WHET the tv cast of FAME?

You don't remember their names?

Apparently, they didn't live forever.

Lots of reunion videos on YouTube. Here is my favorite song from the show with my three favorite characters Doris (Valerie Landsberg), Danny (Carlo Imperato), and Bruno (Lee Curreri).

And "Desdemona" featuring Leroy (Gene Allen Ray).

Boy, Lori Singer couldn't act her way out of a paper bag.

Gene ANTHONY Ray....sorry.....a clip from 2019 of the cast.

Gene Anthony Ray was an insecure, self-delusioned cunt whose 15 minutes of "Fame" went to his far off head.

They got big dreams, they paid in sweat, they now on public assistance.

Those that didn't die of overdoses got fat.

I was working in a bookstore when "Fame" was on and Lee Curreri came in. We chatted a bit while he browsed and when I rang him up I told him I liked "Fame."

"You recognized me from that?" he said. "Wow, thanks!"

Nice guy, but what a strange reaction. It was a very popular show at the time.

I saw the TV cast (some were in the film) at the Troubadour in LA a few years ago. It was a fun night and they all looked pretty good. Although, beautiful Billy Hufsy has seen better days.

OP, how did you read my mind?! I was going to post a similar thread!

I used to LOVE the show, and still have a cassette tape (!) of "The Kids from FAME", purchased in the early 1980s.

This was one of my favorite numbers.

I didn't get the part and now I'M THE BIGGEST STAR IN THE WORLD

Billy Hufsey has seen better days? Say it ain't so.

Looks pretty good to me.

He looked more like this.

The BRUNO character was SO FUCKIN DUMB.

I wonder if the actor playing him was as stupid as the character he was playing.

NOT the Bruno character the DANNY character was FUCKIN DUMB

This is from Billy Hufsey’s Instagram 3 months ago. He is 62. I think he looks damn good, but I could do with the earrings.

do “without”

Gene Anthony Ray had the cutest ass ever. He could've done more with better management but he looked like a handful.

I had such a crush on Bruno, I loved that show.

Erica Gimpel took over Irene Cara's character.

Carol Burnett's daughter was also on. They did an episode together.

Michael Cerveris is still very much around. He has no hair now

I could have sworn Michael DeLorenzo made series regular.

I love the show. It's less gritty than the movie but it's still entertaining.

Lori Singer was such a horrible singer. It's Gonna Be a Long Night is pure torture. They amplify the background singers, but they couldn't save that shit.

Erica Gimpel was a great replacement for Irene Cara. She was a lot warmer and more fun.

Lori Singer was not a great actress, but she had an air of dissociation that worked when she was on a sci-fi series [italic]VR.5[/italic].

Runs in the family. Her brother is Marc "Beastmaster" Singer.

The cast still tours together all over the world, singing their old songs

They headlined a big concert in the UK two years ago, even with back-up dancers and singers

And then there is their other sister, Ramona Singer.

r23

r27

[quote]Michael Cerveris is still very much around. He has no hair now.

Yes, it's interesting to think of how he looked on the show with that big poof of hair and how he looks now. (By the time I saw him on Broadway in "Tommy" in 1993, most of it was gone.) He's also, other than Debbie Allen and Janet Jackson, probably the most successful cast member to come out of the show with two Tony awards to his credit. He's 60 now.

"So Many Dreams," one of my favorite songs performed by Nicole (Nia Peeples):

There was yet again another "Fame" reunion, and Michael Cerveris was good sport to participate, even though he worked with none of the other people at the reunion.

[quote]Carol Burnett's daughter was also on. They did an episode together.

Yes, "Reggie & Rose," a great episode from the 6th and final season. Carrie Hamilton was so great in the role of Reggie, displaying all the natural talent she inherited from her mother. (She and Dusty were the only good things to come out of the lackluster fifth season.) So sad that she would die so young.

And for those talking about how bad Lori Singer was, she was Streep compared to the show's absolute worst cast member, which was Paige Hannah, sister of Daryl, who thankfully only lasted a single season. Could not sing and could not dance. There was just no way anyone could ever buy the idea that her character would have ever gotten into that school.

[quote]I could have sworn Michael DeLorenzo made series regular.

