Chuck Barris Didn't Invent Schlock Television, He Weaponized It

Chuck Barris, the game show producer, emcee, author and songwriter who died Tuesday at his home in Palisades, N.J., at age 87, was in his time called "The King of Shlock," "The Baron of Bad Taste" and "The Ayatollah of Trasherola."

(... In fairness: It was the '70s.)

Barris was a product of television. One of his first jobs was traveling the country trying to talk local stations into leasing the then-innovative technology TelePrompTers. Trying, and failing — though he was the first to admit he never tried particularly hard. In a 2003 interview he told The A.V. Club:

I would come to the station and dump the equipment there, and you know the engineers: They didn't have a whole lot to do, so they got a kick out of looking at this crap. Then they would look at it, and I'd take off.

Like if I went to Louisville, I'd go the Louisville station and give them the TelePrompTer equipment and say, "You're