You are doing soooo well, my friend! Our episode is one of your lowest views! Lol! I miss Gene. He was such a fun guy to hang with!

As someone who was born in the 70s and raised in the 80’s I cannot express the strangle hold that Fame and leg warmers had on us.

With the recent sad passing of Irene Cara, it's nice to see that her legacy, and the legacy she was part of, lives on.

I'd love to see a video on the Amelie musical. It's baffling that a musical based on a highly acclaimed movie, and starring Philippa Soo fresh off her run in Hamilton at the peak of her popularity would run for only 50 odd performances.

Fame changed my life...i grew up in a very conservative French Canadian city and this movie showed me that there were other freaks like me out there...i just had to move and find them.

Being in Fame (the musical) was one of the most fun and physically challenging experiences of my life. But I am ashamed to admit I've never seen the original movie. Learning its history is really cool.

I attended a magnet performing arts high school in Portland, Oregon, moved to New York City where I lived for 30 years and enjoyed an 18 year professional dance career because of this movie (and subsequent TV show). I don't know what kind of life I would have had without it. It pretty much consumed my life for much of the 1980's. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. One of my dreams was to dance on top of taxi cabs down 46th street to the song Fame. Haven't done it yet, but I will do it one day!

I was 11 when this film was released, and my friends and I were OBSESSED! I'm just hoping none of the polaroids of us in our leg warmers are still floating around. ☺️ Eventually I ended up at NYU as a theater major, and often went to the 8th Street Playhouse to see "Rocky Horror". Ah, memories! Great video, as always!

As a graduate of the Orange County High School of the Arts, I can honesty say you nailed it about auditioning for the chance to go to school at a place where it was OK to be weird and different and feel like you belong. Thank you for mentioning that.

Can't wait for the WWW episode on Carrie!

First; by the way I love your videos man. How about a suggestion: What Went Wrong with The Little Mermaid (Broadway version)

I love this movie, and "I Sing The Body Electric" is a must-watch several times a year.

HELL YES. I am so ready for this. I'm currently going to school for theater and am kinda uneducated when it comes to shows, so I've been bingeing your videos nonstop. Keep being dope as hell.

Does anyone else get excited when we see someone from a former video come up? I literally gasped when I saw Peter Allen in this video.

R.I.P Gene, and Irene Cara. I stumbled upon this wonderful doc. Thank you so much for filling me in on the little details I could never find before. I love the dark realism of Fame. It's one of my favourite films.

I still have the original soundtrack on vinyl from thirty years ago.

RIP Irene and Gene Anthony 😢🙏

Holy crap! I kinda wish I had watched these videos in order when you first uploaded them! I didn't realize you were building up to Carrie the Musical the entire time! That's pretty genius!

Excellent video. Geoffrey Kirkland, the production designer of FAME, is a good friend of mine. He was Alan Parker’s designer for many films - including Bugsy Malone. I’ve heard many of these stories from the art department’s point of view. I’m glad you got the logo story in, most people don’t get it right, and Geoffrey is 100% a baseball nut. His favorite team: the A’s. One thing I’d like to say if I may - the union (IATSE) is painted in an unfavorable light. It’s pretty standard for ANY union local to step in if a company sets up shop with primarily distant hires. Not so much for directors, but if your assistant director, production designer, and cinematographer - and THEIR support staff (like the camera operator and art director) are all distant hires… you can bet the union is gonna step in and request “shadows” (a local hire to match the position). It’s not a bad thing - it actually makes a lot of sense… having said that often in film negotiations with the union can be seen as adversarial by production instead of seeing the local hall as a valuable resource. Really really great video!! Thank you so much for making this super deep dive video!!!

Thanks for this. Fame is one of my all time favorite movies. I was an 11 year old waiting to the Fall for my 12 birthday. I begged my mother to let me go to this movie as it would be the first rated R film for me. I saw something in the movie that made me want more. In 83 I got in to my city's school of the arts. Debbie Allen had also been a teacher at the school when it first open in the 70's when one of my teacher was in school.

I can't tell you how much FAME means to me. It came out just as I was graduating high school in 1980, and encompassed everything I wanted -- to be on stage, in environments with others like me, creating art. If ever a movie defined my life, it's this one. I still play "I Sing the Body Electric" before every opening night. ❤

A episode on in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:The Musical" would be interesting

I like how this series ties everything together in a way

I remember hearing the songs of fame on 80’s on 8, and I also remember singing I sing the body electric for a concert in middle school (I had no idea it was from a movie though), so my connection to fame has been around for longer than I imagined. To think that this film has such staying power...I heard once from an Internet forum that this person went to one of the first screenings for fame way back in 1980, and after the film had ended, there was a long pause before there was a thunderous five minute (no joke) standing ovation for the movie. I also think that fame helped pave the way for movie musicals like camp rock, burlesque, high school musical, and the tv show glee. I think that its influence goes far beyond the decade that it was in. Thanks for the video by the way!

