American Bandstand

American Bandstand
Also known as	Bandstand (1952–1957)
Format	Music, variety
Presented by	Bob Horn (1952–1956) Lee Stewart (co-host, 1952–1955) Tony Mammarella (1956) Dick Clark (1956–1989) David Hirsch (1989)
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	31
No. of episodes	883 (surviving) – >3,000 total
Production
Running time	90 minutes 60 minutes (originally two hours and thirty minutes on WFIL-TV/Philadelphia only)
Production company(s)	Dick Clark Productions (1964–1989) WFIL-TV (1952–1964)
Distributor	LBS Communications (1987–1988)
Broadcast
Original channel	WFIL-TV (1952–1957) ABC (1957–1987) Syndicated (1987–1988) USA Network (1989)
Picture format	Black-and-white (1952–1967) Color (1967–1989)
Audio format	Monaural (1952–1983) Stereo (1983–1989)
Original run	September 1952 (1952-09) – September 7, 1989 (1989-09-07)

American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer. The show featured teenagers dancing to Top 40 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. Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon holds the record for most appearances at 110.

The show's popularity helped Dick Clark become an American media mogul and inspired 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.

Show synopsis

It premiered locally in late September 1952 as Bandstand on Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV Channel 6 (now WPVI-TV), as a replacement for a weekday movie that had shown predominantly British movies. Hosted by Bob Horn as a television adjunct to his radio show of the same name on WFIL radio, Bandstand mainly featured short musical films produced by Snader Telescriptions and Official Films, with occasional studio guests. This incarnation was an early predecessor of sorts of the music video shows that became popular in the 1980s, featuring films that are themselves the ancestors of music videos.

Historic marker at WFIL studios

Horn, however, was disenchanted with the program, so he sought to have the show changed to a dance program, with teenagers dancing along on camera as the records played, based on an idea that came from a radio show on WPEN, The 950 Club, hosted by Joe Grady and Ed Hurst. This more-familiar version of Bandstand debuted 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 Horn, with Lee Stewart as co-host until 1955. Tony Mammarella was the original producer with Ed Yates as director. The short Snader and Official music films continued in the short term, mainly to fill gaps as they changed dancers during the show—a necessity, as the studio could not fit more than 200 teenagers.

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 drunken driving. He was also involved in a prostitution ring and brought up on morals charges [1] Horn was temporarily replaced by producer Tony Mammarella before the job went to Dick Clark permanently.

Dick Clark, host of American Bandstand

In late spring of 1957, the ABC television network asked their O&O's and affiliates for programming suggestions to fill their 3:30 p.m. (ET) time slot (WFIL had been pre-empting the ABC programming 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.

"Studio 'B'" measured 80'x42'x24', but appeared smaller due to the number of props, television cameras, and risers that were used for the show. It was briefly shot in color in 1958 when WFIL-TV began experimenting with the then-new technology. Due to a combination of factors that included the size of the studio, 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, it was only possible to have one RCA TK-41 where three RCA TK-10s had been used before. WFIL went back to the TK-10s two weeks later when ABC 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. During the segment, two audience members each ranked two records on a scale of 35 to 98, after which the two opinions were averaged by Clark, who then asked the audience members to justify their scores. The segment gave rise, perhaps apocryphally, to the phrase "It's got a good beat and you can dance to it." In one humorous segment broadcast for years on retrospective shows, comedians Cheech and Chong appeared as the record raters.

Featured artists typically performed their current hits by lip-synching to the released version of the song.

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 on 27 May 1978.^{[citation needed]} Throughout the late `50s and most of the `60s, Clark's on-camera sidekick was announcer Charlie O'Donnell, who later went on to announce Wheel of Fortune and other programs hosted or produced by Clark, such as The $100,000 Pyramid.

Changes

Early changes

When ABC picked up the game show Do You Trust Your Wife? from CBS in November 1957, they re-named the program as Who Do You Trust? and scheduled the program at 3:30PM ET—almost in the middle of Bandstand. Instead of shortening or moving Bandstand, ABC opted to just begin Bandstand at 3PM, cut away to Who Do You Trust? at 3:30PM, then rejoin Bandstand at 4PM. In Philadelphia, however, WFIL opted to tape-delay the game show for later broadcast in another time slot, and to continue on with Bandstand, though only for the local audience.

A half-hour evening version of American Bandstand aired on Monday nights from 7:30 p.m.–8:00 p.m. (ET), beginning on October 7, 1957. It preceded The Guy Mitchell Show. Both were ratings disasters. Dick Clark later stated that he knew the prime-time edition would fail because 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 Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show, which originated from the Little Theatre in Manhattan, beginning on February 15, 1958.

The program was broadcast live, weekday afternoons. In the fall of 1961, ABC truncated American Bandstand's airtime from 90 to 60 minutes (4:00–5:00pm ET), then even further as a daily half-hour (4:00–4:30pm ET) program in September 1962; 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. On September 7, 1963, the program was moved from its weekday slot and began airing weekly every Saturday afternoon, restored to an hour, until 1989.

Move from Philadelphia to Los Angeles

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 & Market location to their then-new facility located on City Line Avenue. Color broadcasts began for good on September 9, 1967. The typical production schedule consisted of videotaping 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 ABC Television Center.

