This comic stems from another one of our conversations on The Triple Feature this Monday. It’s largely a rant that I tied off with a punchline here, but went unchecked during the recording of the podcast.
I’m greatly annoyed by the remake of Fame. Not because I’m a fan of the 1980 original or even the lousy TV spin off that spawned from its success. As a matter of fact, I hate the movie Fame and pretty much cite it as the flash point of a generation deluded into thinking that they were amazing singers/dancers/actors just waiting to be discovered.
More and more, the culture seems to advocate fame and popularity by birthright rather than by hard work and talent. I don’t know if it is a uniquely American expectation or not, but I’ve noticed an upswing in the last few years. People seem to fall ass-backwords in to fame with increasing regularity. Blame YouTube, I guess.
With that in mind, will a remake of Fame even resonate with today’s audiences? Is having talent and a work ethic even attractive to a culture that is willing to accept humiliation on national television if it means they get their 15 minutes of infamy?
You can stand in line for 18 hours to sing for Simon Cowell. If you’re good enough, you might get to go to Hollywood. But even if you’re a piss-poor singer, maybe they’ll throw you onto the highlight reel of all the dismal failures so America can have a good laugh at your expense. So what, right? As long as someone is paying attention. William Hung took that lack of self-awareness all the way to the bank.
One could argue that this comic is its own desperate plea for attention. I would be hard pressed to argue with them. Am I proud of the success I’ve found with Theater Hopper? Of course. Could I do with a little more exposure? Well, sure. I mean, who wouldn’t want that? So I’m just as guilty as everyone else.
But then, I’m not exactly the audience this remake of Fame is shooting for.
So if you’re a teenage girl with aspirations to become a great singer, are you going to watch a movie like Fame that promotes the concept of hard work and sacrifice or are you going to tune in to American Idol three times a week an nurture the fantasy that maybe you too can be America’s most popular karaoke singer?
Food for thought, I guess.
What about the rest of you? Any aspirations to see Fame this weekend? Are you a fan of the original movie?Do you think a remake can possibly bring anything new to the table? Leave your comments below!
With American Idol and reality shows dominating the pop culture landscape, what possible purpose does a remake of Fame serve?
Besides acting, singing and dancing, what other avenues to fame could The New York School of Performing Arts be teaching?
I'm Professor Paris Hilton and this is Cam Whoring 101.
Today's lesson is picking a video camera with a night vision feature.
I’ve seen maybe 2 commercials for this on TV and I wasn’t paying attention to them. I never saw the original but I have heard that there was a movie called Fame. I have no intention on ever seeing this and this is coming from someone who has more than a passing interest in dancing…not doing it but I love that So You Think You Can Dance show much more than I should. Is this that big of a movie though? I don’t know what is in theaters this week but surely this can’t be the most hyped thing can it?
Congrats on the kid, it’s belated but you and Cami still deserve a congrats.
Oooh me-ow!
For some reason I can’t leave a pithy tongue-in-cheek put-down because “it’s too short” so here’s some more verbiage to satisfy the comment Nazis.
Greg,
A minimum character count is in place to keep spammers from leaving garbage in the comments. It’s not Nazism. 😉
There were things worth liking about the first movie. It wasn’t just a straight shoot to success for them, some got kinda screwed. Some by other people, some by themselves. The show was a crime made all the worse because I have two older sisters and it was on twice a day everyday for years here.
I probably won’t see it this weekend, but I do plan to see it. However, I’m a theatre kid, so the recent trend of musical movies has me thrilled to bits (I can make musical references around my non-theatre-y friends and NOT get looked like I have two heads!). And the fact that American Idol and such are around is exactly why we need a movie like Fame, to show that hard work and talent can pay off.
Well, my sister wants to see it because there’s singing and dancing, so maybe you’re overanalyzing it a bit. 🙂
Waitng for DVD on this one. I’ve seen the original Fame and liked it for its gritty feel and try at realism. To me, it just seemed to ring truer about the real world in the ’80s for those of us not fortunate enough to benefit from Reagan’s trickle down economics.
I agree with Tom about “fall ass-backwords in to fame” but most people that reach fame that way fall back out just as quickly. The reality about being an artist of any kind is that it is a tough road and most only eke out a living.
