American Bandstand

Dick Clark Productions

Reality
English     9.5     1957     USA

Overview

American Bandstand was an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer. The show featured teenagers dancing to Top 40 music introduced by Clark; at least one popular musical act—over the decades, running the gamut from Jerry Lee Lewis to Run DMC—would usually appear in person to lip-sync one of their latest singles. Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon holds the record for most appearances at 110. The show's popularity helped Dick Clark become an American media mogul and inspired similar long-running music programs, such as Soul Train and Top of the Pops. Clark eventually assumed ownership of the program through his Dick Clark Productions company.

Similar

John Safran's Music Jamboree was a light-hearted Australian music documentary television series, hosted by John Safran for SBS television. The program was produced by Selin Yaman and directed by Craig Melville, Clayton Jacobson and a number of other directors under the production company Ghost of Your Ex-Boyfriend Productions in association with SBS Independent. It screened in 2002, and consisted of sketches and outlandish public stunts, typical of Safran's work. The series won two Australian Film Institute Awards; "Best Comedy Series" and "Most Innovative Program Concept". SBS followed the series up with the similarly styled John Safran vs. God in 2004. An infamous stunt of the series was sneaking nine friends into an exclusive Melbourne nightclub by dressing them up as the masked American metal band, Slipknot. The producers arranged entry for the impostors by pretending to be an American management company over the phone. Other stunts included disguising himself as well known entertainers such as Ozzy Osbourne and Prince to harass the public, sketch versions of music videos such as Eminem, the creation of Jew Town, a Jewish boy band to compete with Christian pop, and returning to Yeshivah College to pay homage to Kevin Bacon in Footloose. He also details his time in the hip-hop group Raspberry Cordial, and the related incident in which he met the Beastie Boys and the band's former DJ attempted to steal his girlfriend at the time.

More info
John Safran's Music Jamboree
2002