I'm Mark & I've been a Fame fan since the beginning of the TV Series in 1982. This blog is dedicated to the incredibly talented cast of the show who have brought so much comfort and pleasure to my life over the last 40 odd years.
Every week day we post and our Archive can be found on the Kids from Fame Media TV Series Archive Website.
Including Interviews, Episode Information and Videos, Scripts, Merchandise, MP3 Downloads, Reunions, Fan Fiction, Cast and Crew Information.
A Reminder that a great new in depth U.K. Radio Interview will air on Tameside Radio 103.6FM Tomorrow Saturday 30th May 2020 at 1.00pm (U.K.Time). Ian Cheeseman talks to Valerie Landsburg and PR Paul about Fame, Friendship, Lockdown, Satellite, Reunions and more. You can listen Live Online or
A great new in depth U.K. Radio Interview will air on Tameside Radio 103.6FM on Saturday 30th May 2020 at 1.00pm (U.K.Time). Ian Cheeseman talks to Valerie Landsburg and PR Paul about Fame, Friendship, Lockdown, Satellite, Reunions and more. You can listen Live Online or
A downloadable Podcast will be available a couple of days after broadcast. Enjoy!
I wanna be bad and not even care I wanna go out of my head somewhere I wanna go crazy like the dogs in the yard I wanna cut the road It's gettin' so much harder
I think I'll play poker Stay out every night Throw stones at the water In the mornin' light
I wanna be lazy like the dogs in the yard Why can't I fly tonight? Why can't I sleep all mornin'?I'm goin' out of my mind tonight That's where I'm goin' That's where I'm goin'
I'm gonna have a good time For it's too late Come on…
I'm gonna have a good time For it's too late Come on baby, let's go out town and celebrate Gonna celebrate
We're gonna run crazy like the dogs in the yard We're gonna fly tonight We're gonna sleep all mornin' We're goin' out of our minds tonight That's where we're goin' That's where we're goin'
40 Years Later, It's Clear 'Fame' Will Live Forever
Debbie Allen, Irene Cara, and Erica Gimpel talk to
Shondaland about the 40th anniversary of the classic film.
By Mekeisha Madden Toby
For many young artists, seeing Fame for the first time is life altering. Alan Parker's classic 1980 film succinctly validates the boundless hope and promise of aspiring actors, dancers, singers and musicians and makes them feel seen, appreciated and loved.
Fame also turned Debbie Allen, an award winning dancer and choreographer turned director, into a household name and trumpeted star Irene Cara as a triple-threat capable of carrying the film and belting out the unforgettable title track. The flick also put the whole world on notice that the unbridled physicality of dancer Gene Anthony Ray would inhabit our imaginations forever.
Most of all, the movie’s $42 million box-office success and its two Oscar wins paved the way for a six-season television spinoff that inspired the inception of performing arts high schools all over the globe.
“Fame told viewers they could aim for the stars and with hard work, possibly reach them,” says Jawn Murray, a TV host and pop culture expert. “That created a 'why not' mentality for a lot of people and gave them the gumption to try out for shows ranging from Star Search to American Idol.”
In time for the 40th anniversary of Fame, Shondaland caught up with Allen, Cara and more to unpack how the film came to be, its undeniable impact on pop culture, and why the brand’s legacy has endured.
"It was a glorious experience."
Ask Allen to recall what drew her to the role of dance teacher Lydia Grant and she jokes to herself, and anyone listening, that she must “remember, remember, remember,” quoting a line from the beloved Fame theme song.
“I remember auditioning. I actually read for Irene’s role, Coco, but they got the right one,” Allen, an executive producer, director and recurring star on Grey’s Anatomy, tells Shondaland. “Coco was her vibe. And I was cast as Lydia, who was originally written as an older student. After the film was edited, I was turned into a young teacher. But I was supposed to be Coco’s nemesis, doing everything that she might want to do.”
Prior to Fame, Allen had starred on Broadway as Anita in West Side Story. She also had small roles on Good Times, The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, and Roots: The Next Generations. But Fame was a game changer for the acclaimed dancer.