Great job! I really enjoy your videos! I would love to see a video about Xanadu. How the movie failed, the stage adaptation succeeded and the awesome music of Electric Light Orchestra!

Parker also directed The Commitments, basically bottling the spirit of 80s Dublin the same way Fame had captured the vibe of 70s youth culture in New York.

11:18 Erica Gimpel (Coco in the series). Proof that she really was a student at PA. She was probably still a young teenager then.

The film was a masterpiece and defined the 80's.

This Video was so good 😻 It’s nice to have the backstory to the song, the movie, the musical :) Go on like this 💕

This was an emotional journey. I was a Fame-child, born mid 1970's, and raised on the tv-series. A misfit, I longed for that life, for being at that school. And I got there - the Amsterdam version. And now at 48, I'm a fairly successful opera director. Ups, downs, successes and rejections. And watching this docu actually made med cry. I realised the impact Fame have had on my early life and the fact that NOT ONE SINGLE WOMAN is part of the creative team, not one creative contributor is a woman - only this guy knew that guy, who knew this guy... My childhood-dreams are is concieved, created and brought to me by a boys club. My whole professional life in a f... nut shell... It really took me a long time to realise what a difference a penis makes in this business.

Class of 1982 here, Finney High School, Detroit MI - Still proudly wearing my legwarmers!

Ok so.... 1: What a small world I actually know someone who auditioned for the movie as Doris AND got a callback! Love u Ceila! 2: The story of it getting made is so interesting and yeah it made sense for that era although I have to completely crack up over the incense flare up. 3: Luther Vandross be coming in CLUTCH (and worked with Bowie on the Young Americans album so that shit was fate). 4. This season was so well planned that the fact that if the next episode comes out when I THINK it will come out next month. Brandon you are a twisted genius and I CANT wait! Also so glad that all three school buildings in NYC still exist. One ironically enough is a theater and another is now a college for Criminal Justice. What a great trip!

As a drama LaGuardia high school student ( the fame school) I can confirm that nobody knows it by the name LaGuardia, it is “the fame school”. Plus a lot of people refer to it now as the school Timothee chalamet went to.

This is one of my favorite films!! I was so excited to see this notification!

Thank you so much for bringing this movie flooding back into my memory! this came out the summer I turned 11 and it was one of the first R rated movies I got to see since my Dad actually worked as an English teacher at PA in the 1970s and was very enthusiastic for me to see the film and spent a lot of time pointing out kids he knew that were extras on screen....I probably haven’t thought of this movie in thirty years, but it brings back some really nice memories!

Thank you so much for this!! I just discovered your channel and am now subscribed. I saw Fame in the theater when it was released, and as a 14-year-old musical theater geek was immediately obsessed with it. Wore out the record on Mom’s turntable-I am now thinking about downloading the album so I can revisit the songs. As soon as you mentioned Whitman, I immediately started singing the song to myself. I also loved the tv show, although I think I only regularly watched the first season or two. To this day, every time I see Paul McCrane on my screen, I first think of his baby face as Montgomery. It’s weird seeing him in Shawshank or ER now!

I really love Fame, is one of my favorite movies of all time and the songs still holding strong on their quality. I really liked to hear about the history behind it, thank you.

Man, I’ve seen Fame years ago, yet I never thought it was as culturally impactful as this. The last time I heard of it in hindsight was when I saw the trailer for that terrible remake of it a decade ago (Spoiler Alert: the remake was watered down and sanitized to the point that it missed the point of the original movie in every way imaginable). P.S. I loved your video and can’t wait for the Carrie one; also, you pronounced my last name correctly at the end, which not many do :)

another amazing video!! i still cant understand how come your videos dont have more views, they are so good and well done :( like really, keep up the good work your videos are srsly really good!!!!

“Now is when you start paying, In SWEAT!” One of the moments I realized I was head over heels in love with my significant other is when I jokingly used that line and he just lost it, doubled over laughing, trying to catch his breath between wheezing out, “Omg, how do you even KNOW that? No one knows that!” And I knew what he meant, because no one, not my best friends, not the theatre geeks I grew up with, or people I’d performed in shows with knew that deep cut from the tv show of Fame that aired long before I was in the double digits. In the grand scheme of things it was such a small moment, but it didn’t feel small. It felt like the payoff of a lifetime, that realization of how lucky I was to find that other person who really got me. I’m not gonna lie, we did then breakout into an unapologetically bad 80’s dance montage singing ‘Fame’, and I’ve never had so much fun. 😂 “Friendship is born in the moment one person turns to another and says, ‘Oh, you too? I thought I was the only one.’”

