Barris Productions
Shadeed A. Kelly
Captures by
Shadeed A. Kelly, Eric S., and StephenCezar15
Editions by
Shadeed A. Kelly, V of Doom, and StephenCezar15
Background
Barris Productions, Inc. was a television production company that was started on June 14, 1965 by Chuck Barris as "Chuck Barris Enterprises, Inc.". Its first production was an unsold pilot called People Pickers and its first hit series was The Dating Game. On October 28, 1968, Barris took his production company public. After the cancellation of Treasure Hunt in 1982, Barris left to move to France. He returned to the United States in 1984 and formed a distribution arm, Bel-Air Program Sales in October and syndicated his classic series: The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game (for ABC reruns), The Gong Show, 3's A Crowd, The $1.98 Beauty Show, and Treasure Hunt, among others. Chuck Barris Productions, Inc. was renamed to "Barris Industries, Inc." in 1981. He created The New Newlywed Game in 1984 and airing on ABC during Valentine's Week. However, it would become a first-run syndicated program during the 1985 season.
In 1985, Chuck Barris formed an ad-sales barter company, Clarion Communications with Steve Mathis, which was later renamed to "Barris Advertising Sales" on April 8, 1987, Bel-Air Program Sales became "Barris Program Sales" the same year, and the production arm Chuck Barris Productions to "Barris Productions". In 1987, Barris was burnt out and left to move back to France and sold his shares of Barris Industries. In December 1987, Barris Industries under the ownership of movie producer Burt Sugarman and Giant Group, Ltd. announced a merger with The Guber-Peters Company. The merger was completed in 1988, forming "Barris/Guber-Peters". On March 31, 1989, Sugarman sold his 24.4% stake in Barris Industries to Frank Lowy, who owned Westerfield Capital Corporation and Northern Star Holdings, who also owned Network 10 of Australia (which was acquired in 2017 by CBS Corporation, now Paramount Global) for $34.5 million after Sugarman's attempt to take over Media General, Inc.
On September 6, 1989, Barris Industries changed its name to "The Guber-Peters Entertainment Company", Barris Program Sales was renamed to "Guber-Peters Program Sales" and Barris Advertising Sales was renamed to "Guber-Peters Advertising Sales" and was headed by Peter Guber and Jon Peters. On September 29, 1989, the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company was sold to Sony Corporation for $200 million, a day after Sony acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment. The GPEC sale was completed on November 9, 1989. On November 15, 1990, Guber-Peters Television was folded into Columbia Pictures Television Distribution. Currently, the Barris game shows are owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and distributed by Sony Pictures Television. Barris had an independent company, the Chuck Barris Company, since 1987. Barris died on March 22, 2017, at the age of 87.
1st Logo (December 20, 1965-September 1982, 1984-1987)
Visuals: There is the letters "cbp" in an outlined ellipse shape with the tips of the letters "b" and "p" touching the edges of the ellipse. The logo has underneath, the text "A CHUCK BARRIS PRODUCTION" with a copyright stamp below.
Trivia: This logo looks somewhat similar to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting logo.
Variants:
- This logo is shown on a light blue background on The Dating Game in 1970.
- From 1966-1972, the logo has the letters "cbe" in the circle rather as "cbp" with the text saying "A CHUCK BARRIS ENTERPRISE" instead of "A CHUCK BARRIS PRODUCTION" on The Newlywed Game.
- During the early years of this logo's timespan, the text is underneath the logo in a sans serif font. From 1977-1982, it would be in a script font.
- On the 1972 unsold pilot game Cop Out!, the text is placed on top of the logo rather than below it.
- On The New Dating Game and The New Treasure Hunt, the copyright information text below displays something that was different from the actual logo itself (i.e. instead of Chuck Barris Productions, Inc. (as it would say "A Chuck Barris Production"), it would say Chuck Barris Creations, Inc. or Chuck Barris Projects, Inc.).
- On the 1972 short-lived game show The Parent Game, the logo says "A CHUCK BARRIS SHOW".
