Did You Have “Dance Fever” fever
Kristin Nilsen 0:01
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Carolyn Cochrane 0:45
And you just want to slide under a table for them like Gavin MacLeod just
Kristin Nilsen 0:50
kept moving. No.
Michelle Newman 0:54
Van Patten? No guys. Manhattan cannot dance neither can pet say Jack and Pat says Jack comes out and sweater vast
Carolyn Cochrane 1:07
is a song that was saying. Come on
will make you
Kristin Nilsen 1:21
welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society. The podcast for people born in the big wheel generation who hanker for a hunk of cheese.
Michelle Newman 1:31
We believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images. And if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear like Marshall will and Holly on a routine expedition.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:42
And today we'll be saving the competition show responsible for the rash of broken arm suffered in basements, backyards and TV rooms while trying the latest tricks seen on the disco era dance show. Dance Fever. I'm Carolyn. I'm
Michelle Newman 1:58
Kristen. And I'm Michelle. And we are your pop culture preservationists dance, baby.
Kristin Nilsen 2:06
Nana, Dance Fever. I've got a factoid about that. That's gonna blow your minds. blow your minds and I know you haven't found it on the Google. If you are a disco Queen like I was. You call dibs on the TV room every Saturday afternoon for the weekly disco dance Oh Rama that was Dance Fever. For 30 minutes once a week I got to be the person I thought I was in my head and adult dressed in a shiny Danskin leotard and matching wrap skirt dancing to the hottest disco hits with my John Travolta look alike dance partner slash boyfriend at the legendary Studio 54. That's what I thought my adult life would be. And Dance Fever was my training ground. I was not there to be entertained. I was there to study. And I know I wasn't the only one who showed up for Dance Fever with this kind of seriousness.
Carolyn Cochrane 2:58
Well, you're the only one I know Chris.
Kristin Nilsen 3:03
I don't know that disco wouldn't go on forever. I had no idea.
Michelle Newman 3:07
Oh, no, it didn't. And even Dance Fever. It didn't last for No it didn't. I loved Dance Fever. I loved it so much. And I grew up dancing too. But I don't remember having aspirations like you did. Kristen. I definitely remember having a crush on Mr. Danny Terrio. Well, sure. I mean, the dark hair the you know, oh, he was so charming. He always pointed, only last joining and then don't you get in his little short break. And he did a little brain function with his hand. And I loved any Cheerio. I love you guys. Think about this. This Dance Fever was such a new concept. It was a reality competition show in 1978 79 and I was all in at 10 years old. And you guys this became like the precursor right to That's right Dancing with the Stars. Right all the voice all these reality competition shows that to this day. I get sucked into and still love. I think it started with Dance Fever. Watching it this past you know few days. As a 54 year old. I have been Husker dude up the wazoo. Literally their sound effects going. Listeners SR sound effect Christian doesn't matter Christian workbook.
Kristin Nilsen 4:24
Because this is a chef and like is the Swedish Chef.
Michelle Newman 4:27
I have had nipa lightning about nipa lightning watching this show because just remembering the DJ to the dancers. It was definitely a show that that was really impactful for me, I think for
Carolyn Cochrane 4:38
sure and I think really represented the times I and how I've decided that if I have the opportunity to put one item in a time capsule to represent the early to mid 80s. It would be a videotape of an episode of Dance Fever. Okay, so much about that time period is encapsulated Didn't each of those episodes, think about it? You had the pop culture celebrity judges you had, what music was popular, what dancing was popular, even the sponsors. I gotta ask you when I saw who the sponsors of the show were and I got teary because so many of those brands are not around and
Michelle Newman 5:18
what about that? What about the Bonaventure Hotel? Oh, yes, with the three big like columns,
Kristin Nilsen 5:25
like mirrored the three mirrored columns. That was the setting for the show. It's a living
Carolyn Cochrane 5:30
well, yeah, and those sponsors I mean, Turtle Wax anyone I can't believe did did we did we just wax our cars all the time? Well.
Michelle Newman 5:40
You know why? It's because it was way before I mean, this was the late 70s. Nobody wax their bodies. So
Carolyn Cochrane 5:46
wax something. Well, you were gonna wax your Isuzu vehicle that you if you want in the finals. That was what you got.
Kristin Nilsen 5:55
To Suzu Yeah, the tiniest little pickup truck. It's like a matchbox car. Yeah, it's adorable. I
Michelle Newman 6:01
wanted that. I wanted that stereo jukebox, the jukebox
Kristin Nilsen 6:05
and it flashed the lights to the beat of the music that also
Michelle Newman 6:09
not only is it a jukebox that has an eight track player in it. It
Kristin Nilsen 6:13
is like it's like a time capsule on crack. It's crazy. Oh, yes. For sure. So I often washed Dance Fever at my friend Don's house, but not with Dawn, with Don's older brother Mike, who was a ninth grader who proudly wore his disco dynamite t shirt to school, even though he got bullied by all the boys who are wearing their disco sucks T shirts. And then when the show was over, we would try the most dangerous of the lifts like like the one where the man holds the that like one arm and one leg and then swings you around? Yes. And sometimes you go up and down a little bit up and down.
Michelle Newman 6:52
And then it's so much the force. Yes. Like you're riding cars, you're
Kristin Nilsen 6:56
riding a wave. Yeah, you're so
Carolyn Cochrane 6:58
close your face in the ground. Kristen, oh, my God,
Kristin Nilsen 7:02
you know, there was shag carpeting, don't worry. And then the one we could never figure out was the one where he would hold on to just one arm and then swing you around on the ground like he's sweeping the ground. But also you're like, the girl was like unwinding, like trapped, twisting and unwinding. We could not figure that one out. Well, putting, yeah.
Michelle Newman 7:22
They still do that on Dancing, dancing with the stars. They do many of those same lifts Indians will do.
Carolyn Cochrane 7:27
You would have gotten some rug burns, you would have had some rug burns. There
Kristin Nilsen 7:31
were lots of rug burns. Injuries. Wait, can
Michelle Newman 7:35
I just backtrack really quick? Let's also time capsule this. In the past five minutes. Both of you have said something that is a phrase no one uses today anymore, but it's so of the 70s. And that's TV room. And nobody calls me Ricky Romany? No, you just say your family room or your living room because everybody has a TV in there?
Kristin Nilsen 7:52
Well, they're the same as a room. So there's no complaint. We carry a TV in our pocket. So it's really real. Yeah. So here's my little factoid for you guys. It's gonna blow your mind. Oh, yeah. So I went on a little solo vacation. A few years ago to Northern California. I was actually doing research for worldwide crush, because there is a location and worldwide crush called Bodega Bay. And so I was on my way to Bodega Bay, and I stopped for the night in a little town called Jenner. And I was staying at a hotel called the timber Cove Lodge. It's really nice. You guys should go there. They have record players in the rooms. Anyway, it's cute. When you arrive at Timber Cove Lodge, they bring you a drink called the remedy. And the remedy is to settle your tummy because you've been driving on all of these windy roads. And so you take your remedy and you go sit down in the sunken living room lobby while you wait for them to get all of your checking and stuff done. And while I'm there, somebody else is drinking their remedy. And so we start chatting the man that I was talking with. His name is Rich Lyons, and we were doing like live what do you do? What do you do? He was a composer. He said we you might know my work from Dance Fever. What he was the man who composed the theme fever
Michelle Newman 9:26
I just want to know what your reaction was. Did you like throw your remedy?