When I was getting ready to begin freshman year at a nyc hs for performing arts, this and the tv show truly became special to me and I’d watch them all the time throughout those 4 years. Thanks for bringing a lil warm feeling again with this lovely video

Such an amazing episode! 🎶❤️🎶 I watched "Fame" years ago and it never made it to my favourite musicals, with me only listening to some songs from it occasionally. Before watching your video, I didn't even remember the songs, but the moment you said "I sing the body electric", I've got chills all over. This has been such an interesting listen, thank you for all the time and research you put into it. Now I'm definitely gonna rewatch the movie, knowing and understanding the reach history behind it.

Also could you maybe cover tuck everlasting I love that show but it only lasted 3 weeks on Broadway 😭

I tried watching Fame when I was 13 after my mom rented it from Blockbuster, but I couldn't get into it. Knowing everything that went into making it, I think I need to give it another shot.

I'm 49, and Fame is the first movie/tv show that introduced me to the world of the perforning arts. Since then, i was always intrigued by live performances. People creating and displaying their art form, in real time, in front of an audience. I attended a perforning arts college as a result. I'm now a professional clarinet and sax musician and I'm also experienced in dance as well. I'm also a former Chippendales dancer. Great presentation! Thank you! ❤

Such a great video. I'm old enough that I remember when this movie was released, and though I didn't see it in the theatre, I absolutely watched the TV show.

Saw Fame opening day at the Zeigfeld, and saw all of the actors in the film...went every weekend for a month to see it...

wauw! I had no idea of this 'come to be' story! this is great!! I remember loving this film as a kid and living it as a teenager going to a performing arts school myself :D

I saw fame in the movies as a teen. Lately, I keep listening to the soundtrack on KZfaq. Good timing. I enjoyed this.

I have a friend who was an extra on Fame. I remember her stories of Irene Cara chain smoking on breaks. They showed my friend briefly, too! I was so thrilled!

listening to the nightmare of trying to film this, one can easily understand why we need "right to work" states, and independent film production. Still, it's amazing looking back to think of the level of filmmaking and storytelling one used to be able to get on a modest budget back in the day. Fame would still only be budgeted at 30 million in todays dollars, which is practical nothing in the blockbuster driven Hollywood landscape of today.

Good docu on this classic movie with the emphasis on the behind the camera stories. Curious thing, while a good amount time is spent on the music there is absolutely no mention of "Out Here On My Own'. Maybe because the lyrics were not penned by Dean Pitchford (who gets a lot of space here) but by the composer's sister Lesley Gore. And even though the song was a hit and was also up for the Best Song Oscar the docu barely mentions there was a nomination for another FAME song, the first time in Academy history that 2 songs from the same film were up. And Irene Cara really showed off her singing chops on the number. And years later in an interview director Alan Parker was mistakenly saying that it was the great song "Out Here On My Own" that won the Oscar.

Really nice! If you're still thinking about things to cover in the world of musicals, I was reminded by a clip in this about the weird year 1975, in which two of the greatest musicals of modern times - A Chorus Line and Chicago - premiered. I think it would be interesting to hear about how all that played out, as I really don't know much of the history, other than that A Chorus Line received nine Tonys and Chicago was nominated for 11 and got 0. Craziest Tonys ever.

Thank you,this was excellent;you did a great job.

Didn’t know Luther was involved! Can’t imagine the title song without the “remember” chant he added … and yes, Irene. I loved her in The Electric Company, but she was also the lead in *Aaron Loves Angela* and *Sparkle*. She hadn’t broken through to the mainstream before *Fame*, but she was already on the radar among Black/urban moviegoers 🙌🏾🙌🏿🙌🏽

Love this, a lot, especially the ending. How you have it tie in with all the other production you talked about.

Just a couple things for posterity... Michael Gore was not a "contributor" to Lesley Gore's "Its My Party". Also, not mentioned, Lesley Gore was in fact a contributor to the soundtrack of Fame having co-written "Out Here on My Own" nominated for Best Original Song. Also, the very well-known singer working on backup vocals is Luther Vandross not Vancross.

Oh my gosh I havent thought about fame in years! Thank you for reminding me of this steller musical. I last though about it when I was about 11.

Superb documentary, wow. Thanks. Still my favorite musical of all time. R.I.P. Alan Parker & Irene Cara.

Here's something you might not have known: Albert Hague was the composer for the 1966 animated television special adaptation of How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Chuck Jones.

seriously one of my favorite channels

I discovered the TV show in my youth. As Alan Parker (Midnight Express, Birdy, Angle Heart, Mississipi Burning) became one of my favorite director I dioscovered that the TV show came from a movie he made. And then I saw how the TV Show was wattered down compared to the movie.

another great, video I always look forward them. I can tell you put a LOT work in researching them.

