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Chuck Barris as host of “The Gong Show,” which he created. It became a phenomenon after its 1976 debut.
NBC, via Everett Collection
Chuck Barris
Died on March 21, 2017 at age 87
Mr. Barris, the “Gong Show” creator, songwriter and novelist, sought to add to his already eclectic résumé with a made-up — or was it? — story about being an assassin for the C.I.A. “The Gong Show” was just one of his hit game show creations. In the 1960s he came up with “The Dating Game” and “The Newlywed Game,” making a spectacle of his contestants’ romantic yearnings in the first case and their honeymoon-period bliss, adjustments and foibles in the second.
Notable Deaths 2017
Remembering Mary Tyler Moore, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lewis, David Rockefeller, Trisha Brown, Glen Campbell, Dick Gregory, Edith Windsor, Sam Shepard, Tom Petty and many others who died this year.