WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE DISCO TV SHOW?

[Eurodancemix]

I'm hoping we'll get replies from all over the world on this one. I'd be interested in reading about how different cultures capitalized on the disco craze.

I have to list three shows:

When I lived in Montreal in 1976, there was a Bandstand-like local show called "FEEL LIKE DANCING". That's where I first heard Michael Zager's "Let's All Chant".

A couple of years later, I lived in L.A. and I remember watching "HOT CITY", which I believe was a local show (anyone know if this is correct?). Anyway, I remember seeing Sylvester perform, totally blowing me away...and utterly scaring my parents in the process! :)

Also while in L.A., on the Spanish-language station was a Mexican show titled "FIEBRE". It was a 2-hour long disco dancing competition (similar to Dance Fever) featuring singles, couples and groups. I didn't understand what was being said, but the music sure was hot.

Wouldn't it be great if some of these shows ended up on DVD's?

[Anonymous]

In NYC in 1975 there was a disco TV show on either channel 9 (WOR) or channel 11 (WPIX). I think it was broadcast on Saturday nights at 1 AM or 2 AM. By the summer of 1976 it was gone, replaced by reruns of old TV shows. They may have had some DJ there. I remember they'd interview the dancers. The reason I remember this is because many of my friends were on this show, but now I can't remember how they got on. The show was taped somewhere in Manhattan, possibly at a small disco on a weeknight.

[Videoskooter]

In the seventies on German television "Musikladen" though it was not strictly disco but had topless dancers! "Disco with Ilja Richter" was a mix of MOR and Disco artists with sketches.

On Dutch television we got "Rock Planet Disco" with Ferry Maat, also the presenter of the weekly radiomust "Soul Show" and for a short time "Disco Circus" which brought Disco acts in a real circus.

On Belgian television we got: nothing, niente, rien, niks :evil:

[DISCODISK]

we didnt get anything in england either till the 80s then we got 6.20 soul train sort of a copy of the u.s soul train with all the latest stuff plus two classic old u.s soul train clips [chosen by a young johnathon ross] it was slagged at the time for being hosted by jeffrey daniel of shalimar i never understood why, but for me there was too much english garbage on there i.e 'in my car' the cool notes [somebody wrote at the time of the coolnotes thats just about the only place they havnt done a P A in :lol: ] the next series it changed to solid soul and they lost the soul train clips, i have all of these on video and havnt watched them for years, the other week i pulled one out and it was full of great stuff pennye ford dangerous, curtis hairston and robert brookins 'if you only knew' :P i gotta get the rest out and play em
oh yeh there were lots of men in skirts dancing too :o

[SandraDee]

I liked that UK 80s Soul Train DD. Wasn't it Channel 4? C4 was so cool & happening in the 80s; whatever happened?! :lol: Apparently Jeffrey Daniel now lives in Japan & Curtis Hairston's no longer with us. :(

[Anonymous]

Apart from a few episodes of Soap Factory Disco plus the occasional half an hour of Musikladen every now and then we had nothing. Most of the disco shows weren't that hot so we didn't probably miss that much - or so I thought until a few years ago when I got hold of 3 vhs tapes containing the entire season of the surreal Italian tv show STRYX, aired in 1978. This series mixes Decameron-style ribaldry in period costumes with disco music, flashy dance routines and live performances by Grace Jones, Amanda Lear, Aisha Puthli and The Rockets, an Italian Space-style synth troupe who had a tiny hit with "Future Woman". Each episode kicked off with an identical production number with topless girls in tiger outfits being fondled by priests, witches flying thru the air, dancers rolling on the floor in heaps, all very Busby Berkley on medieval mushrooms. Grace and Amanda did all their major hits and Grace performed one additional song in Italian while undulating underneath a shower, water all but washing away her almost nonexistent string bikini. Extras were whipped by Amanda and Grace in lurid Spanish Inquisition scenarios while music pounded, the female participants topless. There were beyond-camp fashion shows set in hell, orgiastic jungle scenes and endless solarization effects. The director Enzo Trapani shot himself in the head so that was the end of that series. A dvd realese MUST be forthcoming so keep alert.

[Videoskooter]

Guest, please register and join us coz' I'm very interested in that DVD :D (only for scientific reasons of course!)

BTW: Are these excerpts from the show you're talking about?
http://www.benis.it/rockets/video.htm

[Marcio**]

There's a Muppet Show episode with Diana Ross singing "Love Hangover" :)

http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/tre...w.php3?ID=5837

[discopsycho]

I remember watching "Hot City" when I was a teenager in Panama. I remember the Sylvester performance also, and especially memorable was Grace Jones performing "Fame". I loved the intro to the show, with some model singing "My name is fire and I'm burning hot". My brother and I loved that and always wondered if there was an actual record. Does anybody know?

