Fame vs. Glee: Fame 1x1

If anyone wants to watch and discuss, I would REALLY enjoy the dialogue.

ETA: If this doesn't work here, I'd be happy to try to move it to tumblr...

What's the theme song? It sounds so familiar to me, I think has been covered more than once.

I believe it is called "Fame" and was sung by the lead character in the original movie. I am sure they redid it for the recent re-do of the original movie, so that might be why you've heard it before. I think it's pretty famous.

I've been doing a Glee vs Fame comparison this morning (it'll take quite a while), and it is surprising how closely they match up. It will take a while to get through all the characters, though.

I've only watched Fame through most of Season 2. Before, I would have said it was unfair even compare the shows. Fame is a drama with music and humor, and Glee was a satire. But Glee stopped being comic a long time ago.

I just watched the first episode. I like it! Glee could definitely take some pointers for its portrayal of NYADA . Coco is my favorite character so far, but I really don't like Julie (who seems to be the main character). I usually don't like characters of that "ingenue" type because they have often have such dull characterization and can't hold my interest- I am much more enthralled with all of the side characters who have more vibrant personalities (eg Kurt). This is why I like Rachel more than I would otherwise- she breaks the stereotype by being so manic . I once heard that characters like that are usually just blank slates for the audience to project themselves onto.
I know that on Glee they record songs first and then the actors lipsync. Did they do that here too? What about with the instrumental (cello) music?

Adamina wrote:I just watched the first episode. I like it! Glee could definitely take some pointers for its portrayal of NYADA . Coco is my favorite character so far, but I really don't like Julie (who seems to be the main character). I usually don't like characters of that "ingenue" type because they have often have such dull characterization and can't hold my interest- I am much more enthralled with all of the side characters who have more vibrant personalities (eg Kurt). This is why I like Rachel more than I would otherwise- she breaks the stereotype by being so manic . I once heard that characters like that are usually just blank slates for the audience to project themselves onto.
I know that on Glee they record songs first and then the actors lipsync. Did they do that here too? What about with the instrumental (cello) music?

I'm glad you like it! Every episode focuses on a different character. Julie is definitely NOT the central character, if that makes you feel better. ;-) My favorite episodes focus on Bruno or Doris.

Julie Miller (Lori Singer) is a real cellist.

Bruno Martelli (Lee Curreri) is a real pianist/keyboardist who works in LA and scores TV and film.

Mr. Shorofsky (Albert Hague) was a real Broadway composer as well as actor.

Erica Gimpel (Coco) and Gene Anthony Ray (Leroy) are/were the real deal, too. Dancer/singers.

Miss Grant (Debbie Allen) is a bonafide Broadway star, as well as a choreographer and director.

I am sure that these songs were prerecorded, at least if there is a lot of movement. Otherwise the sound wouldn't be good. But they haven't (it sounds to me) been manipulated or layered or autotuned.

LOL! I actually like Julie so far! She reminds me a bit of Marley, and that makes her relatable in a way...at least, in terms of feeling out of place, wanting to come out of one's shell. And she's so pretty.....(I guess I have a thing for girl-next-door types!) The makeover reminded me of Rachel's "nerdy" vs. "chic" change this season. Btw, how does she get away with being constantly late to class? She's a bit of a klutz too, which keeps her from being too perfect. In a world when everyone has an attitude problem and where everyone has a chip on their shoulder, I find her naive, more innocent personality refreshing. I hated the overdramatic "DON'T LOOK AT ME!" moment in the classroom though!

I didn't like Coco at first. Where I find Rachel's attention hogging to be funny (mostly because it's played for laughs), I found it annoying on this girl. She has Rachel's insecurity with Quinn's snobbery...bad combination. But I liked her advice in the end about being tough, grabbing the spotlight (although I don't think any attention is good attention), and working hard...being brave, and never letting them see you cry. I think she grew on my in those last moments.

Bruno's arrogant attitude irked me, but I loved the point he brought up about Mozart. What would he think of modern technology in which you have an entire orchestra or rock band on a keyboard? It really is amazing. And where Finn's "hero-like" attitude annoys me, I like it on Bruno.

The racial discrimination conversation in English class made me roll my eyes.

I like Julie's feeling of being a small fish in a big pond (or however that saying goes).

I also like this dance teacher. She brings up a hell of a lot of good points that someone like Rachel Berry can stand to learn from. She is intimidating and tough, but she's not cruel, cutting, attacking or personally insulting the way Cassie is. She doesn't play games.

