User Reviews

How do you recreate something that only happens once when it was like a dream that captured the imagination of a whole country? I have been watching season 1 on DVD and it appears that is what is the goal of this program. It pretty much does the job too. It tries to recreate the history on American Bandstand and the feelings of the era. Here is how it started- It premiered locally in late September 1952 as Bandstand on Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV Channel 6 (now WPVI-TV), as a replacement for a weekday movie that had shown predominantly British movies. The original host was Bob Horn, but no one remembers that start. In late spring of 1957, the ABC television network asked their O&O's and affiliates for programming suggestions to fill their 3:30 p.m. (ET) time slot (WFIL had been pre-empting the ABC programming with Bandstand). Clark decided to pitch the show to ABC president Thomas W. Moore, and after some badgering the show was picked up nationally, becoming American Bandstand on August 5, 1957. Clark had been hosting since 1956 and would continue to host until 1989 when the run ended.

While the recreation of this era is not entirely accurate, the setting and the spirit are all captured here. The recent death of Dick Clark who took the only local show that premiered in Philadelphia and made it a nationwide success is a spirit that still lives on. What is important to remember is what this show did for the music industry in America. This show put American music on the map. The National exposure from Bandstand began the modern music era.

Nearly every artist and every top 10 song for over 3 decades would appear on the program. This show tries to recreate Philadelphia in the era of televisions start. The drama of getting on the show, the back stage politics, and other events of the era are something that has now passed into history. Even the show would eventually move to California before it's run ended.

Still, the series recaptures some of the magic. I doubt it could be done much better. The dvds have extra music and some real footage of Dick Clark interviewing singers of the era. The only wish is that there could be more of that stuff.

This history is now the stuff of museum's as we are in a totally different age. This show is the best blast to that past available.

In Memory - Dick Clark 2012 & Bob Horn 1966 plus others who pioneered a great era of music and television.

LOOKING AT THIS show from the perspective of a boomer who was then nearing the 50 year mark, it came across as an exceptional series. It had a lack of pretension and none of that manufactured irony, that so easily permeates any series that purports to being Hoistorical in nature.

IT WAS THE brainchild of DICK CLARK PRODUCTIONS and certainly must be the old MC of American BANDSTAND's greatest dramatic project. As with most of the highly successful and critically acclaimed films & series, the premise is simple, straightforward and lacking self conscious need to be "important."

CASHING IN ON Producer Dick Clark's well known association with the aforementioned American BANDSTAND, the show was set in Philadelphia, where BANDSTAND originated. Among the story's characters, being a 'regular' dancer on American BANDSTAND was the ultimate dream. Being that it was broadcast 5 days a week, Monday-Friday, it became all important.

ENTER THE ELEMENT of time. As the weeks and years intervene, the kids find themselves uncontrollably set on collision course with the reality of maturity, the burdens of adulthood and residence in the cold, cruel world.

ACTING AS THE propellant in this uncontrollable tailspin was the specter of the Vietnam War. Starting with the defeat of France in Indochina at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the United States got involved with "Military Advisors." As the years went by and troop levels steadily increased, getting the U.S. into more and more of a combat role.

AND THIS IS the very crux of the series; being how the involvement by our forces forever changed us as a people. This is a premise that could have easily veered toward one extreme position or another; either being obviously pro or con.

AS WE OBSERVED, the series tried very hard to maintain its neutrality; which was something that Uncle Sam could not afford to do.

The awful writing and historical butchery the writing staff did for this wonderful show was absolutely criminal. The deficiencies showed in Meg Pryor, played by Brittany Snow, who somehow goes from a sweet demure girl to a radical running away with a lowlife. I believe the writers attempted to put too much Social Justice into the script and interpreted Meg via the lens of today's world and not of 1963. Girls of her time would not have spent their time on coke bottle glasses types like Luke or drug addicted types like Milo Ventimiglia's character Chris Pierce, they wanted Football Heroes and guys like The Fonz. The real Meg Pryor would have been dating some Italian guy like Tommy DeFelice and riding on his bike or in his custom car. She would NOT have been hanging out with wacky student radicals or nerds who played Jazz piano in a AA church. The suspension of belief is just too much. Sad part is the poor writing RUINED the fantastic acting of Gail O Grady and Tom Verica as the parents, Will Estes as JJ and countless others who were fantastic. Whether the show was a reflection on Miss Snow's ability or just horrible writing, at the end of the day, you actually wished she would just disappear so the focus could be on the other characters. Even Vanessa Lengies as Roxanne outshone her and Roxanne's character wasn't written much better, but Vanessa had the charisma that Brit Snow does not. Still show should have gotten more than 3 seasons, when you realize that Friends got 10 years, it shows that NBC is more invested in ideology than in quality programming

Back in the 1970s Aaron Spelling brought us such execrable TV shows as "Charlie's Angels", "Starsky and Hutch", "Fantasy Island", "The Love Boat", and others. Spelling didn't attempt to promote the shows as great dramatic art, preferring to produce (as he called it) "candy for the mind". These were shows that had cardboard characters, childish plots, stupid dialogue, and no real value. Spelling was very perceptive, since he realized that when people came home from work, they wanted something simple and unchallenging, with no real plot or substance.