Kristin Nilsen 9:31
It was a moment. It was one of those moments you almost don't know what to say. I was like
Michelle Newman 9:38
he's used that line on so many decades, just waiting for the reaction like you gave him every time he said someone's gone. I don't know about that. Or I don't care. They have this puzzled look in their eyes and they try to maybe make him feel better by going Oh, that's great. And then he finally he's like I'm gonna find that per said that one person and he found you and
Kristin Nilsen 10:02
that's how you know it's true. Because you can't develop a lie that isn't that won't freak people out. Right? The lie has to be impressive. That's
Carolyn Cochrane 10:09
right. It has to be the truth. Yeah.
Kristin Nilsen 10:11
And I wanted to go find my journal. Should I? I wanted to see what I wrote about it. Can you guys just hold for one second?
Oh, here it is. I found it. Oh my god. Oh, my gosh. I retired to the lobby bar and order a cheese plate and a remedy. A man sits down next to me and we chat for an hour on and off. He's a local moved here from LA and he just happened to write the theme song for Dance Fever. He is lovely. We shake hands and he introduces himself. Richard Lyons. Oh, that's all I wrote.
Carolyn Cochrane 10:52
I still love it.
Kristin Nilsen 10:54
I know. I'm so glad I found that. That means I know I didn't leave anything important out. Richard Lyons Hi, I'm the composer for Dance Fever.
Carolyn Cochrane 11:22
You could hear that theme song at the beginning of every episode of Dance Fever, which ran from January of 1979 until it was canceled in 1987. But gosh, that was a long time. 234 episodes
Kristin Nilsen 11:37
way longer than I thought I certainly didn't watch it that long. I would have told you it was on for 1979 and that was it. Right?
Carolyn Cochrane 11:42
You would have thought disco and then we know as gun. Yep, disco died. And then what would you do? Well, lo and behold. A lot of dancing out there,
Michelle Newman 11:52
huh? Pop and Loch
Kristin Nilsen 11:54
Ness whacking.
Carolyn Cochrane 11:56
clog. Danny Terrio was our host for the majority of those episodes. The last two seasons. The show was hosted by Do you guys know who it was? I do
Kristin Nilsen 12:08
believe Yeah, it was weird to me, but also perfect. I guess. It wasn't Kristen. It was Adrian's Ahmed, which is the best name in Hollywood ever is
Carolyn Cochrane 12:18
TJ. Everybody if you didn't remember that Angries too. That's right. He started Michelle Pfeiffer. And he was actually one of the celebrity judges. Yes, in that episode. So I guess he must have made a big splash in that and they thought we want him all the time. So
Kristin Nilsen 12:33
just because he looked like Danny.
Michelle Newman 12:36
Or they're like, maybe people won't know. Because I'll be honest with you, when I was been when I've been looking for like images to post on social media, and things for Dance Fever. i Some I always just I'm like, Well, you just have to use the images with Danny Terrio. Because that's that's who we're our generation remembers. But I'll save an image and then after, like, zoom it in and on closer inspection. I'm like, Adrian's a mad. But when I
Kristin Nilsen 13:04
said that's what it is. They said, Who looks like Danny Terrio. And let's just slide him in there.
Carolyn Cochrane 13:09
Well, each of those 234 episodes pretty much had the same format. So we would begin each episode with a dance routine that was performed by Denny and motion. I
Kristin Nilsen 13:21
love motion motion.
Carolyn Cochrane 13:22
Tell us about motion, Kristen.
Kristin Nilsen 13:24
So motion, we're basically Denny Terios backup dancers. It was always two women, it wasn't always the same women. And we'll talk about who they were a little bit in in a minute. And sometimes they would just sort of be like the hosts, like, you know, like on the Academy Awards, when somebody brings you the envelope. So motion would also take care of those duties to in addition to dancing with Danny Terrio. Right.
Carolyn Cochrane 13:47
So we'd have this opening little dance sequence. And then we'd get my favorite part. As you can imagine, ladies and gentlemen, Danny would introduce the celebrity judges every episode, and here's where motion didn't do one of their tasks. They Oh, yes. Escort out the celebrity judge. But did they didn't just walk out? No, no, no, they had to do a little dance move. So oh, it was painful. It's
Michelle Newman 14:13
so stressful. So prance? Yeah, I hold the celebrity judges hand way up high. And they do that little that little almost like horse prance out. Yes, they're stretching the
Carolyn Cochrane 14:24
the celebrities try to you know, cut a rug a little
Kristin Nilsen 14:29
bit. They try to dance their way down. You just want to slide
Carolyn Cochrane 14:33
under a table for them like Gavin cloud just
Kristin Nilsen 14:37
kept moving. No.
Michelle Newman 14:40
Van Patten Van Patten cannot dance neither can pet say Jack and Pat Sajak comes out and sweater vest. And you guys here's my thought. Just maybe do a run through with motion of how you're gonna come out. How many celebrities awkward dancer yours did I just watch who like Dick Van Patten had say Jack and they tried to do like a hit bump with motion but motion doesn't know that they're gonna do that on Patton's hip goes to the right to she's doing a twirl to the side because she doesn't know so it even makes poor Dickman Pat look even more awkward.
Kristin Nilsen 15:21
No second takes. I cannot believe the things that I saw that they let stand at one point, Jane Seymour like RAM. You didn't want to do that again.
Michelle Newman 15:33
Yeah, I know. I know. And then one time one of the male celebrities, it could have been Pat Sajak. I don't know he tries to do the thing where you spin the girl out and they spin back in. Motion girl didn't know so when she spun back in he like went forward and they just crash. Lots of
Kristin Nilsen 15:51
crashing. There's so much crashing. They should have a plan. Just feel so bad. These people are not dancers. They should just have them like have motion come dancing up and maybe have the celebrity like walk out purposefully down the middle. That would have been so much better. But instead you're asking Dickman Patton to like Boogie right? It
Carolyn Cochrane 16:11
has it gave me the vibes of when we watched that sequence on chips when the roller
Kristin Nilsen 16:18
oh my god McClanahan is trying to roller skating
Michelle Newman 16:22
to do the roller
Carolyn Cochrane 16:25
coaster French skates on I don't think
Michelle Newman 16:30
he just was like
Kristin Nilsen 16:33
isn't that Oh, no, that's Mr.
Michelle Newman 16:34
Edwards. Yeah,
Kristin Nilsen 16:35
that's right Mr. footplate. Mr. Sebastian. Okay, here we go down. Sorry.
Carolyn Cochrane 16:41
Yeah. Getting back to the episodes. Okay. After that wonderful introduction of our celebrity judges, then we move into the meat of the show, okay, in the competition. Now, every episode, we would have four couples, and they would do a dance. And they are going to be judged on this dance by our friends, the celebrity judge because they were going to be judged on their originality on their showmanship and on their execution. Like, I don't know what Kevin MacLeod is gonna know if they did execution. It's not like, you know, Derek Hough is who's a professional is gonna say, Oh, you didn't do the salsa correctly. You're kidding.