For a brief time in 1973, Bandstand alternated its time slot with Soul Unlimited, a show featuring soul music that was hosted by Buster Jones. Soul Unlimited was not well-received among its target audience of African-Americans, ostensibly due to its being created by a white man (Clark), and because of its alleged usage of deliberately racial overtones despite this fact. Don Cornelius, the creator and host of Soul Train, entered into a dispute with Clark over this upstart program, and it was canceled within a few weeks. Set pieces from Soul Unlimited were utilized by Bandstand for its 1974–1977 set design.

Move from ABC to syndication and the USA Network

Toward the end of the 1986–87 season, ABC began discussing reducing Bandstand from a full hour to 30 minutes. Clark refused, and at the end of the season Bandstand moved to first-run syndication. Clark continued as host of the series, which primarily aired on NBC network affiliates (including KYW-TV, in the show's former Philadelphia base), from September 17, 1987 until April 1, 1989; LBS Communications (Lexington Broadcast Services) served as its distributor.

The following week, Bandstand moved to USA Network, with comedian David Hirsch taking over hosting duties. In another huge format-shift, it was shot outdoors at Universal Studios Hollywood. Clark remained executive producer. The show ended on October 7, 1989.

50th Anniversary

American Bandstand's 50th anniversary reunion.

In 2002 Dick Clark hosted a special 50th anniversary edition. Michael Jackson, a frequent Bandstand guest, performed Dangerous.

Revival plans

In 2004, Dick Clark, with the help of Ryan Seacrest, announced plans to revive the show in time for the 2005 season; although this did not occur (due in part to Clark suffering a severe stroke in late 2004), 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 employee Allen Shapiro serves as co-executive producer. While the American series has aired eight seasons, its format was also replicated worldwide, from Norway (Dansefeber) to Australia (So You Think You Can Dance Australia).

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 synthesized 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 arranger and performer of this version.

From 1977 to the end of its ABC run in 1987, the show opened and closed with Barry Manilow's rendition of the theme, "Bandstand Boogie," which he originally recorded for his 1975 album Tryin' to Get the Feeling. The song's new lyrics, which heavily referenced certain elements of the series, were co-written by Manilow with Bruce Sussman.

The Manilow version was replaced by an updated instrumental arrangement of "Bandstand Boogie" when Bandstand went into syndication, this theme arranged by David Russo.

From 1974 onward, Bandstand featured another instrumental at its mid-show break—Billy Preston's synth hit "Space Race."

References in popular culture

• The show was parodied in the single "Russian Bandstand", in 1959.
• 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, Ed (Eddie) Kelly and Bunny Gibson were named a number of times in the script and Eddie Kelly referred to in the last episode. Actor Paul D. Roberts made frequent appearances as Dick Clark, while Michael Burger played announcer Charlie O'Donnell.
• In the movie Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro, watches couples dancing on American Bandstand on television during one scene.
• 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 the 1987 movie Can't Buy Me Love, Patrick Dempsey's character Ronald watches the show American 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!"
• A season one episode of "That '70s Show," titled "The Pill" (aired February 21, 1999), references "American Bandstand." As the episode opens, Eric Forman (Topher Grace) is shown in his family's basement watching the show. While only the back of the TV set was shown, host Dick Clark is heard announcing that the guests for that particular show include mimes Shields and Yarnell, as well as Elton John and Kiki Dee. Dick then proceeds to introduce the Spotlight Dance, featuring the 1976 R&B hit "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" by Lou Rawls. As the music plays, Eric gets up from the couch and begins to attempt the dance moves he sees on the show.
• 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 June 2008 five Regulars, Joyce Shafer Roth, Diane Iaquinto Celetto, Marlyn Brown Kernan, Carmen Jimenez and Eddie Kelly, along with documentarian Charles W Amann III performed on Broadway in the revue The Radio Hits of 1958.
• In March 2011 the first website devoted exclusively to Philadelphia American Bandstand went live on the web, www.theprincesandprincessesofdance.com titled Bandstand's Best.
• A popular 1990s American rap group called The Fugees rapped about American Bandstand in their song "Fu-Gee-La". With Wyclef Jean rapping the verse, the reference is as follows. "I'm your candy handyman/ Me without you is like American without the Bandstand/ Cool fellow/ dance hard, stay mellow/ All that gun talk, man who'd a thought you'd die yellow..."
• In 1972, on the Cheech & Chong album Big Bambu, on their TV medley, included is a show called "Un-American Bandstand".
• In the book The Secret Life of Bees, when May commits suicide, everyone is watching American Bandstand when she picks up the phone, which then causes her to commit suicide.
• CKCO-TV in London, Ontario, Canada produced the Canadian adaptation of the series, Canadian Bandstand. It aired from 1958 through the 1960s and was hosted by Gary McLaren.

See also

• List of acts who appeared on American Bandstand
• Bandstand, Australian version loosely based on the American version
• The Buddy Deane Show
• Soul Train
• The Clay Cole Show
• Electric Circus

External links

• American Bandstand at the Internet Movie Database
• American Bandstand at TV.com
• American Bandstand at Fifties web
• American Bandstand clips at YouTube. Accessed October 2008
• The Museum of Broadcast Communications – American Bandstand
• Bandstand's Best