Fame was the hit 1982 series from the Alan Paker film of 1980. Set at the School of the Arts in New York,it dealt with the lives of the students and staff. As in the film,the star was the late Gene Anthony Ray as streetwise,talented dancer,Leroy Johnson,gifted at dancing but constantly at loggerheads with English teacher.Miss Sherwood,Carol Mayo Jenkins. Lee Curreri recreated his film role as Bruno Martelli,playing away on his expensive synthesiser while his cabby father,tries to pay it all. The late Albert Hague was excellent as the grumpy but caring Professor Shorofsky,he and Bruno had some great scenes. My favourite character was Valerie Landsberg's Doris Schwartz,she was very funny and her singing "High Fidelity" was one of the highlights of the show. Erica Gimpel took on the Irene Cara film role of Coco,the highly motivated dancer/singer and although not in the same league vocally as Irene Cara,her acting certainly held up. A pre Footlose Lori Singer was sweet Julie Miller,very endearing and it lost something when Lori singer,left after the first two seasons. Debbie Allen was outstanding as dance teacher Lydia Grant,her dancing acting first rate,Miss Allen was the dancing Mistress behind the scenes too. Carlo IMperato is likable as wanna be comic Danny,all in all a great series,give it a go if you haven't seen it yet!

I had been waiting anxiously for Fame to be released on DVD because it was one of my favorite shows growing up.My 15 yr old daughter & I just finished watching the last episode, and now she too is hooked. Every episode is full of great dancing, fun music and a moral or two thrown in. The characters are so engaging. My daughter loves Leroy as much as I used too.I hope they'll release the remaining seasons so that I can have the full set to watch again. I would love to have the music from the show on CD as well.This was as terrific as I'd remembered! :)

I never saw the movie, but have since seen a wonderful stage production of this show, and the TV series was an absolute favorite of mine. In reading the comments and seeing the info, I had forgotten that it was an 80's show! It was certainly one of those I never missed.It had a great cast, I loved the characters and the music. It was one of those shows that did a great job of having all sorts of characters, and that let the regulars grow and change. I still remember one or two in particular (no I won't give away plots) that were particularly moving because the story was beautiful if sad, and the featured character learned a LOT about humanity in the process.An excellent series, one I wouldn't mind owning on DVD.

I believe that Fame the series was a great show for it's time. IT WAS the 80's. There is no denying that. Of course the movie was better...when is that not expected. We all know that in real life no one breaks into song and dance. I think what the series did, was take the movie to a level that the "true" movie fans wanted to see where it could go. In the later seasons it did get boring, repetitive and almost down right embarrassing. This is one of the tv series I wish were still on in syndication...I would watch. Fame the TV series was NOT lame!!!!!