Barris Industries - History

History

Barris founded his company on June 14, 1965 as Chuck Barris Productions. The company's first series was an unsold pilot called People Pickers and its first hit program was The Dating Game and would also be known for producing other hit game shows such as The Newlywed Game, and The Gong Show. The latter title eventually became a movie released by Universal Pictures in 1980.

Chuck Barris returned to America in 1984 and formed a syndication arm called Bel-Air Program Sales along with Brian Cohen and Brian Firestone and renamed Chuck Barris Productions, Inc. to Barris Industries, Inc. in October and began syndicating The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, The Gong Show, The $1.98 Beauty Show and the Barris versions of Treasure Hunt. In 1985, Barris Industries formed an ad-sales barter called Clarion Communications. Later in 1986, Bel-Air Program Sales was renamed to Barris Program Sales, Clarion Communications was renamed to Barris Advertising Sales (a.k.a. Barris National Advertisers), and the production arm Chuck Barris Productions to Barris Productions. Barris resigned and left on March 25, 1987 and sold his shares to Burt Sugarman.

Barris Industries under the leadership of Burt Sugarman and his company Giant Group Ltd., originally owned a 5.27% stake in Reeves Communications Corp. In January 1988, Barris Industries merged with the Guber-Peters Company to form Barris/Guber-Peters. On March 31, 1989, Burt Sugarman sold his shares of Barris Industries to an Australian television network owned by Frank Lowy for $34.5 million. On September 7, 1989, Barris Industries was renamed as the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company, Barris Program Sales was renamed to Guber-Peters Program Sales, and Barris Advertising Sales was renamed Guber-Peters Advertising Sales. On September 29, 1989, a day after Sony Corporation of Japan acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Sony acquired Guber-Peters Entertainment Company for $200 million. The sale was completed on November 9, 1989 after Sony's acquisition of Columbia Pictures Entertainment a day earlier. On November 5, 1990, CPE folded its first-run syndication unit Guber-Peters Television into Columbia Pictures Television Distribution. Currently, all of his game shows are owned and distributed by Sony Pictures Television.