The Dating Game is an ABC television show that first aired on December 20, 1965 and was the first of many shows created and packaged by Chuck Barris from the 1960s through the 1980s. ABC dropped the show on July 6, 1973, but it resurfaced in several syndicated versions (1973-1974 as The New Dating Game, 1978-1980, 1986-1989 and 1996-2000).
For the first few episodes in at the beginning of the ABC run, live music was provided by The Regents. For years it would almost always be aired in tandem with another Barris production, The Newlywed Game, which premiered on ABC the following year.
Typically, a bachelorette would question three bachelors on free dating, who were hidden from her view; at the end of the questioning period, she would choose one to go out with on a date paid for by the show. Occasionally, the roles would be reversed with a man questioning three ladies; other times, a celebrity would question three players for a date for themselves, a co-worker or a relative of theirs. Many celebrities played the game looking for love themselves.
Some contestants who were quite famous, included The Carpenters, Suzanne Somers, Farrah Fawcett, Andy Kaufman (who went under the name Baji Kimran), Steve Martin, Burt Reynolds, Michael Jackson, Sally Field, John Ritter, Phil Hartman, Jennifer Granholm, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Selleck (who went on the show twice and lost both times). The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit judge Alex Kozinski appeared on it and won. [1] One standard trademark was that at the end of each episode, the host and winning contestants would blow a kiss to the viewers.
This was a forerunner for a number of other shows done in the same style. The late 1970s version of the show was much more sexually explicit (and played for laughs) than other versions.
It was hosted by San Francisco disc jockey Jim Lange in the 1960s and 1970s, by Elaine Joyce and later Jeff MacGregor in the 1980s (in which future stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Oprah Winfrey, Michael Richards, and Jim Carrey appeared as contestants) and by Brad Sherwood and later Chuck Woolery in the 1990s.
Chuck Barris has claimed that the show was a cover for his CIA activities and was promoted by the company, according to his autobiography Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
This article is from David Deangelo Newsletter and have been submitted by the architect of free online dating site, know as Dating Idol