Member-only story
This Game Show Could Have Gotten Someone Murdered But Four Game Shows Were Cancelled Instead
The year was 1979. Chuck Barris was riding high with the success of his game shows: The Gong Show, The Dating Game, and The Newlywed Game. From what I’ve seen from reruns of these shows, and also its reboots, these shows were pretty risqué for their time. You had married couples on television talking about their intimate lives on The Newlywed Game. The Dating Game was full of innuendo and the screen would flash Recommended for Mature Audiences as the show started to play. That would be today’s TV-MA, which means it’s for adults.
Chuck Barris was an American game show creator, producer, host, songwriter, and author of the autobiography Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Chuck Barris Productions, Barris’ productions company, was founded in 1965. His first success was The Dating Game in 1965 followed by The Newlywed Game in 1966. He produced and starred as the host of The Gong Show starting in 1976.
He was on a roll, but this wasn’t enough for Barris. So, he decided to make a game show that was even more risqué. I don’t know what he was thinking, but the result was a show called Three’s a Crowd (3’s a Crowd).
3’s a Crowd had a cute concept for back in the day — especially considering what gender norms and expectations were at the time.
The concept of the show was that a man — a businessman, his wife, and his secretary would be asked questions to see who knew the husband/boss better. Was it the wife or the secretary?
Cute, right???
Wrong!
You would think the questions would be how does he take his coffee? What’s his mood in the morning? What’s his favorite thing to eat for lunch?
Instead, these are a sample of the questions…
If the secretary asks the boss for a raise, in her most seductive voice, will he give it to her?
If your husband could take a body part from his secretary and give it to you, his wife, what would it be?
When it comes to the romance department, does your husband hold himself back at work?
Did you ever make whoopie with your secretary before you were married?
