What happened to TV dance shows?

[pygmalion]

This morning, I was flipping channels and came across Soul Train, a syndicated TV dance show that's been around since, I think, the late sixties -- early seventies at the latest.

I watched for a few minutes and came to the sad conclusion that the show was, um, almost totally irrelevant to me as a partner dancer, or even as a dancer at all. When I was little, we'd sit around , watch Soul Train, and learn all the latest styles and dance moves. Not so today. I saw lots of self-centered people, dancing around for the camera, rather than with their partners. Oops. Sorry about the soap box. :oops: :lol:

Anyway, so here's the question. Do you have fond memories of a favorite dance show? What happened to it? There used to be tons of shows -- in the fifties through eighties or so in the US that featured dancing just for the sake of dancing. So where are they now? And why have they gone? Should somebody bring them back? Why? How?

[Laura]

I used to love "Dance Fever"!!!

The amusing thing is, when I moved to San Francisco and started going to the Metronome Ballroom for lessons, I found out that the owner at the time had been on "Dance Fever." Too cool.

Last year "Star Search" had dance teams, that was quite enjoyable.

[SDsalsaguy]

She was? I don't think I knew that. How fun!

[Laura]

There used to be a picture of her taped to the drinks refridgerator, she was in a cheerleader outfit (with big pig tails) all dressed up for a number she did on the show. I don't know what the time period was, but it was very "Oh! Mickey!" I'm not sure she likes to talk about it, the one time I asked her she laughed and laughed and said "oh, that was so long ago and we weren't very good."

[Phil Owl]

Dance Fever (the original) was what eventualy got me to learn to dance! :D

The show was hard-core disco at first then as the 80's wore on, all styles were welcomed. There were lots of cool routines, lots of GREAT Hustle dancing, swing, even Tango. One couple even did this comedy ballroom-foxtrot that was hilarious (lots of flying shoes and "mishaps"), and another couple that did this Arabic thing with scimitars (long, wide curved swords).

They just don't make 'em like that anymore :cry:

[dragon3085]

I used to love "Dance Fever"!!!

The amusing thing is, when I moved to San Francisco and started going to the Metronome Ballroom for lessons, I found out that the owner at the time had been on "Dance Fever." Too cool.

Last year "Star Search" had dance teams, that was quite enjoyable.

Actually Star search added the junior dancer catagory the year before last and was supposed to be the most popular catagory. I know for a while abcfamily had another dance contest light show on, It was ok, but at least the parts I saw, they didn't really give the dancers enough time (I think they only had 30-45 initially) to develope anything.

[TripJazzRecords]

Looking past the well-known, syndicated dance shows like "Soul Train," "Dance Fever," and "American Bandstand" (ugh, it is coming back, with an ugly new "American Idol" twist, I will tell you about at the end of my comments here), there were more important local dance shows on the airwaves in the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's, 3 of them I recall were:
1) "The Moon Man Space Connection"; 2) "Dance Time"; and 3) "Dance To The Music":

"The Moon Man Space Connection" (1975? through 1989?), originating in D.C.? or Philly? was running simultaneously during the "Soul Train" years.
The setting was an open, bare studio and hoisted above the floor in a makeshift open flying saucer/spacecraft was the big fat glorious Black host, simply known as the Moon Man; he was apparently so large that he never left his chair in his saucer/craft; his co-host/assistant was a slender Black female called Miss Venus? or Miss Saturn? who wore a female space suit (i.e. the female space suit was all the rage in the middle 70s: silver boots, silver hot pants, silver top, long silver cape, topped with a silver headpiece with 2 antennas which covered the hair; those wanting to see what this looked like should search for photos on funk artist Betty Davis or R & B/pop group LaBelle, which adorned the cover of Rolling Stone in full spacesuit garb).

The studio floor housed all the dancers, which did regular freestyle couples dancing to national/regional/local records announced by the Moon Man but, much more effective than "Soul Train" dancers, the MMSC dancers did 2 synchronized dance routines, the best being the "Moon Man Walk," the end of each routine had the dancers turn to the left and start the routine again.

The Moon Man would send Miss Venus/Miss Saturn down to earth (i.e. going down to the studio floor) to see what the earthlings were up to; this
provided for interviews with the various dancers before the next record started.

Even more interesting were the musical guests: all of them were local or regional, never any national artists with hits on the top 40 or soul charts; these were artists that would never break out nationally, but go their 3 minutes of fame by lip-synching their current single.

In addition to being carried on the east coast, the MMSC was also carried on Armed Forces Network in then West Germany in 1975? through 1978?
This was secured cheaply, as the rights to get the more popular "Soul Train" were too costly for AFN.

