American Bandstand

infobox television
show_name = American Bandstand
show_name_2 = Bandstand (1952-1957)


caption = American Bandstand logo
format = Music
runtime = 90 Minutes / 60 Minutes (originally two hours and thirty minutes on WFIL-TV/Philadelphia only)
creator =
starring = Bob Horn (1952-1956)
Tony Mammarella (1956-1957)
Dick Clark (1957–1989)
David Hirsch (1989)
country = USA
network = WFIL-TV (1952-1957)
ABC (1957–1987)
Syndication (1987–1989)
USA Network (1989)
first_aired = August 5, 1957
last_aired = October 7, 1989
num_episodes = 883 (surviving)
imdb_id =
tv_com_id= |

"American Bandstand" was 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.

how 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 silas 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".

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 1963 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 September1963 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 [http://www.pharis-video.com/p2853.htm] 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).

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.

References in popular culture

*The show was featured prominently in the 2002–2005 NBC-TV drama series" American Dreams", which like "Bandstand" was executive produced by Dick Clark. In a 2005 episode of "American Dreams", Eddie Kelly and Bunny Gibson—one of the most famous couples to appear on American Bandstand in the Philadelphia years—were the only two to make cameo appearances on the acclaimed TV series. Along with that, Eddie Kelly and Bunny Gibson were named a number of times in the script and Eddie Kelly referred to in the last episode.

* In the movie Grease, Rydell High School plays host for a dance contest on a televised show similar to American Bandstand, called National Bandstand.
* In 1988, the John Waters film Hairspray's The Corny Collins Show is a mix between this and Baltimore's Buddy Deane Show.
*In the 1989 film Dead Poets Society, English teacher John Keating, played by Robin Williams, belittles the school's poetry textbook's introduction to poetry. The introduction describes a method of giving poems numerical scores of "perfection." He derides this by saying "we're not laying pipe, we're talking about poetry. How can you describe poetry like American Bandstand? "I like Byron, I give him a 42 but I can't dance to it!"
* In 2001, IGT acquired the rights from Dick Clark Productions and created and developed a slot machine based on the long running music series.
* In 2004, the band Low released the compilation album "A Lifetime of Temporary Relief: 10 Years of B-Sides and Rarities", featuring the track "Peanut Butter Toast And American Bandstand" which mentions the show.
* In 2005, rapper Bow Wow came out with the featured single Fresh Azimiz from the album Wanted. The song, produced by Jermaine Dupri mentioned the popularity of American Bandstand in the line, "I'm goin' down in history like American Bandstand."
* In 2008, Bandstand was brought to Broadway. June 30, 2008 for the first time in history the American Bandstand Regulars with the collaboration of Charles Amann, a recognized authority and historian of the period and the Philadelphia Years of American Bandstand and the author of a forthcoming book titled The Princes and Princesses of Dance, were brought to Broadway to perform. The Regulars chosen by Mr. Amann were Diane Iaquinto Celotto, Carmen Jimenez, Eddie Kelly, Marlyn Brown Kernan, and Joyce Shafer Roth. The revue was called The Radio Hits of 1958. Among the Broadway guest stars of today was Constantine Maroulis of American Idol fame.

See also

* List of acts who appeared on American Bandstand
* Buddy Deane Show
* Soul Train
* The Clay Cole Show

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0049993|title=American Bandstand
*tv.com show|id=2034|title=American Bandstand
* [http://www.fiftiesweb.com/bandstnd.htm American Bandstand Site]
* [http://www.on-this-day.com/cgi-bin/otd/dickclarkotd/dickclarkotd.pl Daily American Bandstand History]