“The movie became everything,” says Allen, whose role as Lydia grew exponentially on the TV spinoff. She also earned two Emmy awards for choreographing the series, and Allen became the first African-American woman to win a Golden Globe for Best Television Actress in a Comedy or Musical. Nearly 35 years later, Tracee Ellis Ross would follow in her footsteps to become only the second black actress to triumph in that category. For Allen — who has gone on to amass an impressive film and TV resume since Fame was released in 1980 — shooting the film was an amazing experience.
“I was thrilled to be on the set just hanging out,” Allen recalls. “I already had much more experience than most of the young kids, with the exception of Irene, who was a star at eight years old. She had played Carnegie Hall and already had such a long track record before she did Fame.”
Allen holds the movie’s behind-the-scenes conviviality dear. Most of the interior scenes were shot inside New York’s abandoned Haaren High School on 58th and 10th in Manhattan, and the school later became the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Meanwhile, the TV spinoff called an MGM soundstage in Los Angeles its home.
“There were a lot of people in the movie that I knew from the dance world. We all danced together,” Allen adds fondly. “Louis Falco was the choreographer [on the film]. Michael DeLorenzo (New York Undercover), who was a dancer in the movie, went on to have a much bigger part on the show. Louis Venosta was a principal dancer and he became a screenwriter (Bird on a Wire and The Last Dragon). I went on to direct and co-produce A Different World. There was a lot of young talent in that ensemble. It was a glorious experience.”
"The whole vibe of the original movie was about the grittiness of New York."
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Producers approached Cara because they liked her vocals in 1976’s Sparkle. Although Cara received critical and fan praise for her acting in the musical, the powers-that-be behind Fame wanted to explore her vulnerability and range. Both came in handy when her character, Coco Hernandez, had a nasty encounter with a skeevy amateur porn director.
“The whole vibe of the original Fame movie was about the grittiness of New York and New York kids. New York was a character, and I was born and raised in the Bronx,” The Electric Company alum says. “I’m a South Bronx girl and was way before J. Lo. All of my auditions were just for acting. The producers knew I could sing. It was wonderful for me, mainly because I had worked a lot around New York and was known as a prominent child performer. But this was a Hollywood movie in my hometown.”
Just like Allen, who knew most of the dancers, Cara says she also gave Fame composer Michael Gore some recommendations about who he should hire to make the film's soundtrack sound superior.
“I brought a lot of New York’s greatest session singers to Michael. He didn’t know Luther Vandross. I did. He didn’t know about Vicki Sue Robinson. I did,” Cara says. “Michael wasn’t in with all the badass session players and singers that I knew. I never got any money for it. Never got acknowledged. I wrote 'Hot Lunch' to this very cool baseline that he came up with – that was the whole damn song.”
But Cara’s hard work proved beneficial not long after Fame.
“A few years later, I went on to win two Grammys for Flashdance and an Oscar [for Best Original Song],” she says. “I won a Grammy for Best Pop Female vocal, which was a big deal as a black Latina. I don’t remember any others winning that back then.”
For Cara, it’s all about performing. “When I was a dancer, I studied under Debbie and she was incredible. Like Coco, I was a triple threat,” she adds. Like Allen, Cara also co-starred in Roots: The Next Generations. “The one thing that I regret is that I didn’t keep up my dance regimen when I got into my 40s.”
While Fame catapulted Allen and Cara to stardom, no one moved their body like Gene Anthony Ray, who played Leroy Johnson, one of the film's most memorable characters. More of a street dancer than a professionally trained one, the Harlem native attended the High School of the Performing Arts for a year before administrators kicked him out for being a rule breaker. Ray later attended Julia Richman High School (now known as the Julia Richman Education Complex) and skipped one day to audition for Falco, Fame's choreographer. And the rest is movie history.
“Gene Anthony Ray was a brand new young star, and he was Leroy Johnson personified,” Allen says lovingly of the late dancer who died from stroke and HIV complications in 2003 at the age of 41. After the film, Ray joined Allen, and a handful of others, in the TV adaptation of the film. “He had boundless energy, was dynamic and powerful and, as a dancer, was really edgy. He would cuss somebody out in a heartbeat. But then again, he could be very open and kind."
As a newcomer to film, Ray also went above and beyond to prove himself. “One time, he was working so hard when we were shooting the movie, I said, ‘Honey, calm down,’” Allen recalls. “I went and got an ice pack and put it on the back of his neck. I said, ‘You’re going to have to do this a lot more times.’ And he said, ‘I am?’ And I said, ‘Yes! It’s a movie.’ I was taking care of him then.”
