

29841-563: The owner of WGN and WGNB submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on September 13, 1946, and under the "WGN Incorporated" subsidiary , to build a television station on VHF channel 9. After the FCC awarded the permit on November 8, the group originally requested to assign WGNA as the station's call sign . By January 1948, however, the company decided to call its new television property WGN-TV after WGN, which had been owned by

30044-428: The pirated feed. The extended video, as seen during the roughly 90-second-long hijack occurring later that night during a Doctor Who episode on PBS member station WTTW (channel 11), featured several references to WGN-TV (including the masked person mocking fill-in sports anchor and WGN Radio sports commentator Chuck Swirsky as a "frickin' nerd" and a "frickin' liberal ", and referring to his pretend defecation as

30247-420: The predecessor WB 100+ service. Channel 9 remained an affiliate of The WB until the network ceased operations on September 17, 2006; it became a charter affiliate of The CW when that network debuted the following day on September 18. WPWR, meanwhile, had disaffiliated from UPN on September 4 and began carrying MyNetworkTV programming upon that network's September 5 launch. As a CW affiliate, WGN-TV had been one of

30450-432: The program from the NBC affiliate that had rejected it. For example, in Boston , then-NBC affiliate WBZ-TV did not run the series, allowing local UHF independent outlet WSBK-TV to broadcast it. Gong's time slot was given to a new soap opera, Lovers and Friends , on January 3, 1977, and the show replaced the cancelled Another World spinoff Somerset at 4:00 p.m. The time change allowed Gong to expand to

30653-498: The ranks of Atlanta independent station WTCG (later WTBS and now WPCH-TV ) to become America's second national " superstation ", independent stations distributed via satellite to cable providers within their respective regions, or throughout the country. Within a week of attaining national status, WGN-TV added approximately 200 cable systems in various parts of the United States (reaching an estimated one million subscribers) to its total distribution. That cable reach would grow over

30856-500: The remaining on-air contestants kept their existing winnings, with their partners receiving $ 100. (Initially, each on-air contestant was given the option of keeping their winnings or trading them for other prizes.) Its successor, Illinois Instant Riches (retitled Illinois' Luckiest in 1998), ran from July 9, 1994, to October 21, 2000, with Mark Goodman and Kollmeyer as co-hosts. Produced in conjunction with Mark Goodson Productions (later Jonathan Goodson Productions ), it featured

31059-572: The rights to series such as Laverne & Shirley , Good Times , Little House on the Prairie and WKRP in Cincinnati . WGN's ratings improved throughout the 1980s under the stewardship of King and his successor, Dennis FitzSimons (who would later elevate to President of Tribune Broadcasting, and later to Executive Vice President and then Chairman/CEO of the Tribune Company before stepping down in 2007), firmly overtaking WFLD to again become

31262-523: The role of Klinger for AfterMASH and appeared both in small roles on popular shows such as The Love Boat and as a host or panelist on game shows including Battle of the Network Stars . He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1985. Farr was born Jameel Joseph Farah on July 1, 1934 in Toledo, Ohio , the son of Jamelia and Samuel Farah. His father, who owned a grocery store,

31465-711: The roof of the Prudential Building on East Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue, and increased its effective radiated power from 120 kW to the maximum of 316 kW. In March 1957, WGN began carrying programming from the NTA Film Network ; the station served as the programming service's primary Chicago affiliate, offering the majority of NTA's program offerings. (The remaining, limited number of NTA shows not carried by WGN were split between ABC-owned WBKB-TV and NBC-owned WNBQ.) This relationship lasted until National Telefilm Associates discontinued

31668-663: The same market. As a consequence of the deal, CBS moved the remainder of its programming to the rechristened WBBM-TV on April 1; this left Channel 9 exclusively affiliated with the faltering DuMont. (WBBM would move from VHF channel 4 to VHF channel 2 on July 5, 1953, in accordance with allocation realignments dictated by the FCC-issued Sixth Report and Order .) By 1954, WGN-TV expanded its broadcast schedule to 18 hours per day (running from 6 a.m. to midnight). After McCormick succumbed from pneumonia -related complications on April 1, 1955, ownership of WGN-TV-AM,

31871-420: The second time that Fox Television Stations had owned a CW-affiliated station, as, under an existing contract that was already scheduled to expire before that station's conversion into a Fox O&O was announced, Charlotte sister station WJZY continued to carry the network's programming for about 3½ months after its purchase by Fox was finalized in April 2013). Channel 9 reverted to independent status—marking

