So as I learned at an Academy screening of the 1980 film Fame this summer, there is indeed a remake in the works. This week's news is that a number of known actors who have all themselves had some form of professional training will be starring as the High School of the Performing Arts faculty: Megan Mullally, Kelsey Grammer, Charles S. Dutton, Bebe Neuwirth and of course Debbie Allen, now promoted to a principal http://uk.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUKTRE4B00Y320081201. You can debate whether this may live up to the original movie (which, remember, had the wonderful Irene Cara and Anne Meara among many others) and I will volunteer that nothing in the new film could possibly top the original's closing (apparently Body Electric isn't current enough for the new film) but there's just one thing that debate leaves out.
I was only 5 when the original Fame film hit movie theaters so needless to say, I did not see the film upon its original release. However, I was 7 in 1982 when the Fame TV show debuted on NBC. It was on late but my mom used our newly acquired VCR to tape episodes that my sister and I could watch later (with some fast-forwarding through the more adult content parts). I watched the TV show religiously right up through the last episode in 1987 - to paraphrase Emma Thompson in Love Actually, I loved that show and true love lasts a lifetime. Although my sister and I did buy my mom the complete first season on DVD, I haven't seen the show in a long time and the love is based purely on my scattered childhood memories of the show. Nevertheless, to this day, I remember all of the people who starred in the show over its six seasons (yes Michael Cerveris, even you) and those people are Fame to me - more than the 1980 film as great as it is and I'm sure more than whatever they are throwing together now. So cast who you will Hollywood but from the 1982 opening credits to the 1987 closing scene, these people are Fame:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
I loved Fame on tv, and loved watching it with you. You may remember that it also provided an opportunity for me to teach you about activism--when the network decided to cancel the show, you were very upset. So we wrote a petition, which you took out on the school playground at lunchtime until you had a lot of signatures, and sent it to the studio. When the show got picked up on another network, you believed you helped save it. I was able to teach you that speaking up might actually work, and we were able to enjoy another season (or two?) of Fame.
Mom
Post a Comment