MovieChat Forums > Fame (1982) Discussion > initial impressions

initial impressions

posted 14 years ago by CaZSuede
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Having seen most of season 1, I have to admit that I was impressed. It is a show that I thought would be a poor cousin to the movie, which I was hot and cold on. while it is the PG rated version, it has some excellent qualities.

I really like the musical numbers. While the musical tunes are stuck in the '80's, the dance scenes very well choreographed. I liked the stories, because they are throwbacks, dealing with issues that I thought would have been important when I was a kid and reminds me of a lesser version of Degrassi High (which was much more serious on kids issues). TV shows nowadays that feature kids seem always to feature grown up issues played by kids. Perhaps that is how times have changed.

Also, the camera work is first rate for a TV show, it is not afraid to get right up to the performers or show overhead shots, it has some movement to it. It is better than the rapid editing/static camera work that I see on alot of drama shows nowadays.

I also like some of the new characters. While I felt that the characters in the original movie seemed more like little adults waiting to finish school to begin their REAL lives, the show has more of a school feel to it with kids who seem to belong in school. When I was in High School, School was my life. I spent 8 hours there, I did the schools events and clubs and dated and remember it fondly. In the movie, school seemed incidental, but not in the TV show.

LeRoy was the prototypical "angry black man" in the movie, but here he has some range, even if he loses some edge. However, he is not as one dimensional as he is on the big screen.

I prefer the Montgomery in the TV show, over Paul McCrane, who had some angst, but no talent. At least this Montgomery can play the guitar. The only weird thing is that he is Heterosexual in the TV show (he tries to pick up a girl in the episode "The Crazies") where he is gay in the movie.

I also like Bruno who was as one dimensional as LeRoy. However, he remains more true to the character than LeRoy and seems to be breaking out of his shell more in the TV show.

Worst of all, heresy I'm sure. I prefer Erica Gimpel to Irene Cara for the role of CoCo. While Cara is by far a better singer, Gimpel is a better creative performer overall, who can dance as well as sing. Irene also didn't look like a teenager to me, she looks like an adult from the beginning.

Also, finally, I liked the TV show Ms. Sherwood. She is smarmy, sarcastic and tonally very blue blood genteel, which is a good constrast to the street smart kids and teachers. She makes a great addition to the great teacher staff, including National Treasure (she should be) Debbie Allen and the always reliable Shorofsky.

However, I am NOT a fan of several characters including Doris, who is just annoying. Even worse is lame duck Lori Miller, who plays Julie Miller. If she was meant to replace the fantastic Hiliary from the movie (Antonia Franceschi) she is a poor substitute.

And finally there are some confusing substitions. Lisa from the movie is missing and Ralph Garcy was mysteriously replaced with Danny Amatullo (although a dorky Garcy makes an appearance in the first episodes).

The other thing that I don't like is that when they go into a musical number, it seems very obvious that it is pre-recorded because the tone seems to have come from a professional soundroom. As well, some of the voices (like the ones Doris sings) don't seem like the singers.

Overall, Fame was a proto-Glee hour musical that is not as hard edge as the R-rated movie, but it has it's own place on TV. While I am not as enraptured as I was in the movie, with the concept that these kids ambition to achieve Fame, I found it to be a more realistic portrayal of the life of Teens.

[–] movibuf1962 14 years ago

Thank you so much for a well-summed up review of the series. I agree with most of your thoughts and posted many of the same impressions on another message topic.

I thought the series was an improvement over the film in that we got a chance to see the individual characters develop more fully over 4 years. (Over time viewers started making some rather catty remarks that these students were taking an awfully long time to graduate, but this is a fictional series after all. That never bothered me much, especially since they were always bringing in new students just like in real life.)

The series did one other thing that no (to my knowledge) other series has ever done: It fully integrated the musical numbers into the dialogue, stories, characters, etc- just like in the old MGM musicals of the 1940's. In most modern film, producers are afraid to show characters singing and dancing unless it's a PERFORMANCE FOR AN AUDIENCE- and the musical numbers are usually isolated in this respect. But on the TV "Fame," you could hear "Hi-Fidelity" being sung while testing out a synthesizer, or "I Was Only trying to help" performed as an apology, or "I Still Believe In Me" as a private, intimate reconciliation dance between student and teacher. (That last example, BTW, I consider the series' finest moment on television.)

I've always defended the show with the argument that you don't have to be R-rated and grim (as the film was) in order to be entertaining. Now unlike you, I did like the character of Julie because she *really* played the cello- unfortunately, the series kept trying to make her sing and dance too- and that clearly wasn't her forte, but what can you do? And I wanted the character of Montgomery to continue (I liked P.R. Paul- he was a somewhat shy theater student who seemed to represent the everyman), but the character and actor were gone after season 1. I'm not surprised that he was no longer portrayed gay- that was more than likely a network decision in the 80's, which was still quite a conservative time regarding subject matter.