The Kids From "Fame" Live in the U.K

Synopsis:

A special behind the scenes episode presented by George Burns on the Fame set. Showing Debbie Allen, Lee Curreri, Erica Gimpel, Carlo Imperato, Gene Anthony and Lori Singer preparing to travel to London to perform their first U.K. in 1982. Featuring footgage of the Live Cast at The Royal Albert Hall.

My Review:

This episode was never shown in the U.K. and has not been included on the Season 2 DVD so it's pretty hard to come by. In fact I didn't even know of it's existence until I got Internet access in 2000 and I never actually got to see this until late 2009 and then just like buses when I finally got to see a copy I was given 2 copies virtually at the same time. (So many thanks to Brian and Shannon for that). I was really excited to finally be able to see the episode.

Although much of this special takes footage from the live concert special which was shown by the BBC here in the U.K. and released on video, so lots of it I have seen just not put together like this.

Many of the songs here are edited down so they can fit so many in. Pretty much the end part of the episode is all concert footage and it is the beginning that really interests me where we get to see the kids when they were younger and get a brief biography. We also get to see little snippits of them behind the scenes both in preparation for the show while they were in America and also at the press conferecne and behind the scenes of the concert while in the U.K. These rare little bits were totally new to me and and thus felt like rare gems.

The show is hosted by George Burns and in the U.S was the highest rated episode. George is fine and I suppose they used George as he was well known and may draw more of an audience to the episode but personally I have no interest in him and I would have preferred that they used someone connected to the show to present. I think Albert Hague would have been a fantastic choice or maybe Valerie Landsburg as she didn't actually join the rest of the cast on tour it would be a good way to have included her.

They do make an attempt to include Valerie by attaching the live performance of "Desdemona" to the episode version. They also do this with "I Still Believe In Me" which reallys seems like a waste of air time to me. We've seen the episodes so either show the full live performance or show something completely different.

What I particularly like about the concert footgage is that there a little bits that weren't actually included in the full concert video. Like Debbie performing part of "Fame/When You're Young" from the opening of the concert and Carlo and Lee chatting on stage where Carlo shows us his best move.

Also there are a couple of blink and you'd miss them moments where it is clear that for this episode they haven't just repeated the video performances and have actually cut this episode with all the available live footage. For instance when the Kids performed at the Royal Albert Hall they actually did two performances and both were filmed. In the concert video Carlo's performance of Friday Night is the whole performance of one of those recordings. However here the edited performance they show of that song uses footage from both of the performances put together. You can tell by the shirt he was wearing as it is a slightly different shirt for one of the performance. I know it's no big deal but for me it was great to have something slightly different after all these years.

I won't go and list the performances song by song because I've already done that for the concert on video. Click the link at the bottom of the page to read that. It's just great to finally have seen something I never thought I would get a chance to see. I wish it had been included on the DVD releases so that we could have a perfect copy but this is a close second best.

Credits:

Original U.S. air date 1st March 1983

Never shown on U.K. TV.

Guest Stars:

George Burns

The Fame Dancers: Derrick Bryce, Michael Delorenzo, Cameron English, Leanne Garrish, Marguerite Pomerhn, Kimberley Layton, Eartha D Robinson, Bronwyn Thomas, Darryl Tribble & Stephanie E Williams.

The Waters, Oren, Luther, Maxine and Julia.

Download the episode in 8 Parts

LINKS

Videos from The Kids from Fame Live Special

NY Times Review

Read the review and watch videos of the full Kids From Fame U.K. Concert.