|
|
|
|
American Bandstand
|
| |
|
| |
American Bandstand is a television show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989, hosted from 1957 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer. The show featured teenagers dancing to Top 40-type music introduced by Clark; at least one popular musical act - over the decades, running the gamut from Jerry Lee Lewis to Run DMC - would usually appear in-person to lip-sync one of their latest singles.
remiered locally as a live show, Bandstand, on Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV (Channel 6, now WPVI-TV) on October 7, 1952 in "Studio 'B'", which was located in their just-completed addition to the original 1947 building (4548 Market Street), and was hosted by Bob Horn, with Lee Stewart as co-host until 1955.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'American Bandstand' Start a new discussion about 'American Bandstand' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
American Bandstand is a television show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989, hosted from 1957 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer. The show featured teenagers dancing to Top 40-type music introduced by Clark; at least one popular musical act - over the decades, running the gamut from Jerry Lee Lewis to Run DMC - would usually appear in-person to lip-sync one of their latest singles.
Show description
It premiered locally as a live show, Bandstand, on Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV (Channel 6, now WPVI-TV) on October 7, 1952 in "Studio 'B'", which was located in their just-completed addition to the original 1947 building (4548 Market Street), and was hosted by Bob Horn, with Lee Stewart as co-host until 1955. Tony Mammarella was the original producer with Ed Yates as director.
The series originally featured Horn merely hosting two collections of filmed musical performances from both Snader and Official films (forerunners of modern music videos), but this was soon changed to the familiar format of having kids dance to hit records, an idea that came from a Philadelphia radio show, The 950 Club hosted by Joe Grady and Ed Hurst.
On July 9, 1956, Horn was fired after a drunk driving arrest as WFIL and dual owner Walter Annenberg's The Philadelphia Inquirer at the time were doing a series on drunk driving. He was replaced temporarily by producer Tony Mammarella before the job went permanently to Dick Clark.
In late spring of 1957, the ABC television network asked their O&O's and affiliates for programming suggestions to fill their 3:30PM (ET) time slot (WFIL-TV had been pre-empting the ABC program with 'Bandstand'). Clark decided to pitch the show to ABC brass and after some badgering, the show was picked up nationally (becoming American Bandstand) on August 5, 1957. The program was broadcast "live" weekday afternoons. Beginning in early 1961 all five shows for the upcoming week were videotaped the preceding Saturday. The use of videotape allowed Clark to tour with the singers and to pursue other broadcast interests. In September 1963 the show began airing weekly every Saturday afternoon until 1989. The show's popularity helped Clark become an American media mogul and inspired other similar long-running music programs, such as Soul Train and Top of the Pops. Clark eventually assumed ownership of the program through his dick clark productions company.
"Studio 'B'" measured 80'x42'x24', but appeared smaller due to the number of props, television cameras, and bleachers that were used for the show. The show was briefly shot in color in 1958 when WFIL-TV started experimenting with the then-new technology. Due to a combination of the size of the studio, along with the need to have as much space available for the teenagers to dance and the size of the color camera compared to the black-and-white models made it possible to only have one RCA TK-41 where three RCA TK-10 had been used before. WFIL-TV went back to the TK-10's two weeks later when ABC-TV refused to carry the color signal and management realized that the show lost something without the extra cameras.
Clark would often interview the teenagers about their opinions of the songs being played, most memorably through the "Rate-a-Record" segment (to which the phrase "It's got a good beat and you can dance to it" is credited, perhaps apocryphally).
The only person to ever co host the show with Dick Clark was Donna Summer, who joined him to present a special episode dedicated to the release of the Casablanca Film Thank God It's Friday.
Theme music
Bandstand originally used "High Society" by Artie Shaw as its theme song, but by the time the show went national, it had been replaced by various arrangements of "Bandstand Boogie" composed by Charles Albertine, including the big-band version performed by Les Elgart remembered by viewers of the daily version. From 1969 to 1974 "Bandstand Theme", a synth instrumental version written by Mike Curb opened each show. Moreover, from 1974 to 1977 an orchestral disco version of "Bandstand Boogie" arose playing during the opening and closing credits. Joe Porter was the music arranger and performer of this orchestral disco version of American Bandstand's theme song at this time.
From 1977 to the end of its ABC run in 1987, the show opened and closed with Barry Manilow's rendition of the theme, which he originally recorded for his 1975 album Tryin' to Get the Feeling. The song's new lyrics, which heavily referenced the series, were co-written by Manilow and Bruce Howard Sussman.
The Manilow version was replaced by an updated instrumental arrangement of "Bandstand Boogie" when Bandstand went into syndication.
From 1974 onward, Bandstand featured another instrumental at its mid-show break—Billy Preston's synth hit "Space Race".
Changes
An evening version of American Bandstand aired on Monday nights from 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM beginning on October 7, 1957. It was a ratings disaster, as its core audience --teenagers and housewives-- was occupied with other interests in the evenings. The Monday night version aired its last program in December, 1957, but ABC gave Clark a Saturday night time slot for The Dick Clark Show, which originated from the Little Theatre in Manhattan beginning on February 15, 1958.
The show moved from its weekday slot to Saturday afternoons on September 7, 1963.
Production of the show moved from Philadelphia to the ABC Television Center in Los Angeles on February 8, 1964, which coincidently was the same weekend that WFIL-TV moved from their 46th and Market location to their new facility located on City Line Avenue. Color broadcasts began for good on September 9, 1967. The typical production schedule consisted of video taping three shows on a Saturday and three shows on a Sunday every six weeks. The shows were usually produced in either Stage 54 or Stage 55 at the ABC Television Center.
Bandstand moved from ABC to syndication on September 19, 1987, and to cable's USA Network on April 8, 1989 with a new younger host, comedian David Hirsch and was shot outdoors at Universal Studios Hollywood. Clark remained executive producer. The show ended on October 7, 1989 in Hollywood and continued to tape live at the Harrah's Club & Casino in Reno, Nevada and aired locally until the mid 90's.
In 2004, Dick Clark announced plans to revive the show in time for 2005; although this did not occur, one segment of the revived "Bandstand" - a national dance contest - eventually became the series So You Think You Can Dance. Dick Clark Productions is credited as the show's co-producer and longtime DC employee Allen Shapiro serves as co-executive producer.
See also
External links
- at YouTube. Accessed October 2008
|
| |
|
|