- 1976 episodes of The New Treasure Hunt don't have the Chuck Barris logo; just the Chuck Barris text & copyright stamp.
- On the 1981 unsold pilot game show Dollar a Second, there is no text to Chuck Barris Productions, instead there is a copyright stamp underneath the logo.
- In 1984, this logo is placed on a royal blue background, in grayscale (for black & white reruns), or sometimes in-credit with the lettering in white. This logo either comes right after or plasters the in-credit Chuck Barris logos in syndication of the first incarnations of The Dating Game and ABC reruns of The Newlywed Game.
Technique: A chyroned print image made with traditional ink and paint.
Audio:
- Just the game show's theme or the show's ending theme playing or the announcer (Johnny Jacobs, Rod Roddy, or Bob Hilton) announcing "[Title of the game show] is a Chuck Barris production! (in association with the American Broadcasting Company (Jacobs only with the ABC mention))" or "[Title of the game show] is a production of Chuck Barris Creations.".
- On The Newlywed Game from 1966-1972, Scott Beach (1966) then later Johnny Jacobs (1966-1972) would say "The Newlywed Game is a Chuck Barris Enterprise in association with the American Broadcasting Company" with the end-title theme.
- This logo wasn't accompanied by announcer spiels on some final episodes of The Newlywed Game.
- For the first season of The All-New Dating Game, Bob Hilton says: "This is Bob Hilton speaking for The All-New Dating Game, a Chuck Barris production!".
Availability: It was last seen on the 1960s & 1970s versions of The Newlywed Game on GSN. Also seen on 1st season & early 2nd season episodes of The New Newlywed Game, Treasure Hunt, season 1 episodes of The-All New Dating Game, several episodes of 3's a Crowd, and the '60s & '70s versions of The Dating Game, among other shows that had this logo whenever GSN decides to air any one of these series.
2nd Logo (March 1986)
Visuals: There is the text "BARRIS-FRASER ENTERPRISES" in pink with "BARRIS-FRASER" above "ENTERPRISES", and a 1986 copyright stamp below.
Technique: A chyroned computerized grpahic.
Audio: The end-title theme.
Availability: This was only seen on the 1986 unsold pilot Bamboozle.
3rd Logo (1987-September 15, 1989)
Visuals: On a light purple-dark purple gradient background with a white line in the middle, there is the word "Barris" outlined in white rising up from the line with the letters "Ba" attached to each other and the word "PRODUCTIONS" and the copyright stamp to Barris Industries in a solid white font rising down from the line, all in the Eras Demi Bold ITC font. There is a lavender glow in the middle where the white line is as it brightens and dims.
Variants:
- Later S1 episodes of The All-New Dating Game and The New Newlywed Game have the Barris Advertising and Barris Program logos appearing in-credit.
- On the first few 1987-1988 season episodes of The New Newlywed Game, the text is replaced by the following:
BARRIS
PROGRAM SALES
________________
National Advertising
Sales by
BARRIS
ADVERTISING SALES, INC.
The text is in the same font and color with "BARRIS" in a bigger bolder font and a shorter white line in between the names.
Technique: Computer animation.
Audio: The game show's theme or the end-title theme from any show. Sometimes it's silent for the distributor. On The Gong Show, the distributor card carries the finishing of the 1984 Chris Bearde Productions logo theme.
Availability: All were seen on The All-New Dating Game, The New Newlywed Game, and the 1988 version of The Gong Show.
4th Logo (1988-September 8, 1989)
Visuals: On a gray slate background with 1/3 of the background in black, there is the word "BARRIS" in a red Bodoni Poster font with a shadow effect. Below, there is a white copyright stamp with a shadow effect.
Technique: Computerized graphics.
Audio: The end-title theme from the show. On The Newlywed Game Starring Paul Rodriguez, it's the song "Book of Love" by The Monotones.
Availability: It was seen on the final season of The All-New Dating Game and The Newlywed Game Starring Paul Rodriguez.