Hey guys just so you know he doesn't want to be associated with the "What Went Wrong" title anymore so if you're gonna suggest a musical to cover it doesn't have to be exclusively musicals that "went wrong." He wants his channel to be more positive (you might've noticed all the thumbnails and titles of his old videos changed).

I literally saw the movie hundreds of time because I was so in love with Irene Cara may she rest in peace

went to NYC late 70’s with high school art / theatre class - most memorable moment was someone’s hand in my pocket while waiting for light to turn green 😂🤣 I ❤️ New York

I loved the show… watched the episodes in early 80’s as a preteen. The story plot lines were interesting with a moral lesson to be learned. Beautiful cast , dancing & disco was the icing on top.

This is such a fantastic channel. Funny Girl brought me here.

This was so well done! I learned a lot about the movie that I never knew!

I am, at the most, a slightly-more-than-casual fan of theatre. I've never even seen/listened to most of what you've covered, but your videos are done so well that it doesn't even matter. I've had a tertiary awareness of Fame for a long time (Irene Cara comes up /a lot/ in crossword puzzles), but I've never felt the need to watch it despite having gone through an 80s teen movie phase when I was a kid. The hellishness of the production alone piques my interest.

Gene was a King. Irene was a Queen! ❤

So here for this. I love the movie and just got the first season of the TV show which I watched growing up.

36.04 the inner whovian in me has come out also i never realised that was Luther Vandross on backing vocals

Aww man, I remember doing the junior school play version of this in my high school. Me and my friends where looking at the non-censored version and laughing at how buckwild it was compared to our scripts. Loved learning about this one! The Fame song has been stuck in my head for days now!

Just a note; its Luther VanDROSS, not VanCROSS. Other than that, killer vid.

This is fantastic. Thank you for this!

I wanted to be in Fame!!! I recorded the TV show on cassette tape. I still have the London live show album. I never knew about Luther! 😍😍😍

A fine documentary about the 1980s, about a movie I saw over and over again as a teenager. Thanks to the filmmakers.

Love your videos! Would you ever consider doing Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 or Team Starkid shows?

great video! keep them coming!

I end up caring and longing for every show he talks about

Isaac Mizrahi was in Fame. you showed him with students of the school that were in the movie.

Can't wait to see your next episode. :)

Very nice , thanks for the hard work.

This was really interesting! I've actually never seen Fame, but now I really wanna see it!

Whoa I’m happy frustrated and in awe of this video I love this so much now I wanna watch fame thru new eyes

Superb editing and info

Fascinating, thank you :)

So many gems of trivia. My favorite one is that Luther Vandross sang back up on Fame.

My day: *going shit* KZfaq: wait in the wings has uploaded a new video My day: *just got a whole lot better*

At 12:56 "The next day in Los Angelas". Your stock footage is of Chicago, not L.A. lolz. Loved the episode!!! Thanks.

The film while obviously dated now still remains powerful and unflinching.Many felt though that several storylines remained unresolved.Almost ironically none of the film's principal actors became a household name.Some had solid careers but none achieved the elusive stardom that the film's story and concept talk about.Irene Cara didn't sustain her level of popularity over the years.Lee Curreri and Gene Anthony Ray rehashed their characters on the TV show and these roles became the only ones that they were known for.It's a shame that Paul McCrane,Barry Miller and Maureen Teefy who were all amazing in the film never got another chance to shine on film like they did here especially Teefy who never lived up to a great potential.The film was a big hit at the box office but not huge.I find it less of a musical but more of a drama and a character study with musical interludes.The film is raw and energetic and often feels improvised.The TV show was a watered down version that still managed to maintain the spirit of the concept.The show seems more dated than the film.The film looks grimey and unglamorous which adds to its sense of realism.

That was a really good documentary 👌

I went to a magnet PA highschool in the early 90’s after being in the “gifted” grade school. It wasn’t like Fame at all. But it was full of alot of talented, fun, interesting people. Our school was at odds with the ROTC school bc well most people don’t think to combine military with the arts or arts with the military. In the late 2000’s they merged. I was and still am gobsmacked as my daughter, 17 stated things are still the same and altho the schools merged, they still all hate each other

YES. My day just got better.

Great video man, "spectakiula'"!

The irony that the one composure had to turn down Fame because working on Donna Summer album, yet Irene Cara's eventual result still sounds very Donna Summers-lik. Like this backstop of a top 10 favorite film of mine, but my pet Peeve is presentations thar jump from visual to visual in 1 & 2 seconds. Would like it to be more still to absorb. Found myself having to rewind to see Who was that? What scene was that? Other than that, great job.

Amazing video

Haha, a shot from "Hoffa" - who was based in Detroit. Great choice!

OH MY GOD IT'S CARRIE, WE ARE GETTING A CARRIE EPISODE THANK YOU