Janet Jackson on Fame

"And personally ... I feel she was in no ways a dancer when she was on Fame "

Well Debbie Allen (who was "FAME" choreography) disagrees. She was on a VH1 special on Janet, and according to her, Janet was one of the best dancers she had during the six year run on "Fame". Debbie is not one to mince words. If she thought that Janet wasn't a good dancer, she would have evaded the question, and give sort of a non-answer. But she went on and on about Janet dancing, how she could give Janet instructions, and she'd have it down cold within a minute. Whereas other actors, it would take time for them to pick up the steps. But not Janet.

And Janet WAS NOT fired from Fame. She left on her own accord. According to various books written about Janet, her father was still acting as her manager and sort of forced her to do "Fame". And she didn't want to, but it was her father and at time she did what she was told.

I personally worked on a Music Video show in the 1990s, and we had Nia Peeples on the show (she was promoting her album "Street of Dreams"). Nia was asked point blank about working with Janet. Her is what she had to say (transcribing what I remember of her interview)

"Janet and I worked together on FAME for one year. We were both new that year, it was our first year. And it was like.....I can't really come out of there saying too much about her, because she was so quiet and shy. And I'm so out there! She was really quiet, she was only a baby when she did the show, she was 19. And I really don't think that is what she wanted to do. And then a year later she came out with "Control". And I knew then, that was what she wanted to do. She wanted to make an album and have more control over her life. And I was really happy for her that she found what she wanted to do"

It should be noted that Janet fired her father as manager, at the same time she left FAME. And a year later album titled "Control", came out.

She didn't want to be managed by her father or do FAME. She wanted Control and a year later she came out with an Album (which is what she wanted to do) and had control of her life for the first time.

Everyone get it now?

They did have an episode where Cleo fell for Leroy ... Cindy Gibb & Nia Peeples roped her into a song in regards to playing hard to get 'If the Lady Wants to Play' ... **Just looked on the Fame Webiste Episode Guide : the Episode was 'Take My Wife Please' ... Cleo trys to make Leroy jealous by dating Danny ... if memory serves me correctly an episode or two later ... Cleo and Leroy were dating (holding hands) and then the subject seemed to be dropped (maybe because of Janet missing alot of episodes)