richard.fuller1 I was watching Nia Peeples on Perry mason and remembered her from Fame.ah, Fame.Based on the movie (which was better), I recalled the TV show. It began Thursday night, followed by Cheers, Night Court and Hill Street Blues.This was supposed to be a ratings block, which bombed incredibly. Fame was cancelled and went into syndication, which made it even worse.Gimme A Break and Family Ties replaced Fame in the thursday night lineup, with Cosby eventually replacing Gimme A Break, giving NBC its true Thursday night block (possibly eventually replacing Hill Street with LA Law).But Fame. What Fame. Changing the world with dance and music, I guess.From Mr. Shorofsky trying to equate pop music with Mozart and Beethoven (a better comparison for our fickle tastes in music would be comparing them to the minstrel musicians of old, Alan-a-dale types) to Danny, Leroy, Chris and Jesse having attitude in tight pants, this show was a horrendous nightmare.One of the worst moments was truly when Nia Peeples left the show so her character, Nicole, was killed off by a kid drinking and driving. Danny would also be in the car.The entire episode then gave way to Jesse, without a doubt one of the worst characters ever to appear on the show, saying and doing what he pleased and no one would say anything to him as he was grieving. Let him set the school on fire (oh, if only), we mustn't stop him, he's in mourning.Now Jesse is permitted to even beat up the kid in his grief, but then enter Danny. What about me, Jesse? I was in the car too! What about me? Jesse and Danny grieve, leaving the poor kid who drove the car, standing all alone in the snow. Truly horrible message.Then there was its nauseating soap opera approach with the characters.Miss Sherwood had to romantically be paired up with Ken Swofford, the principal, but when he left and was replaced with Graham jarvis, now she had to be infatuated with him?? The show had a difficult time thinking the characters had to have a life outside of the school! But I could also never forget an episode with Nicole (again!). She got a two-bit walk-on part on a Broadway show, in which she comes in at the end, says "where did everybody go?" and the play was over. This was said to be the scene-stealer line in the play, followed by thunderous laughter and applause.Unfortunately, the deal with the school was, if you got a job on Broadway, then you had to leave the school.What I kept pondering was how a character, not seen for the entire play, could enter with the audience not knowing who she was, having not seen her, and she could say 'where did everybody go?' and it be so hilariously funny? Ironically enough, at this time, I was studying how bit characters would appear on WKRP, Gimme A Break, Family Ties, Mary Tyler Moore, Frnak's Place and the like, and how they could get all the laughs. There was no way an unseen character, unattached and with a detached line, could get the laughs and notice, wasn't happening.I would watch this oddball show just to see how odd it was, how closed off and isolated it's outlook on life was.

roger-wouters-1 The show deserves a 10 IMO, mostly for bringing back so many memories from the time I watched in the Netherlands in the 80s.It was such a big hit in the Netherlands and the show was really something special. Erica Gimpel was my favorite, although I can see why some fans found her character annoying. She did a great job in playing a character which was big character in the movie played by Irene Cara. IMO both Irene and Erica did a great job in playing Coco Hernandez, but the Coco's were different, looking back I see the Coco in the film as the older sister of the Coco in the series.I only liked the original cast, up until the 3rd season, then it became a show which little connection to the movie.I learned to appreciate the movie later on, for its rawness and great storyline and acting. Hard to imagine that the Montgomery from the film is the nasty Dr Romano from ER.Kids from Fame I love you and I always will. Anyone who loves the show should see the documentary the BBC did on Fame: Debbie Allen, Lee Curreri, Erica Gimpel, Carlo Imperato, Valerie Landsburg and Gene Anthony Ray.

kenonutt223 When I was a kind I started watching Fame with my mother. She used to watch that show all the time. She loved it. I bought the first season at Wal Mart for $20. It was cheap. I watched all 16 episodes in the season, and 1 thing I like about the show was at the end of the introduction, 2 women on the dance floor studio jumped and splitted their legs WIDE OPEN. That's what reminds me of having to watch that show. Even I was having to get up for school the morning after, YEARS ago. I felt pretty good about watching that show. And another part of the introduction was the quote that says "You got big dreams. You want Fame, well Fame costs. And right here is where you start paying with sweat. The title theme was great. I didn't like the end credits much, but the introduction was great, and the whole show too.

movibuf1962 ...I can officially say it doesn't disappoint. Purchasing FAME ends a 23-year mystery for me. I watched the original show back in 1982, and was always blown away by the first season (the only season of the 5-year show on network television) more than any of the subsequent seasons. But when the show went into local syndication, Season 1 seemed to disappear into a vault. And I've been scratching my head since the 80's, wondering if it was really the magical thing I remembered in the first place. FAME was an improvement on television because it was able to develop its ensemble of characters more fully (over a season at a time), and not denigrate them into stereotypes (the overachiever, the plain-Jane ingénue, the angry hood with a heart of gold, etc.), and do so without resorting to the 'R' factor of swearing dialog and partial nudity. I suspect that the people complaining about the series are missing all the dirty stuff that was in the film, but for a prime-time TV show broadcast in the family hour, the controversial stuff was highly unnecessary. The series wasn't perfect; some of the casting choices were less than inspiring, but once in a while there would be a fine song or an even finer dance sequence. Now I must admit that my bias is showing here because I was an actual art school student- though not in New York (and I was not a performer). I am, however, a fan of musicals from way back, and I think FAME appealed to me because it was something of a ground breaker in network television- the first ever musical series. There were musical variety shows on TV, and musical films done over the last 30 years- but FAME successfully integrated both genres, applying music to a dramatic series whose stars are student performers. Quite a brilliant idea. And some of FAME's individual episodes- a teacher's strike (how do unemployed art teachers make a living?), a promising dancer living with MS, a pianist living with stage fright, a competition for a role ruined by backstage politics- were some of the smartest and most imaginative scripts ever created for television.Finally, FAME introduced some top-notch young performers. It's easy to mock and tease them and the concept 20 years later (we're an entire race of cynics nowadays), but the fact is many of these kids were not much older than the teens they were supposed to be playing, and they had boundless energy. I was especially pleased to see that the show allowed them to craft their individual strengths over time. Though the show was more than a bit biased towards the dance students (and dancing was probably FAME's most visually appealing art), I was always glad to see emerging dramatists (P.R. Paul, Valerie Landsburg), and especially glad to see Lori Singer- at the beginning of her acting career- as the beautiful cellist from the Midwest. My main reason for watching the series though will always be Debbie Allen. Allen- a relatively tiny thing- proved to be a contradiction in terms with her drill sergeant-like dance instructor, but when she was allowed to dance herself, she was a gorgeous force of nature. If you've any doubt of this, check out the very last scene in 'Passing Grade' (where Allen and fellow dancer Erica Gimpel both lose out on an audition) and watch an improvisation between teacher and student emerge into a stunning pas-de-deux that you would only see in a movie musical. It's still one of the series' most impressive moments.