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Who Killed Art Deco?: A Novel
From the infamous mind of a comic madmanâ and the author of the sardonic The Big Questionâ comes a mind-numbingly hilarious parody of cop dramas, police procedurals, and America’s upper crust. • Comic Chuck Barris is the creator and former producer of The Gong Show, The Newlywed Game, and The Dating Game, among many others. His memoir, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, sparked a worldwide debate as to the validity of his professed identity when he claimed to have worked as an assassin for the Central Intelligence Agency during the 1960s and the 1970s. As a storyteller, Barris is the blackest comedian there is. As a satirist, he may be one of the best writers around today. • A masterful Art Deco Jr. is heir to a vast fortune, scion of one of America’s most powerful menâ but he is also the black sheep of the family. When he is found murdered in his Manhattan apartment, everyone wonders who could have killed him. Was it Art’s recently spurned lover, Eddie Cotton, the failed actor and gigolo? Was it one of Art’s own relatives, all of whom seem ready to disown him for tarnishing the family name? As the investigation unfolds, it becomes apparent to the novice detective Jimmy Netts that without an actual license, it’s tough to investigate anything resembling a crime scene. Full of uproarious investigative snafus, Who Killed Art Deco? is a dark and delightfully funny book from an equally troubled mind.
- GenresMystery
243 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
4 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Chuck Barris
15 books21 followersCharles Hirsch "Chuck" Barris was an American game show creator, producer, and host. He is best known for hosting The Gong Show and creating The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game. He is also a songwriter, who wrote the hit "Palisades Park", and the author of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, a story about himself that became a film directed by George Clooney.
Barris was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Drexel Institute of Technology where he was a columnist for the student newspaper, The Triangle. He graduated in 1953.
Barris got his start in television as a page and later staffer at NBC in New York City, and eventually worked backstage at the TV music show American Bandstand, originally as a standards-and-practices person for ABC. Barris soon became a music industry figure. He produced pop music on records and TV, but his most successful venture was writing "Palisades Park". Barris also wrote or co-wrote some of the music that appeared on his game shows.
Barris was promoted to the daytime programming division at ABC in Los Angeles and was put in charge of deciding which game shows ABC would air. Barris told his bosses that the pitches of game show concepts were worse than Barris' own ideas. They suggested that he quit his ABC programming job and become a producer.
Barris formed his production company Chuck Barris Productions on June 14, 1965. Barris first became successful during 1965 with his first game show creation, The Dating Game, on ABC. The show would air for eleven of the next fifteen years and be revived twice in the 1980s and 1990s.
The next year Barris began The Newlywed Game, originally created by Nick Nicholson and E. Roger Muir, also for ABC. The combination of the newlywed couples' humorous candor and host Bob Eubanks's sly questioning made the show another hit for Barris. The show is the longest lasting of any developed by his company, running for a total of 19 full years on 'first run' TV, network and syndicated.
Barris created several other short-lived game shows for ABC in the 1960s and for syndication in the 1970s, all of which revolved around a common theme. Barris also made several attempts through the years at non-game formats, such as ABC's Operation Entertainment; a CBS revival of Your Hit Parade; and The Bobby Vinton Show. The latter was his most successful program other than a game show.
Barris became a public figure in 1976 when he produced and served as the host of the talent contest spoof The Gong Show. The show's cult status far outstripped the two years it spent on NBC (1976–78) and the four years it ran in syndication (1976–80).
Barris continued strongly until the mid-1970s, when ABC cancelled the Dating and Newlywed games. This left Barris with only one show, his weekly syndicated effort The New Treasure Hunt. But the success of The Gong Show in 1976 encouraged him to revive the Dating and Newlywed games, as well as adding the $1.98 Beauty Show to his syndication empire. He also hosted a short lived primetime variety hour for NBC from February to April 1978, called The Chuck Barris Rah-Rah Show, essentially a noncompetitive knock-off of Gong.
In Barris's biography, he claims to have worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as an assassin in the 1960s and the 1970s. A 2002 feature film version, directed by George Clooney and starring Sam Rockwell, depicts Barris as killing 33 people. Barris wrote a sequel, Bad Grass Never Dies, in 2004.
Barris published Della: A Memoir of My Daughter in 2010 about the death of his only child, who died in 1998 after a long struggle with drug addiction.
Barris was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Drexel Institute of Technology where he was a columnist for the student newspaper, The Triangle. He graduated in 1953.
Barris got his start in television as a page and later staffer at NBC in New York City, and eventually worked backstage at the TV music show American Bandstand, originally as a standards-and-practices person for ABC. Barris soon became a music industry figure. He produced pop music on records and TV, but his most successful venture was writing "Palisades Park". Barris also wrote or co-wrote some of the music that appeared on his game shows.
Barris was promoted to the daytime programming division at ABC in Los Angeles and was put in charge of deciding which game shows ABC would air. Barris told his bosses that the pitches of game show concepts were worse than Barris' own ideas. They suggested that he quit his ABC programming job and become a producer.
Barris formed his production company Chuck Barris Productions on June 14, 1965. Barris first became successful during 1965 with his first game show creation, The Dating Game, on ABC. The show would air for eleven of the next fifteen years and be revived twice in the 1980s and 1990s.
The next year Barris began The Newlywed Game, originally created by Nick Nicholson and E. Roger Muir, also for ABC. The combination of the newlywed couples' humorous candor and host Bob Eubanks's sly questioning made the show another hit for Barris. The show is the longest lasting of any developed by his company, running for a total of 19 full years on 'first run' TV, network and syndicated.
