Las Vegan helped usher in reality-TV era 40 years ago

John Barbour helped usher in the era of reality television 40 years ago by creating and co-hosting the smash hit “Real People.”

But the longtime Las Vegan is almost as notable for the TV shows that didn’t pan out.

If the pilot taping for “The Gong Show” had gone better, Barbour would have remained its host, the world may have been denied the inspired lunacy of Chuck Barris, and there’s no telling what would have become of Gene Gene the Dancing Machine.

In 1968, while he was performing stand-up downtown in the Fremont’s Fiesta Room, Barbour was assigned a young producer to work with while he waited to be named Merv Griffin’s replacement on his nationally syndicated talk show. Executives ultimately gave that hosting job to British newsman David Frost, and the producer, Roger Ailes, would go on to become the chairman and CEO of Fox News.

“He said, ‘You can change the world not by what you report but by what you don’t report,’ ” Barbour recalls of his time with Ailes. “He said that as a kid! And that’s what they did at Fox.” Had their show been a success, he says, “There would not have been a Fox News as it is known.”

These stories — and many, many, so very many more — are covered in Barbour’s new memoir, “Your Mother’s Not a Virgin! (The Bumpy Life and Times of the Canadian Dropout Who Changed the Face of American TV!).”

‘Like grass in the concrete’

Barbour, 85, grew up in a broken home in Toronto and came to the United States at 16 intent on becoming a professional gambler. It didn’t take him long to choose a new career path.

“I realized that I wasn’t gambling to make money. I was gambling to make friends, but who wants to be friends with other gamblers?”

As a young man, Barbour idolized “The Tonight Show” host Jack Paar and became a comic because that’s how Paar got his start.

“I didn’t know families had conversations,” he recalls. “I’d look at Jack Paar and think, ‘My God, he’s talking to people!’ ”

Barbour’s desire to talk to people would eventually cost him numerous jobs in television. He says he was fired so often — three times just from NBC — that Ricardo Montalban once told him he was “like grass in the concrete,” forcing himself in wherever he could.

Gong-ed off ‘The Gong Show’

Earlier in 1968, Griffin tapped Barbour to host a new game show called “Connections.”

He’d been a fan of the format, in instances such as Johnny Carson with “Who Do You Trust?” or Groucho Marx with “You Bet Your Life,” because of the interaction the games allowed between the hosts and contestants.

During the first taping, though, Barbour says producers eliminated the contestant interviews, he wasn’t comfortable being what he deemed “a traffic cop,” he expressed his displeasure and that was the end of it.

A similar falling-out took place eight years later while making the pilot for “The Gong Show.” Barbour was interested in talking with the performers. Barris, the creator of other TV staples including “The Dating Game” and “The Newlywed Game,” was more concerned with the show’s parade of goofballs. The pairing of host and show was an improper fit at best, and the day ended with Barris assuming that role.

The experiment wasn’t a total loss, though. Barbour left with a check for $17,500, his first week’s salary, and later received a large trophy from Barris that symbolized his being the first person ever gong-ed off the show. To this day, it sits in his home office, along with three of his five Emmys.

“It was totally suited to his personality. Absolutely it was. It was a perfect blend,” Barbour recalls of the now iconic show and its creator. “They tried to remake it, but they can’t, because everything on television (now) looks like a ‘Gong Show.’ ”

When TV got ‘Real’

As difficult as it is to imagine, there was a time when putting regular Americans on television was considered revolutionary.

“People thought I was out of my mind,” Barbour admits.

Yet on April 18, 1979, his creation, “Real People,” debuted with Barbour and his fellow hosts talking about the day’s headlines with a live studio audience, airing bloopers from local newscasts and presenting short stories about, well, real people like a “60 Minutes” fixated on wackadoos.

The first words uttered by a “real person” on the show? The “That’s one small step …” of reality TV? Some unidentified schmo announced, “If I could say anything I want to this country right now, I’d just say, ‘Hi, mom.’ ”

Oh, 1979. You were adorable.

Watching “Real People” today — all six seasons are streaming on Amazon Prime — it doesn’t seem possible that it was once among the biggest things on television. When one of the show’s hosts came to a city to record a segment, Barbour says, they were met at the airport by thousands of people.

T-shirts from the show — mailed to viewers who sent in funny headlines or photos used in an episode — proved such a hot commodity, he boasts, at least one employee traded a shirt for some time with a prostitute.

‘I want to end as a comic’

Midway through the run of “Real People” — after the arrival of imitators such as “That’s Incredible” — Barbour was out of work as the result of a long-simmering feud with his executive producer.

He continued to love television, but the feelings rarely were reciprocal.

In 1986, Barbour had a two-week trial run hosting a late-night show on ABC. He says even though the ratings were equal to those of “Late Night With David Letterman,” the network didn’t bite.

Twenty-five years after leaving Los Angeles for Las Vegas, he’s still talking to people. His current show, “John Barbour’s World,” is on the internet, however, and is on hiatus while he attends to the release of his memoir.

Barbour’s next priority is adapting the book and its stories — writing for Frank Sinatra; being mentored by Redd Foxx; his decadeslong quest to tell virtually anyone who’ll listen about former New Orleans DA Jim Garrison and his investigations into the assassination of John F. Kennedy — as a one-man show.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen with the book,” Barbour admits. “But when it’s over, I want to go into a theater again.

“I started as a comic; I want to end as a comic.”

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence @reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on Twitter.