All Talking, All Singing, All Dancing

Synopsis

With Jesse as director the school puts on a lavish 1930s Musical in order to win a competition but as costs spiral out of control the Board of Education refuses to fund the show. At the last moment Lou Mackie steps in and puts up the money but leading lady Nicole loses her voice a few hours before show time. Can Jillian fill her shoes?

Meanwhile Reggie and Ian bond over a love song they hope will make it into the show but first they have to get past Miltie.

My Review

So this episode has been described by some cast and crew as the single best episode in the entire Fame anthology! Well that's a lot to live up to. Do you agree? I know I certainly don't! It definitely was one of the only episodes of the final 2 years to be nominated and win an Emmy award but that was for Outstanding Costuming - in a Series so I don't think that means it's the best episode ever.

Maybe I just didn't care so much about season 6 and some of the new cast but this episode does rather leave me cold. It's a homage or rather a rip off "42nd Street" I've never seen the original so that fact means very little to me. Anyway it means it's supposed to look thirties and everyone seems to be a little over the top in their performances. As we get a second set of titles, in black and white telling us who each of the lead cast are, I can't quite tell if they are supposed to be themselves putting on this show or different versions of themselves in some alternate reality! Chris and Leroy are now writers of a spectacular show that has everyone fired up. I know Leroy has grown up a lot in the last 2 years but he could barely read before so I'm not sure he's now matured enough to write a whole fantastic screen play.

Jesse seems to be the most over top and Reggie talks with an annoying accent, while Danny is made out to be a little stupid and selfish, questioning the script all the time and even rewriting it to give him more.

Then the school needs the funding from the Board of Education. It brings up an interesting question as to where the school normally gets the funding for it's shows from? Say something like "The Monster That devoured Las Vegas" which even later in this season Mrs Berg claims was the most ambitious, inventive show they ever did, where did the money come from for that? The board has been depicted over the years as never giving anything to the school and when things do arrive they have been on order for years. Anyway it's a question that will never be answered and here as expected the board, even with the prospect of the school winning $20,000.00 from the Kimble foundation, chooses not to fund this show. Who are the school up against in this competition? Surely as the only School of the Arts they haver an unfair advantage over other schools in new York if it's a prize for best show? But that's by the by.

So back to the story Lou Mackie steps in to fund the show! What? is this the same cheap Lou that refuses to pay the kids to perform at his Lounge? So yet again I feel we're in an alternate universe but then later in this season in "Cabbages and Kings" Jesse refers to Shining Lights and how he won the trophy for directing it and how it did win the $20,000.00 prize so he certainly remembers it happening.

Anyway Lou says when he was a kid there was nothing like the school of the arts and it's time to give something back! What? In season three's "Lisa's Song" they refer to the Gypsy Queen play as being in 1918 and it's now 1986. Also in Season 4's "The Return of Dr Scorpio" they refer to the Schools 50th Anniversary. Whichever one you believe the school has been around for at least 52 years and 68 years if you believe Lisa's Song so just how old is Lou supposed to be if the school wasn't there when he was a kid?

Then there's Lydia's involvement surely with so much riding on tis show she would have already been involved with the dance numbers and supporting Jesse as the director but here we see Paul having to buy her lunch so he can ask her for a favour of coaching the tap number. I realise Debbie Allen was still performing in "Sweet Charity" at this point and we can only see her in brief out door scenes but the story they give her doesn't really ring true for me.

I'm not really keen on the music in this episode, the style of it isn't quite my thing. The best is Nia singing "Someone To Watch over Me", which is probably my favourite part of the episode along with the Leroy and Mrs Berg scene where he cons his way out of doing some paper work. We then get to hear Elisa sing for the first time and I have to say that I'm not particularly keen on her voice.

The Ian and Reggie duet is pleasant enough I suppose but it really doesn't do very much for me.

Episode Pictures