Fame In Italy

 

In Italy Fame was broadcast by Rai 2 between 1983 and 1990, originally on  Saturday Evenings at 8.30pm for the first 14 episodes of Season 1. There was then a break and the 2 final episodes of Season 1 and Season 2 were broadcast on Thursdays, initially at 8.30pm then from episode 8 it moved to a later time slot starting at various times between 9.35pm & 9.55pm. 

Season  3 started being broadcast on Sunday Evenings at 9.50pm for the first 6 episodes.  Then there was a years break before new episodes continued. The show moved to daily showings  during summer afternoons from June 1986 with repeats of the episodes already broadcast before continuing with the rest of the  episodes from season 3.

Then each year the new season was broadcast after repeats of most of the previous episodes had been broadcast. By 1988 Fame was broadcast daily from June to December and then the final season started broadcasting in January 1989 and the show was on for 7 months of the year. 

A further run of all the episodes took place in 1990.

The First Episode had been broadcast on Saturday 1st January 1983 at 8.30pm and the shown was known as Saranno Famosi. The show was a big hit.

A few Months later NBC in America would cancel the show. Due to the Popularity of the broadcasts in Italy the Raidue T.V. company was approached by MGM and a financial deal was put together where RAI contributed to the making of the seasons 3 to 6, resulting in acknowledgement at the end of those episodes. This meant new episodes of Fame could continue being made and shown in Syndication in America.

The show was a huge success and many of the cast members travelled to Italy to appear on the Raffaella Carrà Friday Saturday Sunday Show on 12th January 1990.

The Cast appeared in a number of Italian Magazines over the years and would visit the Country, particularly Lee Curreri who has family in Italy and has performed with the group Mode, in concert.

Gene Anthony Ray spent a number of years in the 90s living in Italy appearing on TV Shows and doing personal appearances, even stripping using his Character name Leroy Johnson to attract people to the shows.

In 2006 Nia Peeples was approached to perform in a charity concert in Italy in memory of Gene Anthony. Nia accepted and developed a friendship with the Mendogni Family, which led to further performances including Cynthia Gibb and Jesse Borrego.

In 2011 Nia recruited Erica Gimpel and they performed a wonderful show in Parma.  From there the reunions took off and full concert reunions featuring: Nia Peeples, Jesse Borrego, Cynthia Gibb, Erica Gimple, Carlo Imperato, Valerie Landsburg and Lee Curreri have taken place in Salsomaggiore Terme  in 2015 and 2017.