Metamorphosis

Synopsis

It's a new term at New York's High School for the Performing Arts and the kids are learning that they have to work twice as hard as the other school kids in the city. They not only have all the normal academic lessons but as they are also dreaming of being famous they are all working hard at becoming actors, singers, dancers etc..

Coco wants Bruno to set up a band with her so that they can get out there and perform but Bruno isn't really interested in performing he just wants to create his music his way, much to the frustration of Mr Shorofsky.

Julie Miller is auditioning at the school as she is new to New York having moved there with her mother after her parents split up. She finds it hard adjusting to a new way of life and a new school and particularly clashes with Coco, but Montgomery takes her under his wing and teaches her how to fit in and by the end of the episode she is a changed person.

My Review

It’s over 26 years since Fame first aired in the U.K. on the BBC and re-watching the episodes now on DVD the first thing I notice is the preview clips at the start of the episode. These were never broadcast over here we just went straight into the episode opening titles. I have to say that’s how I prefer it, as I find it annoying seeing random scenes which give away what is going to happen in the episode and even in this case one of the jokes!

The next thing I noticed and I'd never noticed this before was that the first show had a different Executive Producer for the pilot than any other episode in the shape of Gerald I. Isenberg.

I've read in the past that most pilot shows are usually filmed on location and in real places because it's too expensive to build permanent sets for a series that doesn't get the go ahead. So it is quite interesting to note that most of the sets/locations are different to the ones used for the main series. The Fame Pilot was actually filmed in December 1980 in a real school named Haaren High School located at 899, 10th Avenue New York City. Many of the sets like the cafeteria were then recreated on a smaller scale for the series. It's interesting that before Coco sings "Take Me" we see Bruno coming out of the Boys locker room which exits directly into the canteen but in the series they didn't have the toilets in the same room. Also the sliding blackboards used in Sherwood's English class are not seen again, in the rest of the series.

The auditorium is different and that actual set wasn't added until series 2. We also see real buildings clearly through the windows of a number of rooms in the Pilot. In the series we usually can’t see what’s outside unless a specific scene calls for it.

There are 3 scenes that appear to be on the normal Fame set which I assume may have been filmed later and inserted into the pilot for when it was broadcast; Sherwood & Coco in the office "sorry you didn't get to be a star". Sherwood's hair is much lighter in this scene than in the classroom scenes in the rest of the episodes. The other 2 scenes are in the main corridor, one where Julie accepts Montgomery's offer to teach her how to survive in New York and one at the lockers where Coco over hears Bruno talking to Montgomery about how Garcy treated Julie in English class. I wonder if these scenes were inserted because the episode was running under, time wise or whether they felt they were needed to expand the characters more.

The pilot is very much a mini version of the first part of the 1980 film, although when I originally watched it I'd not seen the film so didn't know how closely it follows the film. There are more songs or parts of songs used in this episode and so much of the music was taken from the film; "Red Light", "Miles from Here", "Fame" and the piano theme for Ralph and Monty in the dressing room. The only song not from the film is "Take Me". I've never been a fan of this song as it doesn't really feel that strong, particularly compared to the other songs. It's interesting that neither of Erica's songs in this episode ever actually made it on to any of the Kids from Fame albums, I assume for some kind of copyright problems.

We don't learn too much about the characters apart from Julie being new to New York and her parents getting a divorce and her feeling like a fish out of water. We see Doris' obsession with getting a guy right from the start and I love her comment to Julie that people in New York don't get crushes. Both the Characters of Coco and Leroy seem to be closer to the film versions and both seem more aggressive than the later versions of themselves. However it is nice that Coco's interest in star signs and planets is mentioned from the very start.

We don't really find out why Doris and Montgomery are at the school and what their major is. We see Montgomery playing the piano in one of the music classes so could have assumed that he was a music major. I don't remember ever seeing him play any keyboards in any other episodes. We see Doris in the dance class and I love the face Lydia pulls as Doris dances by. It makes no sense that Doris and Julie would be in the same dance class as Leroy and the other dance majors. I know they have dance as a form of exercise but it seems weird that they would be on the same level as the full time dancers.

As most of the students seem to be returning after the summer it seems strange that all the teachers would have to lecture the students, i.e. Sherwood telling them they have to work hard on their academics and it is not all a song and dance. Lydia telling everyone off for wearing jewellery and not wearing tights. Leroy has obviously avoided wearing tights for a whole year and somehow manages to never actually wear them for dance class for the next 4 years. Still the scene about the tights is funny.

At the start it's Lydia and Shorofsky auditioning students. There are a couple of other people in the auditorium but no Mr Crandall representing the drama department, presumably Michael Thoma wasn't cast until the series went into production.

I was particularly interested to note that Debbie Allen in the BBC reunion talks about Erica not really being a dancer. At the time I never realised this was the case as they hide it very well but when you re-watch the early episodes you see that she isn't doing the same kind of moves as some of the proper dancers. Usually she's doing the singing so it looks natural that she wouldn't dance as much. Debbie and Gene dancing together at the end during "Fame" is still very exciting to watch as their natural talent is so obvious to see. I also feel that Gene and Carol are really strong together in their scene when Leroy talks about racial discrimination.