Garcy is such a dick.

"What does one get in NYC?"
"Herpes."

MoviesAreLife wrote:LOL! I actually like Julie so far! She reminds me a bit of Marley, and that makes her relatable in a way...at least, in terms of feeling out of place, wanting to come out of one's shell. And she's so pretty.....(I guess I have a thing for girl-next-door types!) The makeover reminded me of Rachel's "nerdy" vs. "chic" change this season. Btw, how does she get away with being constantly late to class? She's a bit of a klutz too, which keeps her from being too perfect. In a world when everyone has an attitude problem and where everyone has a chip on their shoulder, I find her naive, more innocent personality refreshing. I hated the overdramatic "DON'T LOOK AT ME!" moment in the classroom though!

I didn't like Coco at first. Where I find Rachel's attention hogging to be funny (mostly because it's played for laughs), I found it annoying on this girl. She has Rachel's insecurity with Quinn's snobbery...bad combination. But I liked her advice in the end about being tough, grabbing the spotlight (although I don't think any attention is good attention), and working hard...being brave, and never letting them see you cry. I think she grew on my in those last moments.

Bruno's arrogant attitude irked me, but I loved the point he brought up about Mozart. What would he think of modern technology in which you have an entire orchestra or rock band on a keyboard? It really is amazing. And where Finn's "hero-like" attitude annoys me, I like it on Bruno.

The racial discrimination conversation in English class made me roll my eyes.

I like Julie's feeling of being a small fish in a big pond (or however that saying goes).

I also like this dance teacher. She brings up a hell of a lot of good points that someone like Rachel Berry can stand to learn from. She is intimidating and tough, but she's not cruel, cutting, attacking or personally insulting the way Cassie is. She doesn't play games.

Garcy is such a dick.

"What does one get in NYC?"
"Herpes."

I don't remember Garcy much . . . I think as of Ep 2, Danny replaces Garcy as the wanna be comedian.

I agree about Julie being rather like Marley . . . I like her freshness and she fits well as the central character for the pilot. She's learning her way around the School for the Arts just like we do.

There are a lot of arrogant people in Fame . . . everyone wants to be a star . . . but I don't think they always get away with their attitudes.

Coco fills the Rachel spot in this show, for sure.

Unfortunately, the show does show its age in some of its stereotyping . . . :-(

Yes, artists tend to be an egotastical bunch with diva moments here and there...let's face it, they all want to be stars and want the spotlight, so it makes sense that there are going to be bruised egos and butting heads. They are so tempermental sometimes...luckily for them, the finished product (if done right) is usually so beautiful. The song, the dance, the scene...it's all worth it in the end, hopefully.

Gosh, I watched every episode of Fame back in the day, bought all their records (LPs!) and had posters of them on my wall. They definitely were my 12+ age experience of a Glee-like show.
That's what I wanted to do whenI grew up: go to a school like they were going too. It took me a while, but I succeeded, and I have very fond memories of watching Fame.

I remember liking the teachers more than the kids, even though I was a teenager myself at the time. Mr. Shorofsky was my favorite (I think the actor died during the series' run).
Of the kids I liked Bruno the best, and he had a similar relationship with his dad as Kurt has on Glee. I didn't like Coco and Leroy, liked Julie and Danny, and I don't remember if I liked Doris much. I have to rewatch it again to remember!
There are actually a lot of similarities between some of the Fame characters and Glee characters, only Fame had very consistent writing with good character development in comparison.

I don't have time now, but I will watch this episode hopefully tomorrow. I discovered them on youtube a couple of months ago but never found the time to re-watch them. So this thread is a good reason to start soon.

Glorfindel wrote:Gosh, I watched every episode of Fame back in the day, bought all their records (LPs!) and had posters of them on my wall. They definitely were my 12+ age experience of a Glee-like show.
That's what I wanted to do whenI grew up: go to a school like they were going too. It took me a while, but I succeeded, and I have very fond memories of watching Fame.

I remember liking the teachers more than the kids, even though I was a teenager myself at the time. Mr. Shorofsky was my favorite (I think the actor died during the series' run).
Of the kids I liked Bruno the best, and he had a similar relationship with his dad as Kurt has on Glee. I didn't like Coco and Leroy, liked Julie and Danny, and I don't remember if I liked Doris much. I have to rewatch it again to remember!
There are actually a lot of similarities between some of the Fame characters and Glee characters, only Fame had very consistent writing with good character development in comparison.