Cara also has fond memories of Ray.
“We were all close to Gene,” she says. “He was the youngest, and believe me, he was a handful — a handful. But we loved him, and he was a brilliant, natural actor and a phenomenal dancer."
Ray was just 18 when the film hit theaters and had come from tough circumstances. Still, Cara says the cast treated him like a little brother. “We all just worshiped him as much as we worked hard to put up with him," she remembers. "He was so young and wild. I had been a professional since I was five years old. He was raw. We all had to babysit him. But it was worth it because what came out on screen was remarkable. We all miss him dearly.”
Erica Gimpel, who took over the role of Coco in the TV version of Fame, says Ray operated on a higher frequency than most. “He was unlike anyone I’ve ever met,” says Gimpel, who can now be seen on CBS' God Friended Me. “I had a crush on him and was terrified of him all at the same time. Dancers are so much freer with their bodies. He was always in tights."
Despite his intense nature, Ray often returned his co-stars' admiration. “There was this one song called 'Showtime.' It was a number all about me and I was dancing and singing and Gene came to watch when we were filming,” recalls Gimpel, who also attended the High School of the Performing Arts and was the youngest on set of the show. “I remember I finished and he ran up onstage and lifted me up and said, ‘Girl, you were dancing.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ His approval of me meant so much.”
"There is a certain freedom of spiritual expression in a performing arts high school that gets people started early."
After seeing everyone else dance, Lee Curreri realized he was better at watching dance than doing it, he says with a laugh. Curreri, who is a composer now, starred as Bruno Martelli in the film. He’s the pianist who pens the “Fame” song that has all of his classmatesdancing in the street in front of school. He went on to co-star on the first three seasons of the TV series and has been part of Fame reunions in America, Italy and the United Kingdom.
“There is a certain freedom of spiritual expression in a performing arts high school that gets people started early. It’s almost like a license to be rebellious,” Curreri says of Fame’s lasting legacy. The Yonkers native was attending the Manhattan School of Music when his teacher recommended him for the audition, which obviously worked out. “And people who were at just the right age when the movie and the show came out saw this and went, ‘Wow! This is it. This idea is calling me. This show is calling me.’”
Because of this, Fame also sparked the emergence of performing arts high schools, from Istanbul to Allen’s native Houston and everywhere in between.
“Most people didn't have the option of attending a performing arts high school,” pop culture expert Murray says. “Even the idea of one seemed fictional. But the High School of Performing Arts (now known as Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts) was a real thing and inspired other cities to open similar schools, if not expand arts programming in their regular schools.”
“I was a child living in a small country town in Virginia when Fame premiered and it was my first time seeing a multicultural cast depicted like that,” Murray continues. “It really showcased marginalized groups in a way that empowered them and effectively captured their journeys. I think Fame’s ability to present aspiring creatives working towards a bigger dream, while overcoming various obstacles, really resonated and that's why diehard fans have remained loyal to the franchise.”
Although the TV series sanitized the grit, and even eliminated Montgomery’s sexual preference all together – he comes out as gay in the movie but not on the show – Gimpel says countless fans have come up to her over the years to thank her for being around during a time of need.
“Fans all over the world tell me stories about being gay young men who were terrified to come out,” Gimpel says. “And they say, ‘You don’t know how much this show saved my life.’ Or ‘I didn’t feel accepted. This show made me feel accepted.’”
Influencing an entire generation is a great way to — as the song goes — live forever. And it's clear Fame has done just that.
Debbie Allen recalls the grittiness of ‘Fame,’ 40 years later: "It was not a Disney movie"
Lyndsey Parker
Editor-in-Chief, Yahoo Music May 15, 2020
When most people look back on Fame, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this week, they think of the big, boisterous musical numbers: students from the High School of Performing Arts’ Class of 1980 dancing on top of taxicabs in the streets of New York City, riffing about macaroni and baloney in the cafeteria, or singing the body electric as they pick up their diplomas. And that is understandable: The Fame soundtrack, composed mainly by Michael Gore (younger brother of Lesley), was a monster hit and won two Oscars, for Best Original Song and Best Original Score.