I also used to like "Soap Factory". I really liked that the dj on the show mixed the songs together. I also saw Grace Jones on that show (for some reason she was performing on a ladder). Others I remember were Double Exposure and Musique (just models lip synching, I'm sure).

It sure would be great if these shows were on DVD or were on tv for some kind of "flashback" series.

[Anonymous]

I always liked Disco Step By Step from Buffalo N.Y.

[Anonymous]

I emailed my cousin about the old NYC disco show. She says that it was filmed in a small rented TV studio on the West Side made up to look like a dance floor, sort of a low-budget American Bandstand. One week they showed up and the studio was locked up over some unrelated illegal activity (filming porn). The station dropped the show then and since it probably had a small audience, no one cared or noticed. She thinks she has a Betamax tape of at least two of the shows that she and her friends were on.

[Anonymous]

Originally Posted by DISCODISK

we didnt get anything in england either till the 80s then we got 6.20 soul train sort of a copy of the u.s soul train with all the latest stuff plus two classic old u.s soul train clips [chosen by a young johnathon ross] it was slagged at the time for being hosted by jeffrey daniel of shalimar i never understood why...

Discodisk...You're forgetting the wonderful UK Disco Championships that used to be shown on ITV. Where people would wiggle their hips from side to side, kick their heels in the air, and were considered great dancers :roll:. What a laugh that was. You would've been seriously beaten up if you tried dancing like that at a disco back then - or even now.

The UK version of Soul Train was apparently considered so bad, that the rights to use the name was withdrawn from the producers.

...i have all of these on video and havnt watched them for years, the other week i pulled one out and it was full of great stuff pennye ford dangerous, curtis hairston and robert brookins 'if you only knew' :P i gotta get the rest out and play em
oh yeh there were lots of men in skirts dancing too :o

I have some Solid Soul [also produced by a young johnathon ross] on tape (Cool Notes dancing out of time to music, etc. ) if you wanna do a swap lemmy know.

[JussiK]

[quote="Videoskooter"]Guest, please register and join us coz' I'm very interested in that DVD :D (only for scientific reasons of course!)
Forgot to log in...but as I have not heard of any dvd realeses of the Stryxes I can send you copies of the pal VHS tapes. Let me have your address. I'll be in Paris from Thursday on until next week but after that, no problem. One must always be prepared to spread the Lear mystique. Doing that is my main contribution to society.
- Jussi

[Boodikka]

"Disco '77" - Lots of TK Marlin acts. Aired a great program in the summer of '77 featuring The Ritchie Family.

"Soul Alive" - (Local NY WPIX, '77/78) - Shot in a tiny studio, but often had great guests, including the post-Norma Jean Chic. I think the same studio was used for the short-lived freestyle-heavy "It's Dance" show in '88.

"Soap Factory" - Great guests on this series. Cissy Houston, The Gap Band, Kleer. Best Program: Bruni Pagan, Francis Simone and Bonnie Boyer (8/79). Worst Segment: country singer/game show host ("The Better Sex") Bill Andersen performing his country/disco melange nightmare "I Can't Wait Any Longer" (I wish he had waited :roll: ).

"Hot City"/"Fyre" (sp) - Featured the Jeff Kutash dancers. Best Segment: Arpeggio. Worst Segment: A coked-out, sweating-profusely-from-head-to-toe fully leather-clad Dennis Parker butchering a lip-synch of "Like An Eagle". I loved the guy, but this was not his finest hour.

"Fiebre" - featuring future trivia questions Celita Braniff and Fito Giron.

"American Bandstand" - Best Programs: The '77 Shalamar ("Uptown Festival") and '78 Cerrone ("Supernature"). Also interesting was the first appearance of a rudimentary Village People concept in late '77/early '78: I think only Victor Willis, Felipe Rose and Randy Jones were in the line-up at this point, not sure.

"Joe And Valerie" and "Making It" - discussed in the "Joe and Valerie" thread in Non-Music Related Topics.

[Mario]

Hey Guys! :) Back in 1975, I used to watch a local dance show on early cable t.v. The show aired from Los Angeles and it was a fast paced dance show entitled: "The Real Don Steele Show." I remember one of the segments featured girls dancing to the latest disco records and after a short bit of dancing, Don Steele (the host) would literally "push" the dancer aside in exchange for another dancer!!!! :lol: It was hilarious~yet hot!!!!! :lol: The show was on Saturday nights. I also remember another dance show from L.A. that was on daily after school at about 4:00 p.m. The show was very similar to American Bandstand. It was on the air around 1975-1976...I remember watching the group "Faith, Hope, & Charity" perform. But I don't remember the name of the show... :cry: But it was a good show!
Take Care All...
Mario 8)