Barris created several other short-lived game shows for ABC in the 1960s and for syndication in the 1970s, all of which revolved around a common theme. Barris also made several attempts through the years at non-game formats, such as ABC's Operation Entertainment; a CBS revival of Your Hit Parade; and The Bobby Vinton Show. The latter was his most successful program other than a game show.
Barris became a public figure in 1976 when he produced and served as the host of the talent contest spoof The Gong Show. The show's cult status far outstripped the two years it spent on NBC (1976–78) and the four years it ran in syndication (1976–80).
Barris continued strongly until the mid-1970s, when ABC cancelled the Dating and Newlywed games. This left Barris with only one show, his weekly syndicated effort The New Treasure Hunt. But the success of The Gong Show in 1976 encouraged him to revive the Dating and Newlywed games, as well as adding the $1.98 Beauty Show to his syndication empire. He also hosted a short lived primetime variety hour for NBC from February to April 1978, called The Chuck Barris Rah-Rah Show, essentially a noncompetitive knock-off of Gong.
In Barris's biography, he claims to have worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as an assassin in the 1960s and the 1970s. A 2002 feature film version, directed by George Clooney and starring Sam Rockwell, depicts Barris as killing 33 people. Barris wrote a sequel, Bad Grass Never Dies, in 2004.
Barris published Della: A Memoir of My Daughter in 2010 about the death of his only child, who died in 1998 after a long struggle with drug addiction.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 5, 2019
If you've read some of the reviews here, there's no need for me to repeat Chuck Barris' biography as a wacky television producer who could be considered as the father of embarrassing reality TV (Dating Game, Newlywed Game, Gong Show). But then, that is the appeal of the book, knowing you're gonna be subjected to ludicrous humor. And the title of course, advertises it.
The humor works, at least for half the book. There were indeed moments of hilarious knee-slapping. Despite that this spoof of a mystery novel did elicit a few chuckles from me, it wasn't long before the cleverness becomes thread-worn and stale.
I have to say it was a fun, quick read. Don't expect anything more than that
The humor works, at least for half the book. There were indeed moments of hilarious knee-slapping. Despite that this spoof of a mystery novel did elicit a few chuckles from me, it wasn't long before the cleverness becomes thread-worn and stale.
I have to say it was a fun, quick read. Don't expect anything more than that
January 10, 2015
Chuck Barris, the father of reality television (Dating Game, Newlywed Game, Gong Show), famous for his slightly sick humor, is the author of this parody.
Although it could have been better, I still enjoyed this book. His opening descriptions of Art Deco Jr. and Eddy Cotton are brilliant. Unfortunately, Barris cannot sustain the wittiness, and the humor gets weaker at the end.
Also the dialogue at times is repetitive, making it slightly stilted.
I have about 6 of Barris' books, because I am intrigued by his twisted mind, and I will review and rate them as I get through them one by one.
This is a light, quick read, with some really funny parts. Don't expect more.
Although it could have been better, I still enjoyed this book. His opening descriptions of Art Deco Jr. and Eddy Cotton are brilliant. Unfortunately, Barris cannot sustain the wittiness, and the humor gets weaker at the end.
Also the dialogue at times is repetitive, making it slightly stilted.
I have about 6 of Barris' books, because I am intrigued by his twisted mind, and I will review and rate them as I get through them one by one.
This is a light, quick read, with some really funny parts. Don't expect more.
August 3, 2025
Really a 2.5
It was weird, interesting at times but overall weird and just weird not really in the best way. Very obviously written by a man born in the 1920’s
It was weird, interesting at times but overall weird and just weird not really in the best way. Very obviously written by a man born in the 1920’s
June 24, 2013
You buy a book, simply because the man who wrote it is the Gong Show guy. The book is as frivolous as the action to purchase is. Big City cliches with Big City stereotypes, with parties, rich people, fancy dressed people, ruthless people, dead people, gay people, all as flat as can be. Chuck Barris would never have been a published author had it not been for his notoriety and fame. This was a short read that wasted one of my afternoons. Some novels are written solely to be junk food, while some it seems are written solely as junk. I'm reaching to even retain any bit of the plot, for I was so detatched while reading that retention seemed next to impossible. There was no real idea here, or even a story for that matter. Nobody cares who killed Art Deco.
July 10, 2009
It was a good fast read...it was not as funny as I thought it could be. But there was some good one-liners.
And I thought there could have been a real good twist at the end with the sister Seena, that didn't happen.
But all in all like it.
And I thought there could have been a real good twist at the end with the sister Seena, that didn't happen.
But all in all like it.
October 27, 2009
Quick read - 2 days, and I'm normally a slow reader. Good murder/mystery and rather humorous. Entertaining to say the least. I may have to check out Barris' other books - I remember wanted to see the movie "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind", which I might skip and grab the book!
Read
July 29, 2011An amusing little mystery. For such a quick read, there is a surprising amount of character development. There are a few inconsistencies related to time line and age of characters. Overall a nice piece of funny writing that seems to mock the mystery genre.
October 10, 2009
Good stuff, a little thin, but enjoyable.
December 2, 2009
quick read...enjoyable...quirky characters
February 18, 2012
Not very good. Stick to game shows
May 24, 2011
I pretty good whodunit novel with a cast of great characters. The ending becomes pretty clear about 3/4 of the way through but still a fun read
Read
July 30, 2011vapid scion of vapid Brahman family killed. Jimmy Neets, schlub former podiatrist private eye, on the case
September 27, 2012
So funny.....
October 29, 2012
really enjoyable, fast read.
August 5, 2013
A decent mindless read for an airplane. I put it down with 10 pages left and never picked it up again.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews