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Fame
"You've got big dreams? You want fame? Well, fame costs. And right here is where you start paying in sweat."
Overview
An American television series originally produced between 1982 and 1987. The show is based on the 1980 motion picture of the same name. With a mixture of drama and music, it followed the lives of the students and faculty at the New York City High School for the Performing Arts. Although fictional, it was based heavily on the actual Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York. Most interior scenes were filmed in Hollywood, California, and in all seasons but the third, several exterior scenes were shot on location in New York City. The popularity of the series, particularly in the UK, led to several hit records and live concert tours by the cast. Despite its success, very few of the actors maintained high-profile careers after the series was cancelled. A number of the cast members were seen again briefly in Bring Back...Fame, a reunion special made for British television in 2008.
Status
Ended
Created By
Christopher Gore
Network
NBC, Syndication
Seasons & Episodes
Season 2
Episodes
And the Winner Is...
Bruno's script is chosen to be produced by the school and he is given the chance to be a voice in the audition process. Unfortunately he can't make up his mind who is better and if someone isn't as good he (with his soft heart) feels the need to let the person try again, to give them that extra chance to get it right. All his friends are excited that he can choose who will star in it, because of course, they want it to be them. Things start to heat up after everyone finds out that Bruno cast himself in the lead. After which he enlists the help of Doris to teach him to ""act"". Doris begins to fall in love with Bruno.
Your Own Song
Coco tries to get long with a learning disabled student.
Feelings
Julie's dad is getting remarried, and Julie does not like it one bit. Also, Leroy tries out for a touring dance troupe.
Class Act
A guest speaker to the school becomes sweet upon Lydia, and gives the kids an assignment so he can come back to see her. He takes her out but she's not impressed by his flashy lifestyle, and is even less so when he criticizes the work the kids do for the assignment, and is especially tough on Leroy. He also criticizes the education they receive at the school. Shorofsky teaches Bruno how to conduct.
Teachers
When Bruno gets the chance to audition for Julliard, he finds himself caught between the desires of his father and Shorofsky. Shorofsky feels that Bruno isn't ready for Julliard yet. During the audition, Bruno chooses to play his mother's favorite song instead of the piece he originally chose, even though he knew it would destroy his chances of being accepted to Julliard.
Beginnings
The kids suspect the ballet teacher is prejudiced against black students. They protest by stopping whatever they are doing and standing silent. It isn't til Miss Grant talks with this teacher that they know for sure that she feels black dancers don't have what it takes to be great. She is shown how wrong she's been during a performance by Stephanie. Bruno must escort a young musical prodigee around the school.
Solo Song
Lydia teaches a blind substitute teacher to dance. Doris developes a crush on the substitute teacher, Jim Hamilton.
Winners
Coco tries to impress a producer with an audition in a diner. She manages to get a screen test, and tells the gang it all went well. Later she comes clean and admits she was terrible. Doris tries to loose weight and be perfect (like Coco) and collapses in Miss Sherwood's class. In telling Doris the truth about her screen test, Coco manages to come to terms with herself.
Words
Sherwood discovers that her favorite student has a father who censors the books she is given to read. Because he will be leaving soon, Coco's boyfriend pressures her to have sex with him.
Childhood's End
When her grandmother dies, Coco questions her decision to become a performer. The kids attempt to find Julie's stolen cello.
Homecoming
Doris' draft dodging brother comes back and she tries to get him and her father to talk to each other. Lydia tries to sneak ballet moves into a jazz dance number when she discovers her old ballet teacher is coming to watch the performance.
A Tough Act to Follow
Danny's grief over the death of Mr. Crandall threatens to cause his expulsion, but help comes from an unexpected source.
Relationships
Doris falls in love with a singer she meets at a dance club where her, Bruno and Leroy go to observe the country western scene. They are looking to make a "unique" version of Romeo and Juliet for dance class. Bruno dates a 30 year old woman he meets at the same club. Sherwood meets someone through a dating service.
Star Quality
Leroy befriends a boy who wants to be a dancer. After which, he learns that this boy's father was a rather famous dancer once. Leroy has to write a report for Sherwood and decides to write about the once famous dancer. Coco reacts to a small-time commercial actor who visits the school. She criticizes his ability as an actor.
Sunshine Again
Shorofsky and Bruno both promise a show's dress rehearsal to different people. Doris is worried that her grandmother may move into her parents' home.
Love is the Question
Troy Phillips falls in love with Julie. When they fall asleep studying, he tells everyone that they slept together but he didn't realize what he was telling everyone was being taken in the wrong way.(Inspiring Bruno's classic line, "You're supposed to be tutoring him on the joys of harmony, not sex!") A picture of Mr. Reardon is printed in a gossip tabloid magazine by a "so called" friend of Reardon's who will do anything to sell a story, even steal the photo from David.
Blood, Sweat and Circuits
Bruno accepts a challenge from Miss Sherwood to try to create "art" from a computer and when the school acquires one, he's delighted, until he learns that the machine's purpose is to replace Mrs. Berg.
Friendship Day
Doris alienates her friends when she becomes obsessive over the planning of this year's "Friendship Day". Bruno's father and Julie's mother mistakenly believe that Bruno and Julie plan to have sex.
Not in Kansas Anymore
Doris is auditioning to star in a show. She falls and bumps her head and has an elaborate dream sequence in which she is on a quest to become a star. The school campus is set up with a ""yellow brick road"" path ""Dottie"" must follow and encounters several interesting characters (her fellow classmates in costume) along the way. Debbie Allen (the dance instructor/choreographer) plays the ""good witch"" and Mrs. Sherwood is the ""wicked witch.""
The Kids from Fame in Concert
This episode is comprised of excerpts from the Kids from Fame live concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
Help From My Friends
After a series of school lockers are vandalized, Dwight finds a suicide note and Doris tries to enlist her friends in helping her find the note's author.
Ending on a High Note
In order to appear in a show with a famous actor, Leroy and Danny become involved coaching a boys' choir in basketball.
U.N. Week
Students from "a more academically prestigious" school visit the School of the Arts for U.N Week and act snobbishly towards the kids.
Top Cast
Debbie Allen
Lydia Grant
Gene Anthony Ray
Leroy Johnson
Carlo Imperato
Danny Amatullo
Nia Peeples
Nicole Chapman
Jesse Borrego
Jesse Velasquez
Billy Hufsey
Christopher Donlon
Ann Nelson
Mrs. Berg
Carrie Hamilton
Reggie Higgins
Eric Pierpoint
Paul Seeger
Albert Hague
Benjamin Shorofsky
Michael Cerveris
Ian Ware
Loretta Chandler
Dusty Tyler
