I assumed I had heard and seen just about everything on TV because I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s. In an attempt to win over the youth vote, U.S. presidential candidate Richard Nixon made a brief appearance on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. The American Communist Party held a TV fundraiser and brought in about $1000. A sexually explicit song by legendary singer James Brown was performed during a star-studded telethon to raise money for the Democratic Party.
Brown started taking off his pants in the middle of the song, so he must have been really into the song! After a brief period, the camera narrowed in on his face and stayed there throughout the remainder of his performance. The hosts were embarrassed, but they quickly moved on to the next act and pretended like nothing had happened. Back then, controversy was the name of the game if you wanted ratings, but the most outrageous TV event of all happened unnoticed behind the scenes on The Dating Game.
Chuck Barris, the genius behind The Newlywed Game and The Gong Show, came up with the idea for The Dating Game. The idea was purchased by ABC, and the program debuted in December 1965. It became so well-liked that ABC decided to air a prime time version of it in 1966. The program had four hosts, starting with Jim Lange and ending with Chuck Woolery, and ran overall from 1965 until 1999.
Due to the show’s popularity, many aspiring actors and performers wanted to enter the competition for the FaceTime it offered, especially once the primetime version started. Michael Jackson, Burt Reynolds, Farrah Fawcett, Suzanne Somers, Lindsay Wagner, Leif Garrett, Tom Selleck, Lee Majors, The Carpenters, Andy Kaufman, Steve Martin, John Ritter, Phil Hartman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dusty Springfield, Maureen McCormick, Barry Williams, Sally Field, Richard Dawson, and Paul Lynde were among those who made their first appearances on The Dating Game before they became well-known or at the start of their entertainment careers
The format of the show was enjoyable. A girl (Bachelorette), who was separated from the other three men by a wall, would ask the three men (Batchelors) amusing questions. She was blind to her potential suitors. She was required to choose one after a predetermined amount of time. Although opinions varied, the Bachelorettes could at least anticipate one or more fantastic nights. The prize was a escorted date to an exotic location or an expensive staycation. In case you were paired up with a guy who was a little too touchy-feely, the chaperone was a good idea. If you happen to be Cheryl Bradshaw, it was also helpful.
On The Dating Game in 1978, Cheryl served as a bachelorette. Rodney Alcala, the first bachelor, was one of her top three choices. He was introduced as a photographer who worked for a living and had a passion for motorcycles and skydiving. Bachelor Number #2, Jed Mills, who sat next to Alcala later said, “He was creepy. Definitely creepy,” But when it suited him, he was a smooth talker and effortlessly affable. Perhaps Cheryl Bradshaw picked him as the winner because of this.
As soon as Alcala walked around the wall and met her, he grinned and said, “Cheryl, I know we’re going to have a great time together.” Cheryl later revealed to a newspaper reporter that she refused the date because Alcala made her feel sick after speaking with him in the backstage area. He was found guilty in 1968 of raping an eight-year-old girl. During and after his Dating Game appearance he was killing girls earning him the nickname, “The Killer of Online Dating.” One detective called him a “Killing Machine” during a trial in 2010. Since the late 1960s, he might have been killing. By that point, he had already committed multiple rapes and murders in a row.
Alcala used photography to entice young women and men to accompany him by promising them professional photos or a modeling job. He forced them to strip naked or demanded that they do so, then raped and took pictures of them. He liked to choke the girls to the point of near-insanity, then revive them. Before killing them, he repeated this act several times, possibly raping them each time. Additionally, he took pictures of young men in various sexy poses and nude. He had a tendency to let them go. One survivor claimed that he enjoyed posing nude young girls with teen boys and had several of them at the session.
Alcala’s parole officer mysteriously permitted him to visit New York in 1977 for an alleged photography assignment while he was still on parole for the rape and a few drug busts. Ellen Jane Hover (23), who was there, was killed by Alcala. She was the offspring of the Hollywood restaurant Ciro’s owner. Later, on the Westchester County Rockefeller Estate, her remains were discovered. The precise number of Acala’s victims—who were raped and killed across several states—remains unknown. Numerous teen boys and girls were captured on camera by him. Most of the people in the pictures are still unidentified. In California, he received a death sentence.
Chuck Barris may have visited the Dating Game set on the day Rodney Alcala’s episode was filmed, but that is unknown. If so, it’s possible that two serial killers who killed for very different motives would have established an even more horrifying record for a TV game show. Was Chuck Barris a contract killer for the CIA as claimed in the book “Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind” is the obvious question. It’s challenging to provide an answer to that question. When the entertainment mogul passed away at age 87, some of his close friends and family members decided to comment on the controversy, but they had differing views.
The kind of hiring practices and tasks described in the book are actually somewhat unusual for a covert government organization. One the one hand, learning about those procedures isn’t too difficult. On the other hand, the book’s writing style gives the impression that the events were actually experienced by someone. However, those scenarios could equally well apply to the CIA or a group like the Mossad. So, that’s yet another option.
The Gong Show reveals Barris as a moody man who exhibits emotions in a way that suggests that his life was going on despite the show. Given his rocky relationships and the drug and alcohol addictions that eventually claimed the life of his daughter, those could have been family-related issues. The jury is still out on the story until more evidence or witnesses are presented, in my opinion, despite the widespread belief that Chuck’s CIA story was probably just him imagining another life.
Want more? Read Guide To Serial Killers: The Best of the Worst
http://cknell.tripod.com/serial.html