There's More to Barris Than Meets The Eye
Written: Mar 16 '05 (Updated Mar 16 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: hilarious, provocative
Cons: raunchy, maybe a little too short
The Bottom Line: This is an excellent book, one of the coolest I've come across.
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| bilavideo's Full Review: Chuck Barris - Confessions of a Dangerous Mind: An... |
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is a little gem. Published in 1984, it tells the "untold story" of a gameshow producer who reigned during the 70s, was dethroned in the 80s and whose wandering in the wilderness is now ancient history. With the rise of "reality programming," we are, again, living in the Age of Barris.
The book, itself, is an ode to agony, written by a man with many regrets, but who has also risen above the worst of his childhood demons. Short, unassuming, even dorky looking, Barris is one of those people it's easy to dismiss, if you even see him at all. He's like the Dudley Moore character in Arthur, but without the money. That makes him practically invisible - but it also makes it easier for him to sneak up on you, with a clever idea, or two, or three, or four.
Barris made a name for himself with gameshows. He created The Dating Game, then the Newlywed Game, and most famously, The Gong Show. Each concept is so banal, it's almost inconceivable that someone would get paid for these "ideas." The Dating Game was exactly what the title suggests. An attractive female would make a blind choice from among three bachelors whom she could only contact by asking them questions from behind a partition. The Newlywed Game was a version of the Dating Game for couples. The Gong Show was a simple talent show, jazzed up for television with a panel of judges and a gong.
But behind their simplicity, Barris' shows revealed hidden - and often anarchic twists. Beneath the surface innocence of the Dating Game, there simmered a sexual subtext too blue for America's living rooms. The Newlywed Game rewarded couples for revealing their embarrassing secrets - on syndicated televion - and all for the prospect of winning domestic appliances. Of them all, the Gong Show was probably the most subversive, in the sense that it was never what it claimed to be. This attraction of this "talent" show was its showcase of bad talent. Its judges were just celebrities playing to the cries of a rowdy mob, there to see another circus freak with a dream, ready to yell the modern-day equivalent of "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Not since the French Revolution has rabble like this felt so empowered, mainly because the guillotin has been replaced by the gong.
Given the twisted snickers behind his version of "family entertainment," it's not surprising that Barris' memoir is anything but another E True Hollywood Story. If nothing else, Barris tweaks the old "Hollywood memoir" with a claim that is both bold and outlandish: That his career as a TV producer was merely a cover. According to Barris, his real job was as an undercover assassin for the CIA.
This is where a lot of folks get off the bus. People who claim to "work for the government" usually inspire quick departures from the rest of us. The idea that someone as diminutive as Barris would travel the globe, playing Spy versus Spy - and knocking off bad guys with elan, is a little hard to choke down. Then again, that's not what this book is about.
Whether or not Barris really was a spy is largely irrelevant to the tale. For all we know (or care), Barris could be using the whole thing as a metaphor - as a way of explaining what it's really like to be a TV producer. Who, but Barris, would call refer to his own autobiography as an "unauthorized" autobiography? How can one's own words be "unathorized"? It seems to me, the choices are limited to two. One is that Barris didn't have "clearance" to write his book (as all CIA agents are required to get before they can write about their lives). The other is more of a wink and a smile from Barris, who is indicating that not everything he says should be taken at face value.
As these things go, it's a clever idea. These E True Hollywood stories are a dime a dozen. By this point, we could write the story ourselves and merely make up the names. Barris at least takes his own circumstances and finds a way to make them universal - even if doing so requires him to turn his own life into a film noir. The result is often hilarious, poignant, full of conflict and raunchy fun. Barris' account of his early days reminds us of how different values were back in the 70s, when sex, drugs and rock'n'roll were the new order - and puritanism was a thing of the past.
There's something to be said about Barris' connection between being a "hit man" and a "hitman." There's something to be said about the different women who inhabit his life, from Tuvia (the first girl he ever seduced) to Penny (the ditzy but wordly woman who offers him unconditional love) to Patricia Watson (the femme fatale who dominates, and abuses, him - in ways that remind him of his mother).
Barris is a man haunted by his own lack of stature. He's a man haunted by his own invisibility (perfect for a secret agent but not so perfect for a man who craves approval). Barris is a man who wonders whether he should have spent his life making mindless gameshows that do little more than serve as a medium for commercials.
Both the book and the film give us a man who is haunted by self-loathing. For that reason, some may see in this book a kind of apology for creating the shows that steal our time, with nothing of value to show for it. Yet it's a book about finding who you are. Barris bares his soul - for all the people - and time - he has killed. But in either case, we can never really know what's really going on. That's because Barris is laughing at the very genre for which he writes. His "confession" goes all the way back to the first guy to make a "confessions" book of this kind. I'm speaking of St. Augustine, whose confessions reveal a man who is either devout to a fault, or just plain nutty.
We will never know just how sincere Barris was when he wrote this book, whether he regretted some of his prior decisions, or simply now regrets growing old. Barris takes up the genre and runs with it - and to his credit, he keeps us laughing all the way.
Recommended:
Yes
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