Michelle Newman 17:21
I was watching one of the judging sequences, and I think it was like Lyle Wagner. Wagner basically, this is his commentary. He's like, I thought they just knocked it out of the park. And she's got nice legs. Yes.
Kristin Nilsen 17:34
Oh, man was like, and that's a sexy lady 98.
Michelle Newman 17:41
The poor dancers like on the one hand, do you think they worked really hard on their originality and their showmanship, and then that's what they're getting judged on their process. And that's fine. We'll take the 90 Whatever.
Kristin Nilsen 17:51
$1,000 I'm taking it.
Carolyn Cochrane 17:53
That's right. So they got judged on an arranged from 70 to 100. Okay, and then the couple with the highest average score at the end of the evening, would be the winner of that episode. Now. If it was in the beginning of the season, this was when we were going to be finding out who would go on to the semi finals. So if you won one of those first episodes, you want $1,000. And you had probably got to that performance, you probably flew on Eastern Airlines, because that was the I think the official airline of Dancing with the Stars. Right.
Kristin Nilsen 18:25
And you stayed at the Bonaventure Hotel stayed
Carolyn Cochrane 18:27
at the Bonaventure Hotel, and they could win $5,000. If they won the semi finals. That's been that's big, but it's actually done a little calculating. And then you could go on to the finals. And there you would win a Grand Prize of $7,500. Oh, wow. At the end of the day, you would have made you could have won $10,000 If you want the whole kit. Yeah. If
Michelle Newman 18:53
you want. Yeah, yeah,
Kristin Nilsen 18:54
more than that. 5000 plus 100 plus 1000. Yeah, Kristin says 1500. See, I can do maths. Sorry, I don't know where and there were no ties
Carolyn Cochrane 19:03
over that. I saw there no ties at all. And I've got to go back just a little bit to when we were talking about the judges giving their scores. Just like you said, Michelle, they'd have their kind of fun little quippy remarks as to why they came up with their particular score. And then they would just hold up a sign kind of Allah newlywed name. And that would have the score on it. And they'd say, I give them an ad. And then you know, the next person would maybe say, I give them a 95. And you think, what did you guys not watch the same thing? It was? Yes. Kind of, but not experts.
Michelle Newman 19:37
I watched an episode where it was I'm gonna forget her name. She's an ice skater. She was like a silver medal. Linda Friday yawning or something like Oh, yeah. And she Yeah. So she's actually judging on technique. And yes, like that, like her little, her little, you know, spiel about before. She said, you know, 85 was actually it was it was like, well, she's probably used to know Those
Carolyn Cochrane 20:00
that's RAM technical marks and Lyle Wagner does
Kristin Nilsen 20:03
not have the background that Linda Friday ani hands and he's when that happened they would always say and they sure looked like they were having a good time. Yeah, well they were having so much fun. They're having fun think they
Carolyn Cochrane 20:15
must have a little cue card with some set comments on there because I can't tell you how many of them knocked it out of the park. Oh, yes. That was that was a lot. Also what was kind of fun about every episode of dancing not Dancing with the Stars it's not called that it's called Dance Fever. Every episode of Dance Fever also included a musical guest and they had pretty high level musical guests. Another reason why this would be a great time capsule item because you could also know who was at the top of the chart and send see them perform live on dance with
Kristin Nilsen 20:49
the biggest microphone I've ever seen actually, when Evelyn champagne King was on the microphones like a spear it was like three feet long and she's like trying to dance and groove with her giant microphone I was like be careful with that.
Carolyn Cochrane 21:01
And you know it probably for some of those artists that Evelyn champagne kings the Rick Springfield's that gap, man. I guess this was exciting like we got we have booked on dance later tonight show. And it was interesting too. I just wanted to say that each of those dance performances by the contestants was only like 90 to 120 seconds. We're not talking about like a full, you know, five minute song or anything like that. It was a little snippet of time, but boy could they find a lot of movies
Michelle Newman 21:33
22nd There's a lot of lifted
Carolyn Cochrane 21:35
Dance Fever. And it's fever. Fever fever.
Michelle Newman 21:41
Well, Dance Fever was originally created by Merv Griffin, who had already created Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. And the idea was conceived after a special Merv Griffin episode like his talk show episode. That was saluting the movie. Everybody wait for it. Thank God it's Friday thank God
Kristin Nilsen 22:13
thank God thank god
Michelle Newman 22:21
okay, do you guys remember here's that was I was actually who Oscar dude by that. I loved that movie. I loved the soundtrack. If you remember it was an all star cast. Donna Summer it had Debra Winger Jeff Goldbloom. The Commodores so there had been a special Merv Griffin Talk Show episode that was saluting that movie. Thank God it's Friday. The plot of the movie was about couples competing for a disco title. But the original formula for Dance Fever is far different from what it became MERV wanted to have current celebrities dancing with professional disco dancers. Basically Merv Griffin thought of dancers in 1970. Yeah. But the producer couldn't get any celebrities or pro dancers to sign on to that idea because they were all afraid that look really stupid. Literally a few days before the pilot for Dance Fever aired the producer just pulled four couples from thank God, it's frightening. For some celebrity judges, celebrity judges, these are three people I want to have at a dinner party. Sherman Hemsley, Barbie Benton and herb
Kristin Nilsen 23:30
that was the first episode. Those are the judges. Oh, yes.
Michelle Newman 23:34
But so so listeners next time someone asks you that question three people living or dead you want to have dinner with those are your three. Because the producer was like, yeah, no, no one's gonna watch this anyway. But you guys, thank God he was wrong. Because Carolyn just told us that 200 And something so So yeah, that's kind of how it all began.
Kristin Nilsen 23:55
As Carolyn mentioned at the beginning, our host for Dance Fever was Danny Terrio. The man who was responsible for teaching John Travolta how to dance for Saturday Night Fever, supposedly, because I don't know you guys. I've looked in the credits. I've never seen his name in the credits. I think he should be in the credits. But there is photographic evidence of him dancing with John Travolta and nobody ever disputes that he taught John Travolta how to dance so I'm confused. Let's just say I'm confused. So everything about Danny Terrio screamed 1979 The dark feathered hair the gold chain the suit jacket cuts so you can dance in it. Basically the look for men in 1979 Was this John Travolta slash Tony Minero struggling with your paint cans swinging by your side look, and Danny Terrio fits the bill. As does Adrian cement. Let's be honest. Right So Danny Terrio rode this look this trend and this moment where he taught John Travolta how to dance all the way into a career on Dance Fever, which fit him like a glove Danny Terrio actually grew up in Florida that kind of surprised me. And he says he got into dancing because of his older sister. This is what he said. The great thing about having an older sister is she had girlfriends who spent the night I would peek into the window and see them all dancing. I realized women love to dance and started telling guys, they needed to learn how to dance to get the girls. So he himself became a dancer to get the girls which you can sort of see on the show. And it wasn't too long before he was winning dance competitions. And then somehow he got a meeting with John Travolta's, manager before the filming of Saturday Night Fever, and was like, just let me show you my moves. Just let me just give me a minute. Just give me I'll show you my moves. And as manager was like, Yes, this is the style we're going for. You're hired. So while he was on Dance Fever, he actually appeared in a few movies and guest starred on a few TV shows, including The Love Boat, of course. I mean, I was gonna say do a horse course if you are going to be on one show. It would be The Love Boat, right? And I bet he just plays Danny Terrio he probably just plays his name is like Benny Merio and he's dance instructor on the boat. Yes, yeah, dancin for sure that is the storyline and he falls in love with Barbie Benton. And yeah,
Carolyn Cochrane 26:14
rumor he's teaching McLanahan
Kristin Nilsen 26:17
McLanahan falls in love with him. But he's not in love with her because he's in love with Barbie Finn.