But Fame was much grittier and darker than many remember. The groundbreaking and decidedly R-rated musical drama, directed by the great Alan Parker (Midnight Express, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, AngelHeart), unflinchingly tackled previously taboo topics like teen suicide, abortion, closeted homosexuality, illiteracy, and underage pornography.
“I mean, it was not a Disney movie,” Debbie Allen, who famously portrayed tough-loving dance teacher Lydia Grant, tells Yahoo Entertainment. “Homosexuality and abortion, that's just par for the course now, but it wasn't then. Remember when Irene [Cara] had that scene where she had to take their clothes off with that guy? Wow.”
At the time, the New York Board of Education protested the script’s profanity and adult content, ultimately preventing Parker from filming on the campus of the High School of Performing Arts (now known as Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School) as he had planned. Parker eventually shot all interior scenes at two vacant Chicago-area schools instead.
“A lot of people had a lot to say about that. It was really something,” says Allen. “I don't know why [the school board] wanted to hide from it. I mean, it was NewYork, come on. If anything is happening somewhere, it's in New York, let's be real. But there was this kind of attitude that LaGuardia had about this movie. … But it took the world by storm, because people related to it because it was so real. That movie was so edgy, and it was so alive.”
The film’s against-the-grain spirit extended to one of the exterior scenes that Parker actually did shoot in New York City: the iconic, literally traffic-stopping "Fame” musical number on 46th Street, which featured eight choreographed routines, 150 student background actors, and 50 professional dancers. (Fun fact: Those dancers performed to Donna Summer’s "Hot Stuff,” because the song "Fame" had yet to be written.) “It was like a riot,” Allen chuckles. New York is New York. The NYPD does not play, and they want to keep things calm. So yeah, there were all these roadblocks; people saying this and saying that. But at the end of the day, Alan Parker got his permits and he did what he needed to do, and he did it rather quickly. He got it in the can before they shut it down.”
The film’s rebelliousness and realism also carried over to its art-imitating-life casting. Fame starred several real-life LaGuardia students, like Laura Dean and, most notably, Gene Anthony Ray. As it turned out, Ray, who played bad-boy Leroy Johnson, had been expelled from the High School for the Performing Arts before he landed the part. “I think he cussed out a teacher. Somebody tried to tell him something. I don't know if it was about pointing his feet, or wearing tights. He said, ‘I'm not wearing that bulls***.’ He never would wear the tights,” Allen laughs.
Allen bonded with the teen cast from the start. “I just remember the energy of all those young people, carrying on in that cafeteria between takes, waiting to shoot a scene,” she says. Allen, a showbiz veteran, had already briefly worked on Broadway with former child actress Cara, who played Coco Hernandez and sang lead on the soundtrack’s “Hot Lunch Jam,” “Out Here on My Own,” and title track (the latter two of which earned Academy Award nominations). “I just can never forget what Irene brought to the screen, into this role, into the world. When she sang ‘Out Here on my Own,’ the day she filmed that song, it was breathtaking, just breathtaking. We didn't know Fame was going to do what it did, but we knew that this was like, whoa. This was something else. She blew it out of the water,” marvels Allen.
Allen’s appearance in the Fame film was brief (“It was proof that there are no ‘small’ parts,” she says of the life-changing opportunity), but she was originally supposed to get more screentime playing Cara’s “nemesis” in the movie. “I was actually supposed to be the senior that was her competition, or so I thought. I had this hot red dress, and I was going to do this song. Then Alan came to me and said, ‘Debbie, you're so beautiful, it's great, but the movie's already 10 hours long, and we haven't even gotten to the end yet, so I'm going to cut your scene.’" I'm like, ‘OK, Alan, I understand. But just make sure I can keep the dress!’”
As much as Allen loved working with Cara and the rest of the cast, she forged the strongest connection, on- and offscreen, with Ray. “It was all about Gene. He was that young, dominant, and rough kid that everybody fell in love with the minute they saw him on the dance floor, talking s*** to the teachers. I mean, that was his real life,” she says. Allen recalls meeting Ray for the first time when they shot one of Fame’s key scenes with that legendary line that made Allen’s small role so unforgettable: “You want fame? Well, fame costs. And right here is where you start paying — in sweat.”
