Having experienced the 1960s and 1970s during my childhood, I thought I had heard and seen almost everything on television. US presidential candidate Richard Nixon briefly appeared on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In to help him secure the youth vote. The Communist Party USA held a TV fundraiser and raised about $1,000. Legendary singer James Brown performed one of his sexually charged tunes at a star-studded telethon to raise money for the Democratic Party.
Brown must have been really interested in the song because in the middle of it he started taking his pants off! After a few seconds, the camera focused on his face and he remained there for the rest of his performance. The embarrassed hosts then pretended it never happened and moved on to the next act. Controversy was the name of the game back then if you wanted ratings, but the most scandalous TV event of all took place behind the scenes at The Dating Game without anyone knowing.
The Dating Game was the brainchild of TV show wizard Chuck Barris, who also created The Newlywed Game and The Gong Show. ABC bought the concept, and the show began airing in December 1965. It became so popular that ABC created a prime-time version in 1966. In all, the show ran from 1965 to 1999 with a couple of reruns and four reruns. presenters, beginning with Jim Lange and ending with Chuck Woolery.
Due to the show’s popularity, many aspiring actors and performers wanted to be contestants on the FaceTime that the show provided, especially after the primetime version began. Among those who appeared on The Dating Game before they became famous or early in their entertainment careers were 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.
The show had a fun format. Three boys (Bachelorette) were answering funny questions from a girl (Bachelorette) who was separated from them by a wall. She couldn’t see her suitors. After a designated period of time, she had to choose one. Reactions varied, but at least bachelorette parties could look forward to an amazing evening or three. The prize was a date accompanied in some exotic place or an expensive stay. The chaperone was a good idea in case you got stuck with a guy who was a little too touchy-feely. Also helpful if you happen to be Cheryl Bradshaw.
In 1978, Cheryl was a bachelorette party on The Dating Game. Her choice of three guys of hers included Rodney Alcala who was the number 1 bachelor. He was introduced as a professional photographer who enjoyed skydiving and motorcycling as hobbies. Bachelor No. 2 Jed Mills, who sat next to Alcala, later said, “It was creepy. Definitely creepy.” However, he was fluent in speech and could easily be affable when it suited him. Maybe that’s why Cheryl Bradshaw chose him as the winner.
As soon as Alcala walked around the wall and found her, he smiled and said, “We’re going to have a good time together, Cheryl.” But not. After having a conversation with him backstage, Cheryl told a newspaper reporter that Alcala made her feel sick and she turned down the date. Good move. In 1968 he was convicted of raping an eight year old girl. During and after his appearance on Dating Game, he was killing girls, earning him the nickname “The Dating Game Killer”. A detective called him a “Killing Machine” during a trial in 2010. He may have been killing since the late 1960s. He was already a serial rapist and serial killer at the time.
Alcala used photography as a way to get girls and boys to tag along, promising them professional photos or a modeling assignment. He asked or forced them to undress, then photographed and raped them. He enjoyed strangling girls until they were nearly unconscious and then reviving them. He did this several times and it is possible that he also raped them each time until he finally killed them. He also photographed teenagers naked and in various sexual poses. He tended to let them go. One survivor said that he had several nude young girls in the shoot and that he liked to pose them with teenage boys.
Still on parole for the rape and some marijuana busts, Alcala’s parole officer inexplicably allowed him to travel to New York in 1977 for a supposed photography assignment. While there, Alcalá killed Ellen Jane Hover (23). She was the daughter of the owner of Ciro’s in Hollywood. Her remains were later found on the Rockefeller Estate in Westchester County. Acala raped and murdered in several states and the exact number of his victims is unknown. He photographed hundreds of girls and teenagers. The identities of most of those who appear in the photos remain unknown. He was sentenced to death in California.
It is unknown if Chuck Barris was on the set of Dating Game the day the episode was recorded with Rodney Alcala. If it were, there’s a chance that two serial killers who murdered for entirely different reasons would have set an even more macabre record for a TV show. The obvious question is whether Chuck Barris was a CIA hitman as stated in the book ‘Confessions of a Dangerous Mind’. It is a difficult question to answer. Some of those close to the entertainment businessman when he died at the age of 87 had something to say about the controversy, but their opinions were divided.
The type of recruitment and assignments described in the book are actually somewhat atypical of a covert government agency. On the one hand, it is not very difficult to know these procedures. On the other hand, the book is written in a way that makes the reader believe that someone actually experienced those things. However, those situations could just as easily apply to an organization like the Mossad as they could to the CIA. So that’s another possibility.
Watching the Gong Show exposes Barris as a moody guy experiencing emotions in a way that says more important things than the show were going on in his life. Those might have been familiar things given his tumultuous relationships and the drug and alcohol addictions that ultimately killed his daughter. While many believe Chuck’s CIA story was probably just him imagining another life, I say the jury is still out on the story until more facts or witnesses come forward.
They want more? Read the Guide to Serial Killers: The Best of the Worst
http://cknell.tripod.com/serial.html