32074-485: The series was not renewed for a third season and was quietly cancelled. In 1980, The Gong Show Movie was released by Universal Pictures to scathing reviews and was quickly withdrawn from theatrical release. Advertising proclaimed it as " The Gong Show That Got Gonged by the Censor". It was seen periodically on cable TV, but was not released on home video until March 29, 2016, when the film, which achieved cult status

32277-414: The service in November 1961. On November 8, 1957, after conducting internal tests since the fall of 1956, WGN-TV—which had ordered RCA color television equipment in the fall of 1952—began broadcasting select programs in color , consisting primarily of syndicated programs available in the format. In January 1958, WGN became the second Chicago television station (after WNBQ, which began televising programs in

32480-489: The share of reverse compensation that Tribune would pay to keep CW programming on those stations), Tribune Broadcasting and CW managing partner CBS Corporation reached a five-year agreement that allowed twelve of Tribune's thirteen CW-affiliated stations to remain with the network through 2021. Tribune exempted WGN-TV from the renewed agreement, intending to free up its schedule to offer an increased schedule of Chicago Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks games in prime time during

32683-456: The show after Barris started the show doing a "Chuckie's Fables" sketch. The rest of the final episode tried to explain the life of the show and its cancellation. Barris managed to have the last word on the show's demise, appearing as a contestant. Playing in a country music band called "The Hollywood Cowboys" with the house band's rhythm section, Barris sang a slightly modified version of Johnny Paycheck 's " Take This Job and Shove It ", giving NBC

32886-462: The show as a bodybuilder. Future Academy Award-nominated actress Mare Winningham sang the Beatles song " Here, There, and Everywhere " on the program in 1976. Future Super Bowl XXXV winning head coach Brian Billick also made an appearance, performing a routine known as the "spider monkey". Dancer Danny Lockin , who had played Barnaby in the film Hello Dolly! , was murdered hours after winning

33089-454: The show himself. He was an emergency replacement for original host John Barbour , who had objected to the show's satirical concept and tried to adopt more of a traditional amateur-hour format. Barbour would eventually serve as producer and co-host of the hit NBC Reality TV series, Real People (1979–84) Barris initially appeared somewhat ill at ease as host, but before long he was working so loosely on camera that many viewers assumed that he

33292-449: The show taped August 21, 1977. Television personality, actress and entrepreneur, Rhonda Shear appeared on the program in 1979. Journalist Maureen Orth , then writing for Newsweek , won second-place on a 1977 show, appearing as "The World's Oldest Cheerleader." An established game show producer ( The Dating Game , The Newlywed Game ), Barris was originally creator and co-producer of The Gong Show and had no intention of hosting

33495-411: The slogan has served as the title for two other news themes commissioned exclusively for WGN-TV in subsequent years (a John Hegner-composed package used from 1993 to 1997 and a 615 Music -composed package that has been used since November 1, 2007) as well as for a weekly profile series that aired from 1988 until 1990 and would evolve into a continuing weekly 9 p.m. news segment. At various points over

33698-476: The start of the team's NBA championship dynasty during Michael Jordan 's tenure with the team. WGN initially carried Blackhawks NHL games (which, per prohibitions on televised home games imposed by then-owner Bill Wirtz in order to sustain ticket sales, were restricted to away games) from 1961 until 1975 . The Blackhawks returned to the station during the 2008–09 season , with a package of both home and away games (the result of Rocky Wirtz 's decision to end

33901-468: The station aired $ 100,000 Fortune Hunt . It was originally hosted by Jeff Coopwood , with co-host Linda Kollmeyer, and subsequently with Mike Jackson as host. The program saw six contestants selected from a preliminary scratch-off entry ticket drawing choose panels from a numbered 36-panel game board containing various dollar amounts. The player with the highest prize amount after five rounds won $ 100,000 and their two chosen at-home partners won $ 500 each;

34104-471: The station also began carrying a nightly prime time feature at 8 p.m., replacing syndicated dramas that had been airing in the timeslot. (The prime time films were pushed to 7 p.m. in March 1980, in accordance with the shift of its late-evening newscast into prime time). By January 1980, when WGN became the market's second television station to offer a 24-hour schedule (after WBBM-TV, which adopted such

34307-748: The station and programming efforts earned him the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences [NATAS]'s Governors' Award in 1966 and 1987), the station adopted a general entertainment format that would become typical of other major market independents up through the early 1990s, carrying a mix of sitcoms and drama series, feature films , cartoons and religious programs as well as locally produced news, public affairs , music and children's programs. WGN-TV also became more reliant on sports programming, led by its broadcasts of Chicago Cubs baseball games as well as other regional collegiate and professional teams. This helped Channel 9 establish itself as