IIRC, he was on the show for several seasons but never got promoted to principal cast member with his name in the opening title sequence.

"Hot Times in the City Streets," a great dance number from the season 6 premiere:

Aren't they all dead by now?

Some of the principal cast members were clearly not dancers but they were able to cover it up just enough both with cutaway shots and surrounding them with all the real dancers on the show that the audience couldn't tell very much.

A great Reggie/Ian number, "It's Love I'm After, After All":

R41 that was great! I had such a crush on Ian!

Gene Anthony Ray died back in 2003 of a stroke.

Being cast in "Fame" was a blessing, but things just didn't work out during show and afterwards for Mr. Ray.

He was fired from the show after his mother was arrested for drug dealing, and Gene Anthony Ray himself became addicted.

Debbie Allen and others did try, but in the end there was no saving Mr. Ray from his own demons.

WEHT cast of Fame (television show).

30th anniversary reunion

They just did a Stars in the House reunion on YouTube. They did one for the movie cast too but Irene Cara couldn’t be bothered.

Both film and television show "Fame" came along at right time; performing arts and artists (especially dancers) were everywhere it seems in 1970's and 1980's.

A Chorus Line was on Broadway, films like "Dancers" (based on best selling book), and "All That Jazz" were in theaters.. Everywhere you looked everyone was either a dancer or wanted to be seen as one. You'd walk around NYC and people were wearing leg warmers, and not just around Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall area (both were once home to tons of dance schools). Superstar dancers like Gregory Hines and Mikhail Baryshnikov were every where as well, then things slowly came crashing down as male dancers began dying.....

Ballet, jazz, modern dance, professionals, students, super stars, it didn't matter, ranks of male dancers were decimated by HIV/AIDS epidemic of 1980's and 1990's. You'd pick up copy of Dance Magazine only to hear about this famous dancer or that famous teacher had passed away... One of stars from Broadway show "La Cage Aux Folles" which was running then on Broadway lamented in an interview how the male chorus dancers began first calling out sick then dying....

Michael Cerveris has basically become a Broadway actor. He's not doing too bad.

In the 1980s, I met him at a friend's downtown loft party, I was surprised to learn he wasn't British. In person, he was very nondescript, he was much thinner and smaller than he looked on TV. In fact, most celebrities look much different in person.

[quote]He was fired from the show after his mother was arrested for drug dealing

I don't know why this information appears on Gene Anthony's wikipedia page because it's simply not true. He was on the show for all 6 seasons. Granted, the last season he, Debbie Allen and Carlo Imperato (who played Danny) all had reduced roles but they were still principal cast members. According to what was said at the time, the show only came to an end because all three had announced their intentions to depart, so the producers decided to just bring the series to a close after six seasons. The final episode, "Baby, Remember My Name," even concluded with Leroy making the decision to finally leave the School of the Arts to pursue a career as a full-time dancer (he'd been an instructor for the final two seasons). So again, don't know why this erroneous info about him having been fired from the show has never been put to rest.

R48, I too was shocked the first time I ever saw Cerveris interviewed and realized he was not really British. He pulled off a great accent on the show.

Debbie Allen is thriving. She has a dance academy and is a director and exec producer of tv shows. I think she is the main director of Grey's Anatomy. She's pretty active on Instagram. She never stopped working.

There was a (straight) porn star Tony Martino that reminded me of Billy Hufsey.

You just know Nia Peebles thought she was going to be the next Madonna.

Carrie Hamilton (Carol Burnett's daughter) who played Carrie in later seasons died of lung cancer in the early 2000s.

This is the one episode I remember.

The chubby blonde girl who played Dwight Mendenhall's girlfriend Muffy was Lisa Cartwright, who went on to be the voice of Bart Simpson.

[quote]You just know Nia Peebles thought she was going to be the next Madonna.

Nia was reportedly a diva on set who constantly demanded more airtime but the producers didn't oblige (too big a cast to focus just on one person). It was said that she was definitely not missed by the other cast members after Nicole was killed off the show.

[quote] I didn't get the part and now I'M THE BIGGEST STAR IN THE WORLD

I guess they weren't holding auditions in back alleys, Madonna. I DID get the part and was just as big a star as you.