Michelle Newman 26:21
Because doc has a crush on Robert Barbie. Oh Barbie baton really loves his crush on Danny teasing and loves square. And
Kristin Nilsen 26:31
so the other cast members, the other permanent cast members on on Danny tear on Danny taro on Dance Fever, were as mentioned before motion. And I just thought it was so funny that they were called motion, not the motion. They're just motion. And so motion was the name of the duo of women who danced with Danny Terrio. In the opening number of Dance Fever. It's sort of reeks of a threesome a little bit because he kind of treats them like his ladies, you know, like, and I have to I don't just have one lady I have to and one member of motion would always bring him the results of the competition, handing him a little piece of paper with you know, couple number four written on it. And they would always linger over a kiss when they brought the results. It's gross. It's just like, and then he'll always like look at the audience like wiggle his eyebrows like or, you know, straighten his suit jacket or something like like, Get over yourself, Danny, the caller. So one of those women was a dancer named Janet Jones, which might be a name that sounds familiar to you. You might remember her from her role in the movie version of a chorus line, or from the 1986 Gymnastics movie called American anthem with Mitch Gaylord. Or,
Michelle Newman 27:41
oh grief, I actually had posters.
Kristin Nilsen 27:49
poster. My
Carolyn Cochrane 27:50
sister for my birthday made me like a collage and one of those acrylic like, you know, where she cut out all these pictures of Mitch Gaylord I was in I hung it in college,
Kristin Nilsen 27:59
or you might remember Janet Jones as Wayne Gretzky's wife. So when they got married, it was a big Hollywood whoop dee doo. And he changed teams from the Edmonton is it the Oilers, making the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings, he left Canada. He left his winning team and he went to the Los Angeles Kings and hockey fans were pissed. And they blamed Janet Jones saying that she was making him move to LA for her career. But she has said if I made a move here for my career, why did I promptly get pregnant five times? Like she she was pregnant for like eight years straight as soon as he moved to Los Angeles, you know, that would you know that would take her out of the running for most gymnastics movies, obviously. So before Judge Jones for
Michelle Newman 28:48
your career as a motion. What I mean nowadays,
Kristin Nilsen 28:51
they would say that that was discrimination. Can you imagine if one of motion was pregnant?
So actually, before Janet Jones was cast in motion, she was a competitor on Dance Fever. So I'm assuming that's how she got the job. And she met Wayne Gretzky when he was a judge on dance femur,
Carolyn Cochrane 29:13
I did not know.
Kristin Nilsen 29:15
In 1984.
Michelle Newman 29:17
That's a great MC cube.
Kristin Nilsen 29:18
It's Dance Fever love.
Michelle Newman 29:20
Ah. We'd like to pause here for just a moment. And thank those of you who have left reviews for us sharing your feelings about this podcast so that others can hear for themselves what a good time we're having together. I'd like to share this one from sweet tea 1970 on Apple podcasts. She says my fave podcast, exclamation point. This podcast is good for my health. I tend to listen to a lot of political podcasts and this is the only one that brings my blood pressure down instead of making it go up. It also motivates me to walk my dog instead of sitting on the couch watching The news. I've listened to every episode some more than once, and I'm about to start from the beginning and listen to them all again. Again. Wow, it's a lot of us sweet tea, you are providing a public service a respite from modern stresses and negativity. Thank you, Carolyn, Kristen and Michelle. Thank you, sweetie. Listen, you know what we're good for people's health is. I
Carolyn Cochrane 30:25
think the Surgeon General needs to recommend us Excel. Sure. Thank you so much sweet tea. It's reviews like this that magically bring us more listeners and more friends into the society of Gen Xers. So people keep those reviews coming. And now let's get back to the show.
Kristin Nilsen 30:46
This is interesting, you guys. I have always associated the Song Pop music by M pop music. I've always associated that song with Dance Fever. And it's a really, really strong a really, really strong connection. But I never understood why because this is not disco. This was a song that heralded the death of disco. Actually, it was it was saying Here comes new wave. So why do I have this association? Wasn't this post Dance Fever. So I've actually convinced myself that I created a false memory about this. Like maybe I had a dream or something about it. But when I started doing my research, the very first episode of Dance Fever that I opened on YouTube opens with Danny Terrio, performing a solo to pop music. This is where my memory comes from. The brain is so bizarre, you guys it is so bizarre. This was an episode from 1979. And it was not any Terios best day. He appeared to be unprepared. And truthfully not very good at dancing.
Michelle Newman 31:51
With the jukebox Yes. Oh, jukebox
Kristin Nilsen 31:54
and he like he's like hiding behind the box. I think that's where he was planning what he was going to do. And then he like pops up. And then it's that kind of you're not supposed to improvise. They're supposed to be choreographed. But he looks very much like he's improvising but in a way where you're going okay, first, okay, whacking. whacking rocking. Okay, stop the robot.
Michelle Newman 32:13
Just deep lunge. And you guys he jumps Hana mindset. He's pressing the buttons on the jukebox for like, 16 counts in a deep lunge pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing.
Kristin Nilsen 32:24
And then he would stop and you could he would do something else. And then he'd go back to Bulgaria. But yes, like he and he's not doing anything else creative, always poking the buttons. That's the choreography Poke, poke. I'm choosing a song. I'm choosing a song on the jukebox. Yeah, I'm not kidding. It's really this long. That's how long it was a
Michelle Newman 32:44
for a for a for a Ford. He slides down the jukebox. And then He slides down the other side of the jukebox. And another thing about that open is where's motion? What happened that day in the studio? You guys oh my god, it was God. Right. And he was he was using paired something.
