Editing The Gong Show (section)

===NBC===
NBC first broadcast the show at 12:30&nbsp;p.m. (11:30&nbsp;a.m. [[Central Time Zone|Central]] and [[Pacific Time Zone|Pacific]]). This was the network's least important time slot, as programs running at that time had to share 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 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 (TV series)|Another World]]'' spinoff ''[[Somerset (TV series)|Somerset]]'' at 4:00&nbsp;p.m. The time change allowed ''Gong'' to expand to 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.<ref>{{IMDb title|1193452|The All-Star Gong Show Special}}</ref>

===="Popsicle Twins" incident====
During ''The'' ''Gong Show'''s run, Barris became well known for his clashes with 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 [[ice pop|popsicles]] in a manner that suggested they were performing [[fellatio]] on 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 the girls' popsicles.<ref name="Inde770921">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/104764429/a-popsicle-act-gets-gong-show-in-trouble/|date=September 21, 1977|page=33|agency=Chicago Sun-Times|title=A popsicle act gets Gong Show in trouble|newspaper=The Independent-Record|location=Helena, Montana|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=July 1, 2022}}</ref>

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.<ref name=have-you-got-a-nickel-1>{{cite web|last=Kaufman|first=King|title=Chuck Barris|url=http://www.salon.com/2001/03/06/chuck_barris/|work=[[Salon (website)|Salon]]|date=March 6, 2001}}</ref> [[KNBC]], alerted to the content, was able to preempt it.{{r|Inde770921}} The act was not cut from all the tapes, and the "Popsicle Twins" incident has been seen in reruns and retrospectives. Barris said in a 2001 interview with [[Salon (website)|''Salon'']] that this particular act began making him reconsider his career.<ref name=have-you-got-a-nickel-1/>

====Cancellation====
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 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 Linkletter|Jack]], replaced ''Gong''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/25/archives/new-jersey-pages-tv-america-alive-makes-debut-on-nbc.html|title=TV: 'America Alive' Makes Debut on NBC|newspaper=The New York Times|date=25 July 1978}}</ref>

Following 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<ref name="have-you-got-a-nickel-1" /> and an episode in which Jaye P. Morgan spontaneously exposed her breasts on air during 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.

====Finale====
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 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 [[finger (gesture)|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 the NBC era. Gotterer presented the award as Barris had been escorted off the set by NBC security.