MovieChat Forums > Fame (1982) Discussion > Great memories of a mom

Great memories of a mom

posted 19 years ago by niohc
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I'm amazed and pleased to see the interest in "Fame." I thought I was the only one . . . .

When my kids were small, we used to watch "Fame" with them, and I liked it just as much or even more then they did. We would get them all ready for bed first, which somehow made it more special. They would be sitting by me, all pink and dewy and sweet-smelling, with the same heart-filling beauty of youth as the older kids on the screen. I had a mom thing about several of the characters, especially Lee Curreri, who played Bruni Martelli--wanted to have a son just like him. And I found Coco (Erica Gimpel) so compelling--when I see her today in minor TV parts, I always find myself blurting out, "Look, it's Coco!" I was very saddened to see just today on IMDB's site that Gene Anthony Ray, who was really for most people the center of the show, died in 1982--I had wondered for years why I never heard anything about him working.

I bought the DVD of the first series and have been watching it one show a night, as a treat to myself like the old days, but of course without my now- grown daughters. If you've never seen it, watch the second show, about a professional conflict between Debbie Allen's character and Coco. I will never forget the first time I saw it--the dance of reconciliation between them at the end is so beautiful and moving that even my oldest daughter, who was then only about six, was affected. I watched it again over the weekend--and I have to admit that it still made me tear up.

[–] movibuf1962 19 years ago

niohc-- Your words are cutting through me. This is amazing, even more so because you are a mom, and my memory of this episode is tied to my mom as well. I was 19 when this second show aired on NBC, and the first thing that I noticed about it was that it got a write-up in the WASHINGTON POST entertainment section and that paper's critic, Tom Shales, never liked anything-- but he gave a special spotlight to this episode, and mentioned that the ballet which ends the show introduces a "rare and beautiful kind of musical theatre that you may never see on television again," or words to that effect.

At any rate I watched alone, because I was a 19-year old male college student who was a bit self-concious about liking musical entertainment. For some reason no one else was in the living room at that time, so I took advantage of using the only color set in the house. About a minute into the dance sequence, my mother came downstairs from her bedroom, and asked me if I was watching FAME, and could she watch it with me, because she had to see that 'lovely dance sequence' in color. I didn't even know that she had been watching the show, but she and I were both blown away at that quiet, hushed, moment of bonding between student and teacher. It's my favorite episode of the series and one of my favorite memories of my now deceased mom, and your review helped me remember it. Thank you.