I was really upset that they were remaking Fame (because the original was so good) but mostly because after seeing the preview, I got a feeling it is more High School Musical then the raw reality the first Fame was. In the original Coco ends up at a sleezy guys apartment stripping in front of a video camera. This new movie is rated PG so I doubt it’ll get that dark. I just feel they kidded down this new movie to appeal to the fantasys of the tweens who watch High School Musical where their biggest problem is if their shoes match their outfit.
The ridiculous amounts of ads I’ve seen for this are getting really really annoying. It might be because my roommate got me watching Glee. The audience of Glee would possibly be interested in seeing Fame. I sort of understand the logic, but I definitely don’t want to see Fame despite my continued watching of Glee.
Looking at the ads, it really doesn’t look like it makes sense as a movie. It should be a TV show. I mean, it looks like there are a bajillion characters, each with their own motivation and story that need to fit into the movie. That might also be because I’m watching Glee and it makes me realize it works better in that format. But even if it was a TV show, I’d probably only watch Glee and not this.
Apparently “Fame” is going to live forever. The first one had its moments. One odd moment is a movie with in the movie when the characters go to a midnight showing of “Rocky Horror Picture Show”.
The television show softened some of the harsher “realities” such as dropping the gay character (minimal in the film) and reducing the “language of frustration” which teens in New York (well most places) do not moderate for television moralities.
On the other hand it put Debbie Allen in a more public spotlight which is all for the good because that woman is a fantastic dancer!
Hey now, Paris proved herself in Repo. I think that entitles her to be moved out of low-blow territory.
As for Fame… I’ve got nothing. My interest in it is the same for the new Tyler Perry, so I don’t think I’ll be seeing it.
Did you really just mention Paris Hilton and “low-blow territory” in the same sentence?
C’mon! You’re making this too easy for me! 🙂
^ Hahahaha awesome
The whole concept of people “falling into fame” or “it being a birthright” comes from the earliest era of movies. For every 20 or 30 vaudeville acts that moved to movies there was the actress discovered at the Woolworth counter (who’s name eludes me to the point of vexation. Come save me from myself tom!) It’s this belief that with talent it isn’t created, it is born into a person and it is the equivalent of winning the lottery. Being a doctor or inventing something dynamic requires skill beyond raw talent. Shows such as American Idol push the idea that if you’re lucky and are born with the raw talent to sing they’ll make you a million-copy artist.
The original fame which I still hate with a seething passion though my babysitting cousin loved at the time was a classic testament to hard work will prevail. Talent is nice but honing it all will get you where you want to go is what is needed was a nice moral. I assume part of that is intact but you’re right, in the era of instant stardom and a disposable culture we cultivate on Youtube, how does Julliard compete? I guess the movie isn’t going to translate well, but do remakes ever? Half the point of a remake is to reminisce about lost youth, the other half is that you don’t need to pay a screenwriter much and you have a built in audience in the children of people who watched it and their parents.
I can only hope Fame meets the same torch of logic that Jennifer’s Body got engulfed in. Down with incredibly bad movies and up with incredibly bad children’s movies!
“One could argue that this comic is its own desperate plea for attention.”
Not really. It’s not like you created these comics thinking, “I’m going to be so cool after this.” Actual art and accomplishment, versus some form (whether bad or good) of popularity and attention. Which may not be what the movie’s about at all, but… it’s -titled- “Fame.” It’s hard not to get that idea.
I guess I just don’t like the general idea lately that something doesn’t exist unless it’s been viewed and commented on a certain number of times on YouTube.
Also, I didn’t know this movie was a remake. The cool things someone can learn reading your comic, Mr. Brazelton.
Well, one thing to note about the Fame remake is that it could very well be the last movie that MGM ever brings to theatres. For that alone, it is somewhat significant.
One of the reasons I think Fame came out is cause those musicals seem to be the thing for certain audiences…High School Musical (shudder), Hairspray (shudder again)…actually..that’s all I can think of. But the fact that they were big hits with audiences probably made “Fame” a hopeful box office hit.
Personally, I hate trends in movies…the trend this year seems to be vampires with all the Twilight stuff and the 500 vampire shows on TV. :/