THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 29, 1995 TAG: 9512290109
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
THE CABLE MUSIC channel without Beavis and Butt-head - I'm talking about VH-1 here - brings back Dick Clark's grand old ``American Bandstand'' starting Monday with a 20-hour marathon.
This revival, which gets going at 7 a.m. on New Year's Day, contains relatively recent ``Bandstand'' episodes, starting with Abba and the Captain and Tennille in 1975, and finishing with Bon Jovi and Janet Jackson in 1984. In between, there are Adam Ant, Devo, the Village People (remember ``YMCA''?), the artist formerly known as Prince and Norfolk's Gary U.S. Bonds.
Watch for him in the 1981 segment, which includes Rick Springfield, Sheena Easton and Juice Newton, another recording star with roots here.
``We go back a long way together,'' Clark said on the phone the other day when discussing Bonds, who in league with Frank Guida in Norfolk created the Norfolk sound, which some say is the bedrock of 1960s rock 'n' roll. ``We must have done a million shows touring with the Cavalcade of Stars. Gary and I share a life together.''
VH-1 isn't bringing back ``American Bandstand'' just to ring in the new year. Starting Tuesday, the cable channel reels off ``VH-1's Best of American Bandstand'' at 12:30 and 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and again on Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
You won't see Elvis. Or the Rolling Stones. Or the Beatles. But just about everyone else who made the pop music scene in the past 20 years or so - more than 5,000 performers - showed up on ``Bandstand'' and will be seen on VH-1.
No Beatles? No Stones? No Elvis? How come?
By the time the Beatles and the Stones invaded the U.S., they were too big to appear on ``Bandstand'' for peanuts, Clark said. Same deal with Presley.
These guys didn't work for scale.
``We did have Elvis on the phone when he was a soldier stationed in Germany,'' Clark said. But it didn't break his heart that musicdom's big three blew off ``Bandstand.'' Clark built the success of the show on kids dancing on screen, not on the Go Gos or Cyndi Lauper lip-synching to their latest record.
Clark is thinking about a ``Bandstand'' for the 21st century. ``I've got a format to keep people watching in this era of the remote control when you're lucky if they stick with your program for a minute and a half.''
No hint as to what the new format will be. ``If I say more, I might get ripped off,'' said Clark, who will be all over the tube this weekend. For the 24th year on TV, he'll help ring in the new year with ``Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'' on ABC Sunday night at 11:30.
And there are all those American Family Publishers sweepstakes commercials with Ed McMahon.
Next year will be Clark's 50th on national television. ``When people ask me if I'm going to retire, I say, `Retire to what?' ''
Dick Clark Productions Inc. has been supplying prime-time programming since 1972, including those blooper specials.
He was just a kid in 1956 when WFIL in Philadelphia hired him to replace Bob Horn as the host of ``Bandstand.'' Your humble columnist, who grew up outside of Philadelphia, never missed ``Bandstand'' when it was a local show on the air 2 1/2 hours a day.
In 1957, ABC picked up the show in a 90-minute format, and it became ``American Bandstand.'' The show ran on network TV for 30 years. That figures out to 600,000-plus kids dancing on camera and 3,000 others playing ``rate-a-record.''
Clark brought back ``Bandstand'' in 1989 on the USA Network with David Hirsch hosting. The show died in less than a year.
The pre-ABC ``Bandstand'' telecasts are gone; in the 1950s there was no videotape. There still is enough stuff in the Dick Clark vaults to keep ``Bandstand'' going well into the 21st century on cable or in syndication. It wouldn't surprise me if in the year 2050 kids are still dancing to Gary U.S. Bonds singing ``Quarter to Three.'' by CNB