Musicals have been a genre that many have stated has died repeatedly throughout its life, but it is an adaptable medium that is able to connect with a large group of people and different music styles.
I have been watching Glee like many others, and have found that it bears striking similarities to a previous musical show- Fame. A generation apart perhaps, but with the advent of DVD I have been able to compare the two shows and have found some things that might make me less than popular.
Fame the Television Series was sort of a filler for what happened in between the various stages in the film- however compared to the film it is much lighter in tone. Some of the great aspects of this are as follows;
- Albert Hague who was great as Mr Shorofsky in the film continues to play off of Lee Curreri (Bruno Martelli) to great affect, and their relationship is explored to greater detail.
- Gene Anthony Ray as Leroy is once again a focal point of the series, and his stand off with Miss Sherwood continues into the television series. Though Miss Sherwood is played as a much more light hearted character in the television series.
- They are able to bring new songs to each episode, and although some have dated; mostly the synth heavy numbers- others are still nostalgically pleasing.
- The character of Julie Miller by a young (Lori Singer) is a nice addition to the cast, and is even the character that we follow on the premier episode into the school.
There were some concerns however;
* Different actors for Cocco, Montgomery, Ralph, and Doris.
- Erica Gimpel looks similar to Irene Cara who played Cocco in the film, however the character of Cocco does seem to rub me the wrong way, as she is often used as a plot device.
Cocco will attack or condescend or do another action to rub one of the characters the wrong way, thus propelling the story of the episode along- whereas Cocco herself is left with only her 'passion' as a redeeming point.
This is probably why the character is basically written out of the second half of the first season- or she might have had other work- either case we do not miss her for that time.
It is nice how she is given a little room to explore the astrology which was mentioned in the film.
- P.R. Paul is a much more outgoing and happy Montgomery in contrast to the quiet and repressed quality that Paul McCrane brought to the character in the film. Nothing is mentioned about his homosexuality in the series which was one of his causes of loneliness in the film. Also instead of Drama focus he seems to take the role of stage managing in the production of the series- and on other occasions as a side kick to the Doris character.
- Doris Finsecker (Maureen Teefy) was a tall, quiet and terrified character searching for her place in the world, and the school. In contrast again Doris Schwartz (Valerie Landsburg) is a short, plumper character that takes the role of sarcastic friend and problem solver. I am not sure it is supposed to be the same character because the only characteristics they share are their first name, they both sing and do drama and that they are both Jewish. You get used to her, but I always had it in the back of my mind whether it was supposed to be the same character.
- Ralph (Barry Miller) was arguably the most interesting character in the film version, but it seems they did not know how to implement him into the television series. He appears in the first few episodes as a more stereotypical comic character- reminding me of the character of Fez from 'That 70s Show'. Soon after he is replaced by a less ethnic comic in the Character of Danny Amatullo (Carlo Imperato), who is entertaining in his role of dumb but lovable comic...but he is not Ralph.
- Debbie Allen as Miss Grant- also the shows choreographer- seems to have been given a piece in her contract stating that she gets to have or feature in a dance segment in every episode. It gets slightly annoying. I know that dance teachers might show their students the steps but they wouldn't then get to be, or draw themselves into every opportunity to dance with their students. Maybe it is a problem with context, especially given the amount of hugging and so on that these students do with their teachers in every episode- so should not happen in today's 'can't touch hurt kid' world- I hope you are hearing me Glee.
The show features many high profile celebrities of the time- I would recommend you looking out for the episode featuring Richard Simmons- the guy just has so much energy and he is able to calm down the often dog headed character of Miss Grant.
Like Glee the show had its own Albums released- The Kids from Fame; check out this page to see more details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kids_from_%22Fame%22. The songs were original, with Curreri working on the actual writing of the songs, it follows the more traditional musical formula of original songs to express their personal emotions- a feature that has been sadly lacking from Glee- and I am starting to get slightly annoyed about the similarity of the Glee songs- especially Amber Riley who needs to have the high notes- and stereotyped coloured vocal gymnastics in each song. I especially hated how this was done on the Rocky Horror Episode.
However the characters on Glee are given a lot more room to grow. They are not slotted into the need to give a refreshing youth message this week, but need to slot into the overall Season story arch- which aids the show greatly. This was a downfall of Fame, especially with the Season One closer basically saying we would have one teacher coming back, and by the beginning of next season he was replaced anyway- and no mention of it.
The story arch allows for more interaction between the various characters and we can come to know them more- making Glee, for lack of a better word a more adult oriented show- where we do not need to learn specific stories, within a non-canonical session, but one that requires you to watch and remember back to previous episodes.
The voices of the cast of Glee sound better, but that only makes me feel, especially with Amber that their voices are edited too much. While watching Fame we could tell that the characters could sing, but they had human problems with it, and you could hear that certain characters were better singers- because they were studying it.
I like them both in different ways, but if I had to choose one I would suggest Fame- only if you liked the original movie, and do not mind the slightly different story style of the time. I just seem to gain more from their originals then having previously loved songs, possibly turned into a slightly different monster that follows the Glee formula.
I will be looking forward to the possible Glee feature film that is upcoming though. Hopefully it will be more like Fame (the original) and not Fame the remake- because after watching that I could not remember one character's name, and for some reason it was afraid to explore the darker territories of the original.
Let the flaming start.
Dale Stam
You might also be interested in the following articles from this blog;
http://dalesnewsblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/spider-man-turn-off-dark-soundtrack.html
http://dalesnewsblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/bloody-jackson-review.html
http://dalesnewsblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/strange-bedfellow-new-review.html
http://dalesnewsblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/livid-productions-presents-monty.html
http://dalesnewsblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/awtc-pirates-of-penzance.html
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