TV Critics Tour: Comedy Central Goes ‘Gonging’
Remake Host Attell Says Just About Everything Is Fair Game
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 7/9/2008 7:36:00 AM
BEVERLY HILLS -- What won't you see in the latest update of The Gong Show with Dave Attellon Comedy Central?
“Full penetration,” quipped the host in a presentation to pundits at the Television Critics Association summer press tour here.
Just about everything else goes, including 300-lb. escape artists and a guy who accompanies his rap by jiggling his man boobs to marginal jugglers and singers. It's all for $600 and the coveted “Gong Show belt.”
What you won't see is series creator Chuck Barris. Producers contacted him to seek his blessing on the new version and “he was psyched,” said executive producer Doug Robinson, but is busy writing a book and won't appear on the show.
Attell joked he was interested in hosting the show, debuting July 17 for eight episodes, because unlike his previous Comedy Central show Insomniac he’s inside and out of the rain and snow.
Other upcoming Comedy Central shows include Chocolate News, which was immediately peppered with questions because its promotional panel, other than writer-star David Alan Grier, was all white men.
Actually, “they're octoroons,” Grier quipped, before explaining the faux news magazine reflects his vision and that the staffers, including former Late Night With David Letterman producer Robert Morton, are writers he's known for years and with whom he's comfortable writing.
Asked if the show will address a possible Barack Obama presidency, show members noted that the show debuts Oct. 15. Morton said they are trying to figure out whether they can do a live segment should Obama win.
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