Chuck Barris

TV producer, songwriter, novelist, and suspect memoirist -- via the New York Times. He wrote "Palisades Park" for Freddy Cannon; produced  "The Dating Game" and "The Newlywed Game," among other daytime game shows. His biggest hit was "The Gong Show," an updating of radio's Major Bowes/Ted Mack "Amateur Hour," which would showcase bizarre talent and eliminate them via gong if it got too horrible. Remember The Unknown Comic (Murray Langston), who performed with a paper bag over his head? Or Gene, Gene, the Dancing Machine? (Barris also created the have-to-see-it-to-believe-it "The $1.98 Beauty Show," featuring host Rip Taylor.) He claimed to have been in the CIA in his memoir "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," later made into a film by George Clooney.