Kristin Nilsen 33:06
Yes. Oh, I feel so much better because I'm like what is going on right now and it But truthfully, you guys, he should be able to improvise better than that. He should be that's his job. His job is to be a dancer. He was not but there. You're right. There was a backstage accident with motion
Michelle Newman 33:21
or something. Yeah. And so what happened here it is. Okay, listeners. This was the E True Hollywood Story story on what happened on this episode of dancing, Dance Fever. He also would kind of pop his collar a lot. Probably had that color. Oh, here's what happened. Something happened backstage. There was an argument there was a tussle. There was some sort of jealous fight. One of the motion dancers said, Eff you Danny Terrio. You're making eyes at her and walked off. And so all the choreography got scrapped. The young Griffin pushes in a jukebox sounds a jukebox and we're live and for three pop music news and he just starts up cut downs in on it and then He slides down and he pushes and he's worried
Kristin Nilsen 34:07
he's not gonna get his threesome that night. It's bad. It's bad and then at the end and then he ends the whole routine by like you you do your pop and lock to the back of the jukebox and then you just go down behind it. We're hiding behind the jukebox and then he pops out like it's me. Now we're gonna start the show. It was is a radio video with a suitcase don't forget about the rat race
so in this episode, the judges are Bobby van who I don't know I think that's somebody my grandma would know. Jane Seymour. Are Robert shields of shields in yarn now? And Benji
Michelle Newman 35:08
it wasn't just Jane Seymour. It was Jane Seymour and Benjamin and
Kristin Nilsen 35:12
they weren't they Yes. And so they came dancing down the little runway together and Benji stands on his hind legs with his paws out like somebody dance with me take my paws and dance with me. And
Michelle Newman 35:24
the whole show if you look over at the judges, it's just Jade Seymour sitting up on the top seat, Benji just sitting next to her oh my gosh, think
Carolyn Cochrane 35:36
how excited we were when that? Like, oh my god, oh my God. He
Kristin Nilsen 35:44
judged as a team to Jane Seymour and Benji judged as a TS and she would even say things like, I let Benji take this on and then you go back.
Michelle Newman 35:55
And listeners we should say it was Benji but it he was that he was on the show because he and Jane Seymour. Were co starring in that Heavenly Dog or something like that. Oh, heavenly. Heavenly Dog. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it was several years post Benji. Yeah. But we know him as Benji.
Carolyn Cochrane 36:14
Benji, his name?
Kristin Nilsen 36:16
Oh my god. Oh, it was Robert shields with his job. Very magnolia. Now there's no yarn now. It's just Robert shields. And he fancies himself the inventor of the robot. If you recall from our dynamic episode, he thinks he invented this. So you can already sense he's got a little chip on his shoulder like everybody's doing my move. And they're not doing it as good as me. And he's got some moves to share. So when he comes down the introductory dance floor, he's like every bit backup backup, it's time for the mind to do some dancing. And he and he looks just like Danny Terrio also, he's also got that 1979 look with the bell bottoms and the jacket and the and the black feathered hair. And it's interesting. They introduce him like this. They say you know him from the fantastic miming duo shields and yarn now, but he's also a fantastic solo act. So I have to wonder if they were transitioning into post shields in urinal like they were divorcing and he's like, Oh my god, am I gonna mind by myself? What am I going to do? I'm gonna start talking.
Michelle Newman 37:17
There's no one knows me in the box
Carolyn Cochrane 37:24
it's just Gosh, and he
Michelle Newman 37:26
in his dance. He does those like split leaps where you fall on the floor, like where his legs are made of rubber. He's like, Oh, he's like show and he's like, up and down and up and down. And then did you notice that he gets denied that that then he comes up and Danny Terrio put his hand out to shake his hand and he walks away from meals just walks away?
Carolyn Cochrane 37:48
Because he's so mad that Danny did the robot and not very well.
Kristin Nilsen 37:53
Oh my god Lee Yes. The
Carolyn Cochrane 37:55
beginning in
Kristin Nilsen 37:56
the jukebox routine, the jukebox, which is my robot when
Michelle Newman 37:58
one when the motion dancer got upset and left and everybody was like, how are we going to open the show? He was probably going I'll do it. I'll do it. And they were like, no, come on. That's ridiculous.
Kristin Nilsen 38:11
Right? He was any as the star he was.
Michelle Newman 38:13
He was still a little salty about Yeah,
Kristin Nilsen 38:15
he probably wanted them to put like, you know, Robert shields TM whenever Danny Terrio does the robot TM TM rubber seals TM. TM. Oh my god.
Carolyn Cochrane 38:25
So Kristin, you said you did not know who Bobby van was? No, I don't know what I did. Judges. I didn't either. When I saw who the list of judges were when he came out and dance. I thought it looks vaguely familiar. So I gotta get out my shovel. I gotta start the digging. How do I know Bobby man? Well, he's a game show host. I don't remember any game shows until I remember the game show. He hosted the game show. Make me laugh. Do either of you remember make me laugh? So?
Michelle Newman 38:55
Yeah, it the second comedian that yeah, you laugh basis right? Like
Carolyn Cochrane 38:59
you're in a studio audience like crisis. Right? And it would be you know, Jenny Smith come on down. And you sat in this like round thing with a, you know, in a chair kind of like a la $10,000 pyramid when they're at the pyramid and a little pod. Yeah, and a little pod and you have three different comedians that are going to try to make you laugh, and my sister and I would play this would play make me laugh. And I had these mixed emotions when I would watch the show because obviously I wanted the contestants to do well and not laugh, but he felt really bad for the comedian. Really hard.
Kristin Nilsen 39:39
Emotions. I don't like yes,
Carolyn Cochrane 39:41
I agree. Okay, you
Kristin Nilsen 39:42
have totally whoscored
Carolyn Cochrane 39:45
Yes, that was one of my Bork moments, because oh my gosh, I would have never thought of that show ever again. Had I not done now a little digging. But anyway, Yes, Bobby van host of make me laugh. That
Kristin Nilsen 39:56
is so interesting. I think I get it mixed up with A Polish Prince who's
Michelle Newman 40:03
the Polish
Carolyn Cochrane 40:09
Bobby, is that
Kristin Nilsen 40:11
Vinnie Vincent Bobby Vinton. Is that the Polish Prince? Yeah, does he sing volare?
Michelle Newman 40:19
I'm gonna bring us I'm gonna bring because I want to share them. My favorite part by far of the early episodes that I have forgotten about. I know your descriptions. Oh my god that Danny terrier reads as they're dancing. Just let me give you a couple from this episode. Oh please. Mary Ellen as a secretary who hopes to be the first woman to waltz on the moon. Here's another one. Both Bobby and Beverly sell clothes. Beverly breeds horses and Bobby's ambition is to be the next Denny Terrio
Kristin Nilsen 40:54
this one in his spare time rich builds his own swimming pools. Cheryl is a floral designer and dreams about dancing on Barry Manilow is piano was a good one.
Michelle Newman 41:03
That was a good one.
Carolyn Cochrane 41:05
I gotta say I think Kristen I cracked the code maybe on why you were such a huge fan of Dance Fever. Because Did you all see how many of the contestants came from Minneapolis St. Paul,
Kristin Nilsen 41:17
I only saw one which was hilarious. I saw like for your kids.
