If you haven’t seen the movie Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, I wholeheartedly recommend it.   It’s based on the autobiography of TV personality Chuck Barris, most famous as the host of The Gong Show before becoming a producer and, if you believe the story, a hit man for the CIA.  Sam Rockwell gives a great performance as Barris in a movie with so much paranoia and black comedy it’s hard to tell of Barris believes his tale or if he’s just having fun with all of us.  After all, we don’t know anything about him.  That’s what makes Mental Floss’s story on the secret lives of game show hosts so interesting.  It’s a peek behind the shellacked hairdo!

They dig into a lot of figures I recognize from my childhood of watching bad TV all summer, but the most interesting one of all to me is Richard Dawson.  Now, I’m not familiar with his Family Feud days, but I know him from one of my all-time favorite movies (which I just watched last weekend), The Running Man.  It’s a wicked satire of game show gimmicks and pretty much the entire TV industry, and Dawson is GREAT as sleazebag host/producer Damon Killian.

Image:  Infinite Thought

Tags: Richard Dawson, game show hosts, celebrities, the secret lives of game-show hosts, personal lives of game show hosts, trivia, television, presenters, hosts

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