Also it’s interesting that the character of Danny was not included in the pilot. It's not clear whether Garcy was just supposed to be a back up character or if originally he was supposed to be in the rest of the series but they changed their minds and replaced him with Danny.

In the dance class Eartha is referred to as Phenicia but this is changed to Eartha in the series.

Valerie has commented in the past that Jennifer Grey and Fran Drescher were also up for the role of Doris. So it was interesting that Fran was cast as a guest star in this episode although in the U.K. I had no idea who she is.

During the Fame song Garcy is wearing the same shirt that Jesse wears in season 6 for the song "Your Wife's been cheatin on us again" from the episode "All I Want For Christmas". Also Doris wears this shirt in the Season 3 episode "Consequences". It was obviously very popular with the wardrobe department!

Overall I like this episode particularly it's feel good ending. There is a lot of humour and there is a strong sense that the characters, stories and relationships will be interesting. It is a good start to whet our appetites for what will come.

Update:

Having now read Michael Hoey's " Inside Fame On Television" behind the scenes book it has been confirmed that. Additional scenes were filmed for this episode and the original pilot had to be re-edited as the network didn't feel that the characters were strong enough. So a storyline featuring Fran Drescher was deleted and the new scenes were filmed and added to give us this version of the pilot.

Fame 30^th Anniversary Review:

Having reviewed “Metamorphosis” a number of times in the past I decided to come at things from a slightly different angle.

I recently bought the first season DVD for a friend, who eventually watched all the episodes, but commented that he found it a little dated!

I was surprised to hear that because personally I think “Fame” has aged very well. There are other older shows that I find dated but "Fame" has never been one of them. I love the 80s period so maybe I’m just biased. So that got me thinking what the show would be like if it was being made now and how different it would be.

Firstly, I did think the cast would probably be thinner and far more glamorous. No offence to any of the cast I just think that's what TV companies are looking for. Also I’m suspecting that characters like Shorofsky and Mrs Berg would actually appear younger as the producers would no doubt feel that the audience wouldn't relate to older people!

Then of course the show would actually be shorter by 5 to 7 minutes so we could fit in far more adverts! This means we'd have no opening titles to get us in the mood for the show and no Lydia's "You Want Fame" Speech each week! So far I'm not liking a modern version, give me so called dated, every time!

The main difference I think would be, everyone would be obsessed with technology and mobile (Cell) phones would be in abundance. I can just imagine the scene in Sherwood’s English Class with student’s phones constantly going off. “I said Silence!”

I’m sure there would be some fun to be had with Shorofsky continually protesting about how much he hates the damn phones! Also Mrs Berg struggling to send a text or get to grips with a phone could be hilarious!

At least technology would make things easier for Bruno and his family, with no more having to lug large synthesizers around as everything would be much smaller and he’d probably have everything on a lap top!

The Internet would no doubt be a major part of the drama with Coco uploading her performances to You Tube to broadcast to her growing fan club! I can imagine her feeling as though she was actually achieving her dreams the more views her videos actually got. That is until one of the teachers gave her a good talking to and pointing out that she wasn’t actually making a living out of her online videos regardless of how many hits she got!

Students would probably be using Facebook not only as a popularity contest but also to try and hook up with agents, writers, producers, basically anyone in the Business who could help them further their own careers.

It wouldn’t just be on the show that technology would come into play. No doubt in real life, we’d have an official website, Facebook and Youtube channel to broadcast every bit of promotion for the show. Then we’d have musical downloads galore, just like “Glee” does. I wouldn’t be surprised if the musical numbers increased, when some greedy executive realised there was money to be made from the downloads.

Although, I’m being cynical about that at least as fans we would have the music available properly and not have someone like me rip the audio from the episodes because there are still so many unreleased songs from the series.

We’d also have no problems getting our precious show out on DVD as we would see each season released quickly as most current TV shows are now.

One character maybe more would be gay, opening up a load of different storylines that the original never covered. I’m guessing Montgomery would fill this role but I would actually quite like to see a gay teacher too, so was thinking along the lines of Reardon.

I think Doris would be more obsessed with her body image and not just her weight but possibly wanting to have plastic surgery to change the things she doesn’t like about herself.

Whatever the difference between then and now some things would have to stay the same. We’d still want the same great character, energy, fun, determination, hard work and most of all the wonderful inspiration that has kept us interested for the last 30 years!

From watching again the only thing I picked up on that I'd never realised before was the dancers don't actually get a credit on the first season. Initially I assumed it was just on the Pilot episode but have gone back and checked other episodes and they aren't listed in any of the first season.

I know Debbie had to fight hard for the dancers to get a credit and had always thought she'd won that battle before the series aired. Now it looks like it was between the first 2 seasons as the first credit comes with the opening of season 2.

Episode Pictures

CREDITS

Production Number 2790/2797

Filming took place in New York in December 1980.

Written by Christopher Gore

Directed by Robert Kelljan

Executive Producer Gerald I Isenberg

Original U.S. air date 07th January 1982

Original U.K. air date 17th June 1982

Full Production Credits

Guest Stars

Judy Farrell as Charlotte Miller