Because the word "sex" could not be used on television at the time, host Bob Eubanks often asked questions about "making whoopee," which led to giggles, embarrassing comments and millions of viewers.īesides Mr. Barris launched a second show, The Newlywed Game, with four recently married couples who answered comical and intimate questions about their partners. Contestants were told that it was an FBI agent who was there to arrest anyone who cursed or said anything salacious. Barris hired a tough-looking actor to stand just offstage. The show became a hit.Īfter some responses in the show's early tapings became too explicit to run on the air, Mr. It was considered crass, demeaning and sexually suggestive - which it was, by design. ![]() When The Dating Game premiered on ABC in December 1965 ("from Hollywood, the dating capital of the world"), critics called it a new low in television. (Occasionally, a man asked questions of three women.) She then selected one of the men to accompany her on a date. Barris was out of work and had run through his record royalties.īorrowing money from his family, he formed a production company that introduced a game show in which a young "bachelorette" questioned three young men hidden behind a wall. 3 on the Billboard pop charts in 1962 for singer Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon. He wrote a song, Palisades Park, that reached No. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1960s to be in charge of daytime programming for ABC-TV. One involved monitoring American Bandstand host Dick Clark to make sure he was not taking payola from record companies. All rights reserved.He held several jobs in television early in his career. Copyright (c) 2010, reprinted with permission from Simon & Schuster. I think she made a horrible mistake.Įxcerpt from "Della: A Memoir of My Daughter," by Chuck Barris. Della drank too much vodka, snorted too much cocaine, and died just like the death certificate said she did, from an excessive amount of everything. And she was burdened with a low-life lover who provided her with drugs that aided and abetted her depression. I’m told by friends that Della was very depressed just before she died. I’m sure Della’s death, and Judy’s inability to get to Della because she was sick when Della needed her, will torment Judy for the rest of her life. Also, Della’s immune system was so weak, Judy would have given Della her flu, and that might have killed Della. She had had the flu and was unable to come. Judy never forgave herself for not coming. Judy would have been able to console her. She was someone Della could talk to, and Della needed to talk to someone. ![]() Judy Ducharme was like a mother to Della. Judy was the only “family” Della had in Los Angeles at the time. Della was sure Judy would come to her apartment and comfort her. I would like to have thought Strickland was guilty of something regarding Della’s death, so I could have beaten him within an inch of his life, but I don’t think the idiot had anything to do with it, other than contributing drugs, which in itself was major.Īfter waking up Thursday morning, the day before her death, and seeing what she saw, Della cried out for help. He was also good at scoring drugs, but not much good at anything else. Neighbors told the police they could hear Strickland and Della shouting at each other two nights before the dog walker found Della dead. I wish the coroner would talk to my mother. The Los Angeles coroner thought Della ingested too much vodka and cocaine. My mother, Della’s grandmother, thought Della committed suicide. Della obviously didn’t use all the cocaine. ![]() A little cocaine remains in the Ziploc baggie next to the vodka bottle. In the police picture, the vodka bottle with a small amount of vodka at the bottom is still on the coffee table with all the other detritus. Tom looked at Della closely, shook her shoulders, and when she didn’t move, Tom called the police. That morning, she didn’t mumble anything. Tom told me no matter how wild Della was the night before, or how often she fell asleep on the couch, she always managed to open one eye in the morning and mumble a greeting to Tom. Tom-the-dog-walker found Della when he came to walk the dogs at eight in the morning. If she took a nap on the couch they slept there too. Della’s dogs always slept at her feet when she went to bed at night. I mean, lying there dead at my age in a frigging police picture says it all, doesn’t it?”ĭella’s three little dogs were probably nearby, sitting around her feet at the far end of the couch. Was I weird or was I weird? No, I was stupid. Imagine, orange hair! Why did she dye her hair orange?ĭella would have said, “Because it was my favorite color. Her hair had been dyed orange so many times it is beginning to fall out.
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