Haunting song Shadows and Light from season 3 ghost episode

Not just Gene Anthony's Wiki page either R49...

"The following summer, in 1984, Ray's mother was arrested in a drug raid along with 14 others, including his grandmother, three aunts, and three uncles. Ray's mother, 46-year-old Jean Ray, was charged with dealing heroin and cocaine. His grandmother, 66-year-old Viola (Lilly) Ward, was carrying six ounces of cocaine and a loaded .38-caliber pistol when she was taken into custody. In March 1984, after a two-week trial, Ray's mother was convicted. According to police, she sold heroin and cocaine to undercover officers in several buys in 1983 that took place in Harlem bars. In April 1984 she was sentenced to at least 15 years, with parole eligibility in 1999.

Although Ray, who remained very loyal to his mother, was never implicated in the drug dealings, he was under tremendous stress. After failing to show up for Fame rehearsals 100 times and self-admittedly using drugs between shoots, he was fired from the show in 1984. "

Hard to say which story to believe. Either Gene Anthony was still on suspension when Fame was cancelled, or he was fired before show ended after only one year. Clearly however the young man had issues which was affecting his professional life.

"Think Big," a Lydia/Leroy number from season 6:

"Somebody Must Be Grinning Down on Me," a great Leroy number from the season 6 Christmas episode:

That stupid Ms. Sherwood was a waste if time.

Man, I loved me some Leroy and loved looking at his phat ass even more, but these clips remind me why I barely sat still during during an episode. Most were awful. Loved his dance numbers.

R51 She is very talented. My favorite in the series was the English teacher.

I always remember that Men On skit from in Living Color. Antwon says the word firecracker and Blaine says "Is that Gene Anthony Ray's new movie?"

They all look like guest stars on Law and Order in the 1990s.

[quote]I DID get the part and was just as big a star as you.

Uhm, no.

R5, I would have given her an Emmy if I thought I could get close to her brother Marc the Beastmaster.

Until both film and television versions of Fame few New Yorkers outside of certain demographics ever heard of "The High School Of Performing Arts). Post those shows and of course mention in ACL (song "Nothing"), everyone and their mother wanted to be a dancer, an actor, a musician.....

By 1980's or maybe even middle of 1970's NYC published a booklet listing all public high schools and criteria for entry. Then high schools outside of the specialized ones (Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, Bronx HS of Science, etc....) were zoned, Teens went to whatever local HS served area they lived. That is unless they wanted to attend either a vocational or specialized.

The math and science high schools required an entry exam. HSOPA OTOH applicants for HSOTPA were required to audition. For dance at least you had teens who had been studying since they were children. Others saw "Fame" and became convinced they had talent so showed up at auditions which made for some interesting if not heart breaking out comes.

There wasn't any of this woke BS culture that is infesting NYC public school system nowadays. Either you had it, or you didn't, and what's more you had to have enough of it to nab one of the incoming freshmen class spots.

More:

While not everyone who graduated from HSOPA went on to great things, the alumni list never the less is impressive.

Who got the role Madonna was auditioning for?

Don't know, but what have seen of her audition didn't leave one wondering why she was turned down.

Another!

Plus this from different site linking to same video.

"Man, this is what you call a “Before They Were Stars” clip of someone who’s JUST on the cusp of super-stardom. In 1982, Madonna auditioned for a role on the TV series version of Fame. This audition tape is amusing for several reasons as Madonna lies about her age (she says she’s 21 even though she was 24 at the time) and mentions that she’s an aspiring singer and has just released her first single, “Everybody”.

Besides LaGuardia, which is what the school became and moved close to Lincoln Center, Queens has The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts High School, which was established by Tony Bennet. It’s across the street from the Kaufman Astoria Studios.

Eldergays means anyone over 12 years old. So go for it, kiddos.

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R80 Thanks for posting that. I guess I missed one. They all seem to like each other. What a great cast of talented human beings.

They tell the phone guy that he is on air & to watch what he says. Were they afraid he might out someone?

Thanks, R80. That was great. I agree they all seem to genuinely like each other, which is nice.

R81, perhaps you were kidding but the "phone guy" as you call him was Carlo Imperato, who played Danny on the show.