34510-537: The station carried the team's Monday Night Football matchup against the Dallas Cowboys . ( NFL rules require national games aired by cable networks to be syndicated to broadcast stations in the participating teams' home markets.) Although WLS-TV has right of first refusal to MNF due to its corporate parent The Walt Disney Company 's majority ownership of ESPN , WLS passed on carrying the game in order to air that night's live broadcast of ABC's Dancing with

34713-642: The station to be broadcast in color). On June 27, 1961, the operations of WGN-TV and WGN radio were relocated to the WGN Mid-America Broadcast Center (later renamed the WGN Continental Broadcast Center and now simply referred to as WGN Studios), a two-story, 95,000-square-foot (8,826 m ) complex on West Bradley Place in Chicago's North Center community. The Broadcast Center, which began housing some local program production on January 16 of that year,

34916-595: The station was contracted to produce (totaling roughly 30 per year). WB and CW network programs subjected to sports-induced displacements on their regular nights were shown on a tape-delayed basis later in the week (usually in a graveyard slot or on a weekend evening timeslot not occupied by a scheduled game telecast, as neither The WB nor The CW has ever aired prime time programs on Saturdays and as The CW had embargoed providing programs on Sundays from September 2009 until October 2018). Concurrently, Fox announced that WPWR would take over as Chicago's CW affiliate (marking

35119-553: The station's facilities during the late 1940s and the first half of the 1950s, including The Al Morgan Show , Chicago Symphony , Chicagoland Mystery Players , Music From Chicago , The Music Show , They Stand Accused (the first televised courtroom drama program ), This is Music , Windy City Jamboree and Down You Go . WGN-TV had also telecast performances of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, beginning in 1953, during Fritz Reiner 's tenure as

35322-472: The station's schedule, while syndicated animated series were added on weekend mornings. WGN-TV—which continued to carry the network locally—began clearing the entire WB network schedule in September 2004, when it assumed the rights to the Kids' WB lineup from WCIU-TV, effectively becoming the sole remaining station in the Chicago market to run cartoons on weekday afternoons. WGN continued to carry Kids' WB's remaining Saturday morning lineup (which initially aired on

35525-474: The station's statewide cable distribution (which, after the SyndEx rules were implemented, would occasionally subject the evening drawings to preemption associated with that of the delayed 9 p.m. newscast when sports clearance restrictions applied to the WGN national feed), the Lottery moved its telecasts back to WGN on January 1, 1994; with this move, citing declining revenues under the WBBM contract partly under

35728-405: The trademark rights and continues to be used by the station—is a variant of the "Chicago's Own" tagline that had been used in on-air identifications periodically since the 1960s.) Developed by Peter Marino (WGN-TV's director of promotions at the time) and Mike Waterkotte (then the creative director of now-defunct Chicago advertising agency Eisaman, Johns & Law), the campaign promotions focused on

35931-526: The transmitter dish was disassembled in 1984. WGN also served as a charter member of the Operation Prime Time syndication service, which was launched in 1976 as a consortium founded by Al Masini and a committee of executives with 18 independent stations (including WGN-TV, which was represented by then-station manager and WGN Continental Broadcasting Vice President Sheldon Cooper) represented by Masini's advertising sales firm TeleRep, offering

36134-802: The war. Between the 1970s and early 1990s, he appeared in several made-for-TV movies such as Murder Can Hurt You , Return of the Rebels , and Combat Academy and guest starred on shows including Kolchak: The Night Stalker , Emergency! , and Murder She Wrote . He played the Sheik in The Cannonball Run , Cannonball Run II , and Speed Zone and was the only actor to have appeared in all three Cannonball Run films. He also appeared in TV commercials, including for Wonder Bread , Mars bars , and IBM computers. Farr's debut on Broadway

36337-555: The weeknight-only MyNetworkTV schedule being shifted to air on a three-hour delay from 10 p.m. to midnight). As such, WPWR displaced WLVI in Boston as the largest CW station that is not owned by either Tribune or CBS Corporation. (The CW would eventually move to WCIU-TV on September 1, 2019, marking the first time that channel 26—which had maintained part-time affiliations with the Spanish International Network and successor Univision, NetSpan/Telemundo, and The WB [by way of Kids' WB] at various points between 1968 and 2004—had ever served as

36540-506: The wives and secretaries of married men would compete to show who knew the men better. Religious activists and feminist groups protested against Three's a Crowd and its ratings eventually forced the show's cancellation during the middle of the season. In Barris's autobiography The Game Show King , he wrote that "the public backlash from Three's a Crowd not only caused the program to be canceled, but it took three other TV shows of mine with it. I went to my house in Malibu and stayed there for