Carolyn Cochrane 41:22
And I have this theory that maybe Minneapolis was a hub for where you could do like be maybe elimin airy auditions because my regional competition Yeah, American Idol. You know they have these places that people would go because there were several Minneapolis St. Paul. Ones that I saw one. The woman was a med student at the U and her dream was to become the team doctor for the Vikings. Okay,
Kristin Nilsen 41:46
my favorite was Sherry is a theater student who thinks Tom Selleck is the hottest hunk around. Oh
Michelle Newman 41:52
my gosh. Oh, Jenny. Terry Riley got so mad. Oh, he was
Kristin Nilsen 41:57
oh wait, what about this one? Yvette is a dental hygienist who dreams of being a Rockette. Okay, okay. But the with the Minneapolis people that I saw, I only saw one and they danced to roll out the barrel. doing like a full on Polka poke up, woke up and I was like, No. And they talked about Midwestern flair here, Bobby and Tammy from Minneapolis doing roll out the
Michelle Newman 42:25
barrel. No, that's not the kind of originality I think they're talking Oh, well, I
Carolyn Cochrane 42:31
did read that. Because some of these people are really good dancers. And they were actually some of them were semi professional dancers. So some people were I think worked at amusement parks and some of that dancing shows in the summer.
Kristin Nilsen 42:44
The ferris wheel or something
Carolyn Cochrane 42:47
that related say one of the couples worked at and met at the amusement park where they worked now I'm imagining in my head I have this cute this great meet cute where you know they were in one of the little stage productions at Six Flags Over Texas. I never thought that they were running the log shoot but they were
Kristin Nilsen 43:04
doing roll out the barrel. Oh my god, they just bounced. They're doing their Polka and they're just bouncing bouncing someone
Michelle Newman 43:11
though, Kristen, that you failed to mention when you were talking about the the cast did that watching these episodes made me remember how much I loved and I think you guys too is DJ Freeman. Freeman king. He always rhymed, like the first few seasons. And I'm gonna get to who did this in the later and after 1980. But the first few seasons, he announced what they were dancing to. Yeah, and he did it as a rhyme and he always wore a hat with a like a record album stuck to it so like
Kristin Nilsen 43:41
flop around. I was always worried the record was gonna fall off. Yes,
Michelle Newman 43:44
that was I got so who screwed when I saw that. I was like, Yes, I remember. Oh
Kristin Nilsen 43:48
my god so funny. Music Man,
Speaker 1 43:51
DJ Freeman. from Miami to Frisco.
Unknown Speaker 44:02
Looking for this
Michelle Newman 44:04
episode with Jane Seymour and Benji the dancing was so funny it was shown of 1979 So um, and you know what I realized not only do the male dancers dress like their ice dancers like their ice skaters with the very like the spandex units hard, almost like overall type thing and then a satin shirt underneath it or just nothing under chested, but they do all the same lifts. Now I know on Dancing with the Stars. Currently, ballroom dancing does have some of the dances require a lot of lifts. But these are different lifts. These are the types of lifts they do on ice dancing. Like say you hold the woman up over your head like a barbell. Yeah. And then she somehow spins like five times down and you catch her with one arm under her leg and one arm like a Jacob's Ladder almost.
Kristin Nilsen 44:51
It's like Jacob's Ladder. She goes, You try that in the TV room? No, no, it was mostly just swinging around and trying not to cry thing I when
Michelle Newman 45:00
he catches her she's literally like an inch from the ground. And she started up high over his head. Oh my god. So there's those things but in this one episode you guys remember the couple and when it starts Oh, they all also start with a starting Pope. Oh, yeah, sometimes they're like on the floor. Yes. Or a Roman so much robot so much robot robot robot. Robot robot lift spin robot. Robot lift robot kick, butt. The lady started by kicking at him. It was like a little like this was there. What is that originality? What's one of the things the Helman
Kristin Nilsen 45:34
originality action?
Michelle Newman 45:36
Yeah, it's one of so So yeah, let's so they're telling a story and she's kicking it on. But you guys, she's kicking like Sally O'Malley. Like she's literally like, just kicking on kick. And he's not flexible. And she can barely count. And she's kicking at him. And I'm like, oh, no, honey. That's that's uh, you know, I give you a seven
Kristin Nilsen 45:56
and there was a lot of rerun right so which I'm, I'm there for the rerun Right. and rerun being rerun from from what's happening, which is a lot of I have that. I can't say it in words. I'm just doing
Michelle Newman 46:08
the but Christian I actually have that written down because I watched one episode where they wore little white gloves, like baggy Yellow pants, white paper boy like newsboy hats, little white glasses, and they do that kind of pop and lock kin that kind of and I wrote down just like they looked like
Kristin Nilsen 46:25
I could watch rerun dance all frickin day, like and then the next people would come on, and they she'd have her high heels on like, get rid of the high heels. I want rerun back.
Michelle Newman 46:35
Yeah, yeah. And lots of ripping off the lady skirt. Oh, yeah. They have the flowy skirt. You do twirls and all of a sudden the man rips her
Carolyn Cochrane 46:44
little skirt and you know sometimes they'd like twirl out of the skirt and be like,
Kristin Nilsen 46:48
that's why you need a wrap skirt. So
Michelle Newman 46:50
you can unwrap this. Oh, as you Taurus. Yeah, another one of my favorites from 79. As I said, Cindy is a registered nurse and picks up extra money belly dancing.
Carolyn Cochrane 47:00
Well, one of the Minneapolis St. Paul people she that's what she did in her spare time was belly dance. Maybe? I don't know maybe they've made it to the semi finals. Well,
Michelle Newman 47:10
did you guys know that by 1980 all that spandex was getting replaced with jogging outfits and oh my god clothing like parachute pants and tennis shoes. And bad move. Judy landers now gives the couple's descriptions before they dance in that breathy voice and should go Peter enjoys studying physical education and duck hunting.
Kristin Nilsen 47:33
I like voiceover better while they're dancing Judy is
Michelle Newman 47:38
much better and it would just show her and she'd be like like and you guys to be honest with you when I saw her I'm like it's a Landers. And here's what's like is this is this impressive or embarrassing as a Gen X or when you know it's a landers and you know that it's either Judy or Audrey you know their names. Why? Because of Love Boat, of course, because
Kristin Nilsen 47:56
their names are right under their porthole Oh, wait.
Michelle Newman 47:58
I had so first I was like, oh, let's try Audrey. Audrey. No, no, no credits on Audrey for Dance Fever. I'm like, Well, maybe it's Judy. As I'm typing in, I'm thinking, good God. Michelle, that's Wait, that is such superfluous information to have in your brain. Like,
Kristin Nilsen 48:13
I'll have it. Okay. And the whole workout trend is strong, right? And there was one routine that was to I have the tiger. And the guy looks exactly like Arnold Schwarzenegger. And she and the girls like a little mini shorten Schwarzenegger. And they basically do calisthenics for the whole routine to actually start the routine. It's like bump, bump, bump bump, I have the tiger and they get down on the floor and do sit ups, their choreography and sit ups. And then they get up and they do some windmills, touch your toes. Touch your toes. This is choreography. Yeah. Touch your toes. Yeah,
Michelle Newman 48:51
that's not very original. I give him a shot.