In 1989-90 there was an ill-fated satellite network called National College Television (NCTV), which billed itself was programming by and for college students, carrying various shows produced throughout several national colleges and universities; MMSC was carried on NCTV although the audio was horrible. However, due to the fact that NCTV could not pay the satellite broadcast fee, the network was removed, and with it went MMSC.
Does anyone know if this show is still on the air in some local or regional network?

"Dance Time" (1965? through 1967?) was a local San Diego television show carried on then KFMB-TV, the local CBS affiliate; DT had an integrated audience dancing on the studio floor. The show was hosted by a member of the television staff.

One of the shows segments was to let a dancer lip-synch a record if they knew the lyrics; sometimes the dancer chosen would get into the song, but once, I remember, a guy just stood there like a stone statue with his hands in his pockets, not moving an inch while he lip-synched the record to utter TV viewing boredom.

The musical guests unfortunately were all past their hit making days, including Mary Wells, who "performed" her last #1 hit "My Guy" (which then was already 2-3 years old); one special appearance though, coinciding with their record actually being current and on the national charts was by the local group The Cascades, performing "Rhythm of The Rain" (Valiant/Warner Brothers Records). This was a case of hometown boys making it to the big time. However, they became a 1-hit wonder group.

When kids from Lincoln High School, in the Valencia Park/Logan Heights ghetto area would get on, they were a sight to behold on DT, they would literally tear the wax off the studio floor when they danced all the latest steps. Lincoln High twins Loyce & Joyce Young would be on, and the camera once just locked in on Joyce and it would not move; Joyce knew this and came up with every dance she knew, making her a local star.

"Dance To The Music" (1975 to ?) was a black-and-white local TV affair in San Antonio; this was in a very small studio room where the dancers were literally on top of each other. Most important about this show was that there were absolutely no adults present on this show, only the high school/junior high school dancers; the Black teen host was also one of the dancers, with a big afro, who had to remember to stop dancing at the end of the song, run up on the platform to announce the next song, and jump back down to his dancing partner when the record started. There were no guests and the production value was too cheap for words---a black and white TV show in the era of color television?---but it was raw, and fun too watch.

DTTM was taken from the theme song of the same name, performed by Sly & The Family Stone.

I would absolutely love to hear any more recollections about other local dance shows that anyone would like to share.

TripJazzRecords :lol:

P.S. I have just read on the www.drudgereport.com that "American Bandstand" is coming back with an ugly new "American Idol" twist:
Dick Clark Productions in conjunction with new partners will now present the show both as an online show and regular TV show; viewers will be able to vote on the dancers; musical guests will all perform live and not be lip-synching; the show will also feature lifestyle segements in order to reach the younger target demos with disposable income (14-to-25). This new AB concept sickens me, I hate this AI spin included on the show along with the lifestyles segment, to show you what is reportedly hot and what is not, which will be followed by tons of adverstising. You get the idea, the new AB will have nothing to do with dancing or even the music, it's gonna be all about the money that can be generated from adverstising.
Dick Clark, this is gonna be a big mistake, I'd rather have you restart the Cameo Records/Parkway Records labels than to do this future piece of
AB garbage!---TripJazzRecords

[pygmalion]

Wow TripJazzRecords!

What a cool bit of music/dance history! 8) :D Welcome to the forums. I think the Moon Man Space Connection must have been based in DC. I lived in Philly at the time, and there were a couple locally produced dance shows in that time period.

Jerry Blavat, a radio personality in every sense of the word, had a couple dance shows during that period, under different names. And there was an after school dance show called "Dancin on Air" produced by a local TV station. I think that one was about 1979 to 1983. Lots of fun!

Welcome to the forums, btw. :D

[Larinda McRaven]

TripJazzRecords!,
thanks for a fabulous post :shock: :D

[youngsta]

They're bringing American Bandstand back in the next year.

[pygmalion]

It better be good. I have some really fond memories of the old show.

And will Dick Clark be the host? Does anybody know?

[Laura]

I heard on CNN today that Dick Clark would not be hosting.

[youngsta]

No he won't be hosting, but he is producing it.

[pygmalion]

Wen is he going to give up the old American Bandstand episodes on DVD? Now that's a question. :twisted: :roll:

[whodaman]

Hey, I was acutally ON that show in 1978. We had a seriously cool time on that show, the host was a local DJ for KFMB-FM, then styling themselves as B-100. What year were the people you referred to on the show.

I was on "Disco 7", also in San Diego. It was the 70's remake of Dance Time, I guess. I was attending Lincoln High in 1978. It was a serioulsy cool time.