“It was a great, exciting day, in that it was very free-spirited, which is how Alan Parker works. He doesn't want to rehearse things too much, because he wants to get the real deal. You never knew when the camera was rolling; you might think you're just rehearsing it, and then he’d say, ‘OK, I got it!’” Allen says. “It was an incredible day. It was a very hot day. I didn't know Gene Anthony Ray until that day, and I was taking care of him right in there, because he needed it. He was so young and so full of life and energy, and he didn't quite know he was going to have to do five or six takes sometimes. I just was there to try to help him, because I knew he was a baby. He couldn't have been older than like 16.
“It was just instant that we bonded, and that I knew I needed to take care of him. And I did. He wanted me to, and he let me. He was such a character. I mean, he could say the damnedest things. He could cut somebody down to their knees. He could say things, such terrible things. But always, they were funny. He was very funny, and he let me calm him down, and he listened to me. Then when we did the [Fame] series together, our relationship bonded even further, just for life. All the way till his death.”
Allen, now in a much larger starring role, worked with Ray on the successful Fame television series for 116 episodes. But in a tragic storyline that could have been directed by Parker himself, Ray’s career faltered due to his hard-partying ways, and he worked infrequently after the show. One of his few ‘90s credits was the film Out-of-Sync, which Allen directed, and the two stayed in touch until he died at age 41 due to complications from a 2003 stroke.
“Before he died, they had a Fame reunion at my dance studio, the Debbie Allen Dance Academy. It was a big BBC special. There we were, and then all of a sudden Gene Anthony Ray walked in the room and we screamed,” Allen remembers. “We just didn't know that he was going to come, and it was the greatest surprise. That was our last time together physically. Gene and I talked on the phone, but that was the last time we were together. Then he died that fall. I remember going to his funeral in Harlem, a big funeral, and it was very difficult for me.”
Allen has tried to keep the Fame legacy alive in the years since. Yes, she does still have that red dress, and this year she choreographed the Grammy Awards’ "I Sing the Body Electric” number (which featured Lee Curreri, the actor who’d played Bruno Martelli in both the Fame movie and TV show). She also starred in the film’s 2009 remake, although she admits now that that sanitized, PG-rated version, which Parker disavowed, was “disappointing.”
“When they went to remake it, they just didn't go far enough,” Allen laments. “There would have been an opportunity to talk about AIDS and a whole lot of things now that were really a big part of the artistic community. It just never went far enough. I mean, if you're going to do Fame again, you have to go further.” She also wasn’t so thrilled with her 2009 wardrobe, which unfortunately did not include any sort of sexy red dress. “I was the only [cast member] that was coming in from the original, and then they wanted to act like I was not Lydia Grant. I remember them wanting to put me in some kind of pearls. I'm like, ‘What? That's not Lydia Grant!’ They said, ‘Well, we tried to dress you a little more like Condoleezza Rice.’ I said, ‘Look, I love Condi, I think she's amazing, but that's not Lydia Grant. Lydia Grant wears big earrings. Her hair is a lot. No.’ I was there, but it was not what I had hoped it would be.”
But Allen will forever be proud of the 1980 original and the 1982-87 television show, which she considers the West Side Story and Glee of its era. “Fame was just such a calling card for the world,” she proclaims. “It was ahead of its time, in a way. But no, it was right on time. It really was right on time.”
Fame U.K. Reunion's Facebook Page is currently running a poll to see if there would be enough interest to release a limited edition CD with highlights of the Fame U.K. Reunion concerts in Liverpool for £15.00? A portion would be donated to Claire House Children's Hospice. Head over to the Poll on the Fame U.K. Reunion Page to register your vote. Not on Facebook? Send your expression of interest to me and I'll pass it on.
"Hot Lunch" written by Michael Gore, Lesley Gore and Robert F Colesberry. It is performed by Irene Cara and comes from the 1980 Fame Movie. It was also featured n the TV Series Season 1 episode "A Special Place". Download MP3
Shady Sadie (Shady Sadie) Servin' lady (She's a servin' lady)
But don't pay her no mind, no, She'll take ev'ry dime She's gotta one-a-day lunch It's good for all the bunch, yeah!
Hot lunch, yeah! Macaroni and baloney Tuna fish our fav'rite dish It's hot lunch, yeah!
If it's yellow then it's Jell-O If it's blue it could be stewed Ooh ooh ooh!
She's gotta one-a-day lunch
It's good for all the bunch, hey yeah! Hot hot lunch C'mon, say it now! Hot lunch!