Carolyn Cochrane 49:14
So interesting, the way we watched these episodes, and you guys are a lot into the actual dances like what they were doing. I mean, I watched those too, but I was kind of speeding through to the celebrity judges. Like I wanted to see what they had to say that was the big thing for me. And that's why I tuned in every week, like who's going to be the judge. And so no doubt that was always so much fun. But I think what even took it to the next level and was so I don't have the adjective for it. I'm going to figure it out one day about the show, but how they put these judges together. So when you see who was on one show you would have Jamie Farr Tristan Rogers and Jill Whelan. I mean you had like yes, yes, along with me here. I'm Robert Scorpio. Yeah, and Robert Scorpio who by the way is who's like shirt was on buttoned down to his like belly way when he thought he could dance and he really couldn't. And then we had Melissa Gilbert Jimmy Bayeux and Casey from Casey and the Sunshine Band that was a combination. And maybe one of my favorites was Ray Bolger from The Wizard of Oz. Lynn Redgrave and our friend, the PCPs friend, Jean Anthony Ray came from Fame Fame from Roy Roy from Roy painstakingly watched this these people dance. Oh, that must have been torture for him. I know can you imagine?
Michelle Newman 51:02
Again, anytime we need to know who we're going to take to dead or alive to a cocktail party or dinner party, we just need to go back and watch and pick one of the three judges whoever they put together.
Kristin Nilsen 51:16
That's the Scarecrow and boy, half of that your dinner party will take brilliant I love it so much.
Carolyn Cochrane 51:24
Oh, that one just so Riley
Kristin Nilsen 51:26
shields is sort of in the same category as Jean Anthony Ray. i He just seemed pissed to be watching these people. I'm pretty sure he thought I could do this better. And also, what I learned is that Robert shields is a better mind than he is speaker. Like when he opened his mouth. He just was so not interesting. But he you know, everybody else had fun little quips like you guys were having such a good time. And Robert shields was like, the execution was good. 91 And I thought, dude, I
Michelle Newman 51:54
think miming is your jam. Yeah, if they want to let a moment my
Kristin Nilsen 51:57
mere response, he would have been so much more creative. You
Carolyn Cochrane 52:01
know, but I bet he was trying to branch out from just the mind. I think you're right. Yes. It's kind of his step into I actually do speak, and not very well.
Michelle Newman 52:11
You guys. Honest to goodness, could we please just one time just do a whole episode unscripted, where we just talk about shielding, so we're just gonna why don't I think listeners right now there's a lot of listeners who have been with us since the beginning and understand how this is a recurring thing that just never fails to crack us. And we just can't stop.
Kristin Nilsen 52:31
We can't let say shields in urinal without like dissolving into laughter every single time. At the end of this 1979 episode that I watched Dan, and he didn't do this every episode, but he did it in quite a few episodes. Danny Terrio invites all of the contestants and the judges onto the stage for a dance lesson. And he's going to teach them a dance move. And in this 1979 episode, he's going to teach them a move called the Steve Martin. And this, this is basically you're going to bend your arms at the elbows and then you're just going to move your arm side to side move from side to side. That's it because you were dancing now. I think Danny Terrio made this up while he was behind the jukebox. He's like, What am I gonna do for the dance lesson?
Michelle Newman 53:16
I was gonna say I was gonna say why didn't he just teach them and we're gonna poke the jukebox and poke and poke. He's like, you just got your eye everyone ever just extend your finger. Choose Yourself and you just go for it.
Kristin Nilsen 53:30
And you guys, he wasn't even. I'm going back to the jukebox. Now. He's not even like grooving. He's not even grooving. While he's poking the jukebox. He's standing still and poking and poking and poking. It was painful. Okay, listeners,
Michelle Newman 53:43
you might think we're decorating this like she's like we're not and prove it that the the link to that episode is going on the weekend. This Friday. Again, if you're not subscribed yet, it's very easy to do just go to our website at pop preservationists.com and sign up and it is just our Weekly Reader comes straight to your email inbox. What other inbox comes to your inbox every Friday morning and it's really just short. I don't know what about you guys like a three minute read? Just have fun facts extra facts from the episode we just had plus other fun fun stuff we'd like to throw in. So we're going to put the jukebox episode and that's the one with Jane Seymour Benji and Banshee. And she'll enjoy shields. You're welcome.
Speaker 2 54:33
Dansby was starring Diddy Terrio. Show featuring the country's top disco dance. This year competing for cash and prizes worth more than $75,000 With this week's celebrity judge. Oh Heavenly Dog Star James Seymour and Benji the very entertaining crabbet Make me laugh doc Bobby fan. Evelyn champagne King You know, here's Danny. Okay,
Carolyn Cochrane 55:02
buckle up everybody because this is one wild and crazy episode that I want to talk about. Okay, this is the Christmas episode that aired in 1980. Oh my gosh, you guys, this truly there are no words to describe the awful awesomeness
Kristin Nilsen 55:19
of this episode or the awesome awfulness. Yes. Whichever. Yes, it's
Carolyn Cochrane 55:24
truly awfully Awesome. Yeah, kind of what it is, from the celebrity judges to the entertainment to the guest DJ who introduces the, the contestants, and even the contestants. I mean, this is over the top. So much so that I'm just gonna give you a quick rundown. And listeners. We are going to unpack this even more next year during the Christmas season. This will be our holiday episode. This will be a holiday episode. Because slam dunk I cannot even. So let me just give you a quick rundown. Okay. Our celebrity judges it's actually unique because it's the christmas special. We have Connie Stevens and her daughter, Robert Blake Beretta and his daughter and Chad Everett, and his daughter, by the way, dead or not dead chatter about the daughter, Chad ever. And these were the judges. Why you may ask? Yeah, why, but Well, here's why. Because on this very special Christmas episode, we don't just have adult contestants. We have child contestants to have children pairs I would have loved when I watched this episode that came flooding back. You know, when those little kids you've seen videos when they're like doing the Tango or the Cha Cha they're like, they're very serious. Well, and this was divided up by north, south, east and west regions, the adult couple would dance the child couple would dance and then they also had one performance where they perform together. And Kristin, you would be so happy to know the North was represented by folks from Minneapolis, St. Paul course, of course, and the adult couple. They were these beautiful green units hard spandex, of course, and they just had like tinsel stapled to them. That's how they work Christmas. Okay.
Kristin Nilsen 57:13
So their moms are backstage like stapling. Their moms are still there, stapling. I gotta tell you, there's a when you say that they're these kids. And they're from Minneapolis. There's a little twinge in my heart. Like, why didn't my mom call and get me on the show?
Carolyn Cochrane 57:33
I'm Linda and Kristen. I know. This could have been your opera. I think you had a lot. Well, I don't know how many times they had children on I felt like it was a lot.
Kristin Nilsen 57:41
I was on one competition show but it was a local show called discover ramaa with Dr. And Delvecchio.
Carolyn Cochrane 57:48
How are we just learning that now?
Kristin Nilsen 57:49
I don't know. I didn't win. I didn't win. It wasn't a dance competition. It was like a talent show and it was on TV. And the people who win who won? Were two sisters who were twins singing that sister song sisters, sisters. Yeah, I hated that song so much. I remember being pissed because I bet we'll do just one because they're twins.
Carolyn Cochrane 58:12
They are like, whatever. What are who are friends? The little Audrey. Yeah, Judy. And
Kristin Nilsen 58:20
that's how they started on discovery with Dr. Anne Delvecchio?