36743-450: The years, the "[city/region]'s Very Own" slogan was also adapted by some of its Tribune-owned sister stations (such as WPIX, KTLA and WTTV in Indianapolis ). On November 10, 1984, WGN-TV became an affiliate of the MGM/UA Premiere Network ad hoc syndicated film service. On November 22, 1987, during that evening's edition of The Nine O'Clock News , the WGN-TV signal was briefly overridden by video of an unidentified person wearing

36946-416: Was $ 996.83) and later increased to $ 716.32. In the event of a tie, three different tiebreakers were used at various times during the show's run. Originally the studio audience determined the winner by applause, but this was later changed to a decision by the producers, and later by the celebrity judges. On a few, rare occasions, both winning acts each received a check and a trophy. No prize was awarded if all of

37149-446: Was Chicago's leading independent station during the 1960s and into the 1970s, even as it gained its first four competitors on UHF , one of which would not last more than a year. Locally based Weigel Broadcasting signed on WCIU-TV (channel 26) on February 6, 1964, with a multi-ethnic programming format. On January 4, 1966, New Television Chicago—a joint venture between Field Communications (which, through parent Field Enterprises ,

37352-589: Was a Lebanese-American from Toledo, which gave Farr the freedom to pepper references about the town into his dialogue. He frequently mentioned hot dogs from Tony Packo's Cafe and was a fan of the baseball team, the Toledo Mud Hens . Klinger was promoted to the company clerk's position later in the series and gradually stopped wearing women's clothes. This was done for two reasons: first, to show Klinger's respect for his new role and his increased maturity; and second, because Farr didn't want his two young children to be teased about their father wearing dresses on TV. By

37555-409: Was a sister property to the Tribune ' s main newspaper rivals, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Daily News , at the time) and local advertising firm Froelich & Friedland—signed on WFLD (channel 32, now a Fox owned-and-operated station), which would grow to become WGN's strongest independent competitor in the area. On May 18, 1969, Aurora -based WLXT-TV (channel 60) signed on with

37758-517: Was an immigrant from the Beqaa Valley area of what is now Lebanon and his mother, a seamstress, was a first-generation Lebanese American who grew up in Iowa. Prior to immigrating through Ellis Island , Samuel's surname was Abboud and his father's first name was Farah. Farr grew up in Northern Toledo, which had a sizeable Lebanese population, in a diverse neighborhood. He was raised Antiochian Orthodox . He had at least one sibling, an older sister, Yvonne, who died in 2012. His first acting gig

37961-724: Was as Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls in the 1990s at age 60. He had wanted to play this role since seeing the show in high school. He replaced Nathan Lane in the role last minute, only having two weeks and one full-cast rehearsal before the show opened. In 1997, he played Oscar Madison opposite former M*A*S*H costar William Christopher as Felix Unger in The Odd Couple . The two had appeared in several movies before being cast together in M*A*S*H . He also appeared in Flamingo Court opposite Anita Gillette . His other shows have included Say Goodnight, Gracie , The Last Romance , George Washington Slept Here , Catch Me If You Can , Don't Dress for Dinner , Lend Me

38164-436: Was at age 11, when he won two dollars in a local acting competition. While in high school, he worked at his father's shop and delivered The Toledo Times newspaper in the morning and The Blade in the afternoon. He graduated from Woodward High School in 1952 and left for California later that year, where he attended classes at Pasadena Playhouse . It was there that he was spotted by an MGM talent scout and offered

38367-399: Was attending large-scale events like Comic Con to meet fans of the show. The same year, he hosted M*A*S*H: The Best By Farr , where he provided commentary on his favorite episodes of the show to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary. Farr published his autobiography Just Farr Fun ( ISBN   978-0964077508 ) in 1994 and cowrote Hababy's Christmas Eve ( ISBN   978-1934341100 )

38570-464: Was based on a scale of 0 to 500, and winning acts received $ 600. The $ 600 was shown as paid in cash on the spot, rather than being paid by check as in earlier versions, but in reality (because of contestant eligibility regulations by Sony) was paid as a check from Sony Pictures. In place of a typical trophy, winners were awarded a belt in the style of boxing championship belts. A live stage version of The Gong Show took place at B.B. King's Blues Club, in

38773-452: Was because of both "lower than expected ratings" and a desire by the network to "re-tailor the morning shows to fit the standard morning demographics" (the move coincided with the arrival of new NBC president Fred Silverman , who was well known for such programming overhauls and was reported to have disliked The Gong Show ). America Alive! , a magazine-style variety program hosted by Art Linkletter 's son Jack , replaced Gong . Following

