Barris Industries, Inc. was an American game show production company that was founded byChuck Barris.
Barris founded his company on June 14, 1965 as Chuck Barris Productions.[1] The company's first series was an unsold pilot calledPeople Pickers. Its first successful program wasThe Dating Game; it was known for producing other hit game shows such asThe Newlywed Game andThe Gong Show. The latter title eventually became a movie released byUniversal Pictures in 1980. Chuck Barris Productions was incorporated on October 2, 1968.[2] It had its first game show insyndication in 1969, the short-livedThe Game Game (credited as Chuck Barris Games Shows, Inc. [sic]). In 1981, Barris renamed Chuck Barris Productions, Inc. as Barris Industries, Inc.
After spending some time in Europe, Chuck Barris returned to the United States in 1984 and formed a syndication arm called Bel-Air Program Sales in October[3] along with Bob Cohen and Brian Firestone, which began syndicatingThe Dating Game,The Newlywed Game,The Gong Show,The $1.98 Beauty Show and the Barris versions ofTreasure Hunt. In 1985, Barris Industries formed an ad-sales barter called Clarion Communications. Later in 1986, Bel-Air Program Sales was renamed as Barris Program Sales, Clarion Communications was renamed as Barris Advertising Sales (a.k.a. Barris National Advertisers), and the production arm Chuck Barris Productions was renamed as Barris Productions. In 1986, Barris Industries filed a $5 million copyright lawsuit againstLorimar-Telepictures, claiming that the game showPerfect Match was too similar toThe Newlywed Game.[4] On March 25, 1987, Barris resigned, left the company, and in the process, sold his shares toBurt Sugarman.[5]
Barris Industries, under the leadership of Burt Sugarman and his company Giant Group Ltd., originally owned a 5.27% stake inReeves Entertainment Group.[6] In January 1988, Barris Industries merged with theGuber-Peters Company to form Barris/Guber-Peters. On March 31, 1989, Burt Sugarman sold his shares of Barris Industries toWestfield Group and Northern Star Holdings Ltd., the owners ofNetwork Ten of Australia owned byFrank Lowy for $34.5 million.[7][8][9] On September 7, 1989, Barris Industries was renamed as the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company, Barris Program Sales was renamed as Guber-Peters Program Sales, and Barris Advertising Sales was renamed as Guber-Peters Advertising Sales.[10] On September 29, 1989, a day after Sony Corporation of Japan announced to acquire Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Sony announced to acquire the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company for $200 million.[11] The sale was completed on November 9, 1989 after Sony's acquisition ofColumbia Pictures Entertainment a day earlier. On November 5, 1990, CPE folded its first-run syndication unit Guber-Peters Television intoColumbia Pictures Television Distribution.[12]
As of today, all of the Barris game shows are owned and distributed bySony Pictures Television, while the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company is still an active in-name-only unit of SPT andColumbia Pictures, known as GPEC, Inc.[2]
As Barris Industries:
As Guber-Peters Television:
The longtime announcer for Chuck Barris Productions wasJohnny Jacobs, who served from 1965 until his death in 1982. Jacobs announced for such Barris game shows asThe Dating Game,The Newlywed Game,Treasure Hunt, andThe Gong Show. Tony McClay is Barris' secondary announcer, as he was sub for Jacobs, most often in 1980 and 1982.
Another announcer wasWheel of Fortune'sCharlie O'Donnell, who from 1986–1989 announced forThe New Newlywed Game,The All New Dating Game, and the 1988 version ofThe Gong Show, until those incarnations ended in 1989 and he went back toWheel of Fortune in March. O'Donnell also served as an announcer forBarry & Enright Productions. A lesser known announcer wasBob Hilton, who was announcer from 1985-1987, announcingThe New Newlywed Game andThe All New Dating Game.
Perhaps the best-known employee wasThe New Newlywed Game hostBob Eubanks, who served from 1966–1974, 1977–1980, and 1985–1988, when he stepped down and was replaced byPaul Rodriguez. Eubanks returned to hostThe Newlywed Game from 1997 to 1999.
Another prominent employee was comedianChris Bearde, who co-created and co-producedThe Gong Show in both '70s and '80s versions.
Mark Huffnail was in charge of production for Barris from 1987–1989.