Carolyn Cochrane 58:23
Well, on this Christmas episode, you guys. We didn't have unfortunately Judy landers or Audrey Landers. But we had someone that kind of looked like them. You're not complete. Oh my god, and she was dressed in kind of a sexy Santa outfit. And she kind of talked in that same sultry voice which was not the voice you were used to hearing her speak with because this would have been Allison Arden grow.
Kristin Nilsen 58:45
No, no, no. No, I don't want that. I don't want that. You
Carolyn Cochrane 58:49
don't you don't like so bad, but you can't look away. It's kind of like a little car. We
Kristin Nilsen 58:53
have the curls in her hair.
Carolyn Cochrane 58:57
Audrey landers
Michelle Newman 58:58
what she tried to break free of that image. She got like she was trying really hard her and understandable. Yeah. Let's give her credit. It's
Kristin Nilsen 59:07
like Jan Brady trying to be done portrait of a runaway. Right?
Carolyn Cochrane 59:12
Totally. But I can only imagine what my my kid brain was thinking at the time because breaking my blood. It was one thing to kind of break the mold like, Oh, I'm Robert shields. I'm now going to speak and make you think of me a little differently. This is I'm gonna go from Nellie Oleson in like a prairie apron dress to this slinky sexy Santa outfit with this little hat and all this makeup on and her legs showing it was just like I said it was awesome awfulness it
Michelle Newman 59:40
sounds fabulous. Oh
Kristin Nilsen 59:42
god Carolyn
well eventually li I know it's really sad, but eventually Dance Fever had to come to an end. I can't believe that it lasted as long as long as it did. But after being on the air for nearly a decade, Dance Fever came to an end in 1987, like Carolyn said, with 234 episodes under its belt, and like she said, Adrian's Ahmed took over for Danny Terrio because he had the same 1979 Look, it seemed that the culture at that point was sort of moving away from dance competitions and disco was long gone. How it held on this long I have no idea how it survived the death of disco is kind of amazing. But Dance Fever far outlasted disco. And it's interesting when I was watching these episodes right now, when I was watching the later episodes, and there wasn't as much disco whether it was in the music or whether it was in the dance. I was annoyed. I'm not.
Michelle Newman 1:00:52
Yeah, yeah. I don't know if I was annoyed. I wasn't interested.
Kristin Nilsen 1:00:56
I was interested. I wasn't
Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:57
to watch the clogging.
Kristin Nilsen 1:01:01
Oh my god. I'm so funny. So funny.
Michelle Newman 1:01:03
Well, listeners, I know you're all wondering what happened to Danny Terrio dead or not dead. Not Dead. Dead did a cheerio. 73 And you guys I couldn't find a presence on social media. But when searching the hashtag Trinitario I found besides posts from the pop culture a photo from two years ago that someone posted of their grandson with Danny who looks exactly like freeze Mizer from the year without a scar Are you guys ready?
Kristin Nilsen 1:01:34
I'm ready. Okay, I
Michelle Newman 1:01:35
did a split screen here we go but it's the first thing I thought of when I saw it is
Kristin Nilsen 1:01:39
oh my god is Oh, I'm scared
Carolyn Cochrane 1:01:42
but chin it's that yen and kind of a nose. So square.
Michelle Newman 1:01:46
Oh, so listeners I'm gonna post this photo this week in the Weekly Reader so you guys can see that we're not wrong. I'm not wrong. When I saw him I immediately went freeze miser comes to love. Wow, freeze miser lives and Danny Terrio but anyway, throughout the 1990s Danny toured nightclubs performing with motion and judging dance contests naturally, and eventually hosted his own disco radio show called Saturday night dance party on Sirius Satellite Radio Network. He it says he is this is from Wikipedia says he is a choreographer and competitor at regional Dancing with the Stars competitions. So begs the question does that is the is correct at 73 Is he and I'm here's what's interesting stars and they pull judges in like they've had Paula Abdul they have you know a lot of ABC people like Mike Michael stray Han who knows nothing about dance but he gets to judge I'm thinking Why not pulteneytown Why
Kristin Nilsen 1:02:43
there has to be a reason because the disco
Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:45
night on you know how they have
Kristin Nilsen 1:02:48
their reason they're not calling on Danny. Dan, I think it has to do with Merv Griffin.
Michelle Newman 1:02:53
Well, here we go. So what I found the most interesting is this in 1991. I'd like to say this not too long ago, but it's 30 years ago, Danny Terrio sued Merv Griffin. Remember, he was the producer of Dance Fever for sexual harassment. But wait, there's more. In 2015 Danny Terrio sued the toy company Hasbro and a federal court for creating an animated Gekko and toy figurine named Vinnie Terrio come on Hasbro to do better that his publicity rights were violated by the gecko Gecko and figurine okay. Is the ghetto a lizard? Yes,
Kristin Nilsen 1:03:40
yeah. It's a cartoon lizard.
Michelle Newman 1:03:43
It's an animated Gecko but then they also made a toy face to the disco.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:03:47
But is it a disco lizard? Yeah, no,
Michelle Newman 1:03:49
it's it's named Vinnie Terrio. Besides,
Kristin Nilsen 1:03:55
bye, bio, it says did you look them up, Michelle? No. Okay, so Vinnie Vinnie Terrio is our Gecko. His name is Vincent Alfonso Vinny. Terrio is a gecko with a talent for dancing. He isn't very smart, but he does try his best at whatever he does. He is a top notch dancer, but he still messes up a lot due to being clumsy too, I would too, is a name that nobody will forget. Right like it seems like we're having this conversation about how nothing came after. But the truth is, everybody knows Danny terrier.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:29
I rejoice in a show as much as we have our thanks to Heidi Johnson. A good friend. Sexy motion and today a big semifinals winner next time.
Kristin Nilsen 1:04:52
I think if you want to show your kids, just like we've said just a slice of what it was like to exist in the disco era. This is the perfect vehicle for doing that. It's the music, the hair, the flashing dance floor, the shiny fabrics, the disco ball, the casual sexual innuendo, the lifts, the tricks, the rotating cast of loved vote guest stars, pretending they know anything at all about dancing. It's also 70s and also fun. It deserves your attention on a YouTube Saturday night. Thank you so much for listening today, and we will see you next time.
Michelle Newman 1:05:27
And today's episode was brought to you by Michelle, not me. II Well, sure me but another Michelle was a patron, ie ally, Amy Sharon, Felicia karmi, Ashley, Alexis, Jennifer, Steven, Linda and Joe. Yes,
Carolyn Cochrane 1:05:46
thanks to you and to all the rest of our supporters on Patreon. And those who generously make one time donations on our website to help keep this podcast coming to you week after week. In
Kristin Nilsen 1:05:57
the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast courtesy of the cast of Three's Company to good times, to
Carolyn Cochrane 1:06:04
Happy Days to Little House on the Prairie cheers
Kristin Nilsen 1:06:08
and spiega dance vive vivre. The information opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society podcast belongs solely to Carolyn the crush ologists and hello Newman, and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, there's always a first time the PCPs is written produced and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota Home of the fictional w j m studios and our beloved Mary Richards Nananana. Keep on truckin and may the Force be with you
Transcribed by https://otter.ai