38976-425: Was chosen as its Chicago affiliate over WPWR-TV, as Channel 9 had been the higher-rated of the two stations dating to WPWR's sign-on. On February 22, Fox announced that WPWR and nine other non-Fox-O&O stations (eight UPN stations, consisting of four in other major markets where The CW chose to align with a Tribune station and four based in non - Tribune markets , and one independent station) would become

39179-530: Was developed for color broadcasting—allowing the station to televise live studio shows as well as Chicago Cubs and White Sox baseball games in the format—and with civil defense concerns in mind to provide a safe location to conduct broadcasts in the event of a hostile attack (such as a bombing by a nuclear weapon) targeting downtown Chicago. It houses three main production soundstages as well as two additional soundstages that were originally used as sound recording studios for WGN Radio. The Tribune Company repurposed

39382-454: Was distributed by Firestone Program Services. While the series eventually met its demise in syndication as it had on NBC, according to Barris, the problem did not lie with any outrageous acts, but instead the controversy and public outcry over another series he had produced. In September 1979, Barris launched the game show Three's a Crowd , which was a spin-off of The Newlywed Game . Instead of recently married couples trying to match answers,

39585-407: Was hired for one day's work on the fourth episode of M*A*S*H as Corporal Maxwell Klinger . Klinger provided comic relief in his desperate attempts to be given a Section 8 discharge by wearing elaborate women's outfits with accessories such as boas , a fruit hat , and fashion headscarves . At the time, Farr was still a struggling actor and was most concerned about the $ 250 paycheck from

39788-448: Was hiring him as a writer. Farr completed his military career with an additional two years on inactive reserve. Over the next decade, Farr had small roles on The Danny Kaye Show , The Dick Van Dyke Show , My Three Sons , and Garrison's Gorillas and appeared in films including The Greatest Story Ever Told , No Time for Sergeants , Who's Minding the Mint? , and With Six You Get Eggroll . In October 1972, he

39991-508: Was intoxicated from alcohol or other drugs. In a later interview with the Archive of American Television , Barris recounted that he was never drunk and forbade the use of drugs by anyone in his production company. Producer Chris Bearde, formerly of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour , clashed with Barris over the program's content, favoring more scripted comedy over chaotic nonsense. (Bearde's "new talent" segments on Laugh-In had featured oddball performers,

40194-421: Was one of his favorite comedians growing up. Before Farr left for his military service, Skelton gave him a Saint Christopher medal, which he has worn since. When Skelton died in 1997, his widow asked Farr to be a pallbearer at his funeral. Public records show that Farr has contributed financially to the Republican National Committee and Republican Party candidates multiple times since 1988, including to

40397-402: Was paid $ 701. The last show of the Don Bleu's revival is dedicated for a long-week tribute to France. Extreme Gong , a later incarnation of The Gong Show on the Game Show Network had viewers vote on its acts by telephone. It was hosted by George Gray and ran from October 5, 1998, to August 31, 1999, with reruns continuing to air up until Fall of 2000. Winners received $ 317.69. This version

40600-435: Was released on Blu-ray by Shout! Factory . Confessions of a Dangerous Mind , a film directed by George Clooney and written by Charlie Kaufman , was based on the semi-fictional autobiography of the same name by Chuck Barris. Part of the film chronicles the making of The Gong Show , and features several clips from the original series. Following the success of the print and screen versions of Confessions , GSN produced

40803-504: Was responsible for any network project that required special music (like the annual telecasts of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade ). Although DeLugg had previously arranged the theme for The Newlywed Game , Barris initially regarded him as "an anachronism"; however, Barris was soon pleased to discover that DeLugg was very much attuned to the facetious tone of the show and he appeared alongside Barris in recurring comedy skits as various characters including bad-joke teller, "Naso Literatus" and

41006-424: Was scheduled to air sporting events during prime time. (Although the network's programming was split between WGN-TV and WCIU locally beginning with the Kids' WB block's September 9, 1995, debut, the WGN superstation feed carried The WB's prime time and children's programs until the stopgap network feed was discontinued.) Even as Chicago's network-owned stations began adopting network-centric station branding during

41209-523: Was well known for two known incidents: one episode featuring "Cody the Talking Dog" for which he tried to say things like "I love you" and "ice cream" but did not succeed in talking, and another featuring a Village People parody as The Village Little People where they sang a cover of " YMCA ". Orange County comedy punk band the Radioactive Chicken Heads (then called Joe & the Chicken Heads) made their national television debut on Extreme Gong , though they were gonged midway through their performance. Near

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