- Barris Industries
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Barris Industries, Inc. was an American television production company that was started in 1965 by Chuck Barris as Chuck Barris Productions. The company's first series was People Pickers and its first hit program was The Dating Game and would also be known for producing other hit game shows such as The Newlywed Game, and The Gong Show.
In 1980, Barris produced the movie The Gong Show Movie, which was distributed by Universal Pictures. Chuck Barris returned to America in 1984 and formed a syndication arm called Bel-Air Program Sales and renamed Chuck Barris Productions, Inc. to Barris Industries, Inc. in October and began syndicating The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, The Gong Show, The $1.98 Beauty Show and the Barris versions of Treasure Hunt. In 1986, Barris Industries formed an ad-sales barter called Clarion Communications. Later in 1986, Bel-Air Program Sales was renamed to Barris Program Sales, Clarion Communications was renamed to Barris Advertising Sales (a.k.a Barris National Advertisers), and the production arm Chuck Barris Productions to Barris Productions. Barris left in 1987 and sold his shares to Burt Sugarman.
Barris Industries under the leadership of Burt Sugarman, originally owned a 5.27% stake in Reeves Communications Corp. In 1988, Barris Industries merged with the Guber-Peters Company to form Guber-Peters-Barris. On September 7, 1989, Barris Industries was renamed as the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company.[1] On September 29, 1989, a day after Sony Corporation of Japan acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Sony acquired Guber-Peters Entertainment Company for $200 million. [2] The sale was completed on November 9, 1989 after Sony's acquisition of Columbia Pictures Entertainment a day earlier. Currently, all of his game shows are distributed by Sony Pictures Television.
Known employees
One known employee that was a long time announcer for Chuck Barris Productions was Johnny Jacobs, who had served from 1965 until his death in 1982. Jacobs announced for such Barris game shows like The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, Treasure Hunt, and The Gong Show.
Another announcer was Wheel of Fortune's Charlie O'Donnell, who served in this capacity from 1986-1989 for The New Newlywed Game, The All New Dating Game and the 1988 version of The Gong Show until those incarnations ended in 1989 and went back to Wheel of Fortune in March. He also served as an announcer for Barry & Enright Productions.
Another employee was legendary game show host, Bob Eubanks who had served from 1966-1974, 1977-1980, and 1985-1988 until he stepped down as host for The New Newlywed Game and was replaced by Paul Rodriguez.
Other companies include
- Chuck Barris Projects
- Chuck Barris Enterprises
- Barris Program Sales
- Barris Advertising Sales
Notes and references
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