I don't have time now, but I will watch this episode hopefully tomorrow. I discovered them on youtube a couple of months ago but never found the time to re-watch them. So this thread is a good reason to start soon.

I love Shorofsky too. Hague died in 2001, so he survived the series by quite a bit.

It's the Season One acting teacher who died during the run of the series--Mr. Crandall. The actor knew he had terminal cancer, so the Season 1 Finale--which featured his "goodbye"--was very emotional. He died a few weeks after that scene was shot.

I had no idea this was a TV series, btw! I just knew of (and watched) the two films...so thank you for this!

AnneNeville wrote:I love Shorofsky too. Hague died in 2001, so he survived the series by quite a bit.

It's the Season One acting teacher who died during the run of the series--Mr. Crandall. The actor knew he had terminal cancer, so the Season 1 Finale--which featured his "goodbye"--was very emotional. He died a few weeks after that scene was shot.

Oh yeah, I remember now, that was indeed sad. As I said: I watched Fame when it aired back in the day, and I forgot a lot.

BTW: the new acting teacher they got the next season was hot, if I remember that correctly.

Glorfindel wrote:

AnneNeville wrote:I love Shorofsky too. Hague died in 2001, so he survived the series by quite a bit.

It's the Season One acting teacher who died during the run of the series--Mr. Crandall. The actor knew he had terminal cancer, so the Season 1 Finale--which featured his "goodbye"--was very emotional. He died a few weeks after that scene was shot.

Oh yeah, I remember now, that was indeed sad. As I said: I watched Fame when it aired back in the day, and I forgot a lot.

BTW: the new acting teacher they got the next season was hot, if I remember that correctly.

Yes, Mr. Reardon is hot. :-) But Mr. Shorofsky is hotter. "I'm not inviting you to an orgy!" Bwah hah ha!

I've watched the episode, and first I'd to know why the video have subtitles? Personally I don't mind because it helps me to understand better what's going on.

Overall I think Coco, Bruno and Julie fits into typical stereotypes characters. Coco being the nasty girl, I don't say "villain" because she doesn't seem like an evil person to me, she just believes she's the best and say what she feels and thinks openly, as someone mentioned before she's Quinn and Rachel in one person, probably that why it was so hard for me to bear her at first. But she could change my opinion, because I'm totally agree with what she said to Julie, you have to be tough if you wanna make it in this business. And speaking of Julie, she's the heroine or simply the good girl who comes from a small town and wanna succeed in the big city, she's pretty much like Marley, but the difference is that I don't think so Marley is treated as Julie is treated by her classmates, is seems not many people like her but the short blonde guy and the redhaired girl and Bruno. And now that I'm mentioning Bruno, he's the hero and I can related to Finn, but unlike Finn, I think he stand up for his beliefs or at least he's not afraid to express his opinion aloud, as he did in Shorofsky's class.

As regard the format, I see the connection with Glee in the music, because they also perform song between scenes, but I'm glad isn't there a song every five minutes. Actually Coco sings the only two songs there're in the whole episode, what it reminded me season one Rachel Berry. And I'm kinda lost, is this a High School of Arts? I thought it was College.

On a side note: I noticed a young Fran Drescher in one of the scenes. Her voice hasn't changed at all.

brisallie wrote:I've watched the episode, and first I'd to know why the video have subtitles? Personally I don't mind because it helps me to understand better what's going on.

I'm not sure, either. Whoever it is who up uploaded the videos has subtitles in weird places. In some episodes, they are subtitled in French. The uploader has made Fame available dubbed into different languages, too. The first two seasons are available on Hulu (without subtitles) if they bother anyone, but after that the show is very hard to find except from this one person on YouTube.

brisallie wrote:And I'm kinda lost, is this a High School of Arts? I thought it was College.

It's the High School of Performing Arts in NYC, based on Laguardia School for the Arts (which is real).

brisallie wrote:On a side note: I noticed a young Fran Drescher in one of the scenes. Her voice hasn't changed at all.

Oh, I didn't notice!

I agree about your connections between the characters (you made just the same ones I did when I did my character comparisons on tumblr) . . .

AnneNeville wrote:
Oh, I didn't notice!

I agree about your connections between the characters (you made just the same ones I did when I did my character comparisons on tumblr) . . .

Here's the scene



And you know, after I made this comparison, I believe that probably Glee still keep some stereotypes.

^ Same voice and everything! I know she can change her voice to sound less nasal, but hey. It's her trademark. She is gorgeous, btw.