"American Dreams" ran from 2002 to 2005 and had intelligent plots, great acting, good cinematography, and complex characters. I guess that's what its problem was—people had to actually think while they were watching, instead of drooling over Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith or watching David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser screeching around town in a hot red car while acting out insultingly sophomoric scripts every week.

"American Dreams" told the story of a middle-class Catholic family in Philadelphia during the mid-1960s. The show was basically a soap opera, with many intertwining plot elements every week. The show's story began in 1963 and featured such subjects as the Kennedy assassination, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the Beatles, sexual orientation, the U.S. space program, and many others. The intelligent scripts were enacted by a dynamite cast of virtual unknowns, all portrayed against the backdrop of Dick Clark's "American Bandstand". Viewers didn't have to tolerate great quantities of snickering, suggestive dialogue, car chases, or constant gunplay.

The show lasted three seasons and unfortunately never achieved top ratings. The cast members were uniformly excellent and included Brittany Snow, Tom Verica, Will Estes, Gail O'Grady, Vanessa Lengies, Jonathan Adams, and many others. The younger members of the cast were surprisingly professional and believable, but everyone performed at a very high level.

It's a shame that "American Dreams" was canceled after only three seasons. I suppose people would rather watch John Ritter fall down and Suzanne Somers jiggle in "Three's Company", because that idiotic show lasted a lot longer. That's unfortunate, but it does indicate why American prime time television is so bad and why our expectations are so low.

My Mother found an old Season One Copy she had purchased at a sale a few years ago and thanks to the Chinese Virus, I was stuck at my house so I watched it, I then binge watched season 2 and 3 and this is my take.

The problems with the show were immense, the most glaring being the deviation from the real timeline and mixing of songs and social mores from much later on in the Sixties. I am someone who was playing my Mother's old 45's from the 1950's/60's I got my first record player at age 3, got tired of read along books and so she gave me her old 45's which were scratched but I dug them. I read books, talked to everyone about the era and consider myself an amateur historian. For starters, the constant tie in with Bandstand was all wrong, Bandstand filmed its last Philadelphia show on Sat Feb 1, 1964 and moved to Los Angeles the following week. Meg and Roxanne in reality would have danced on Bandstand for at most 4 months. Keeping it going all through the show became tired, but Dick Clark liked it and was the Executive Producer so accuracy be d-d. Another thing that literally made me want to scream was the mixing of singers and bands from much later in the Sixties and their music instead of sticking to the time period. Now Philadelphia, like all the Eastern cities from Baltimore to Boston, has a gigantic Italian population and Italians love Doo Wop like they love good Spaghetti and Sunday Gravy. Now as an old listener to Sunday Doo Wop Night on AM 1210 from Philly when it was WOGL in the late 80's and early 90's believe you me to do a show about Philly ca 1963, the rotation should have been heavy on Fifties Doo Wop. Only after the Beatles came to America did Doo Wop slowly begin to fade, but even as late as 1966 NYC girl groups like the Chiffons were still putting out records.

Brittany Snow is a pretty girl, she's 34 now and still pretty. That being said either because of the writing or Brittany herself, she does seem to lack that one thing that separates good actresses from great ones and that is charisma. There were a whole bunch of them that hit in the late 1990's, good actresses but no charisma. She reminds me of Kristen Bell in a away, blonde and a good actress but she doesn't draw you in. To this day people want to see old movies with Jean Harlow or Hedy Lamarr, who was impressive as she was a Austrian Jewish Actress who couldn't speak but a bit of English but mastered it quickly once coming here. Jean and Hedy are only two of many but you can go back and watch them now and they draw you in to themselves. Sadly no one will ever say this about either Kristan or Brittany.

Brittany did well in the first season playing the vulnerable teenage girl, she was 16 herself when the show began, but she never grew. She remained that same naive silly 16 yr old to the bitter end of the show. When the show starts, her character is barely 15. Now she as Meg gets onto Bandstand, but do either her or Roxanne suddenly become hot commodities? No, for some reason they don't show any real interest in guys with status, aside from Meg's failed date with Jimmy Riley. Now two sexy young women, Meg and Roxanne and you're telling me they aren't literally falling into JJ's friend Tommy DeFelice's lap? This is Philadelphia for heavens sake, everyone knows Irish Catholic girls and Polish girls like Roxanne literally worship Italian guys thats just how it is on the East Coast. Instead Meg goes for losers like Luke Foley and an aloof College boy Drew Mandel and Roxanne just does whatever. Trust me guys like Luke Foley don't get with girls who look like Meg or Roxy in real life High School, maybe when they're 30 and divorced sure, but in HS and College, good looking girls want status men. Think about it JJ has all these handsome football friends and sisters always like their brothers friends and Meg never makes a serious play for Tommy? Now this odd part of Meg's personality continues, she goes from Jimmy Riley, to low status Luke, to being sort of friends with the blk kid Sam, to Drew and finally to this loser guy Chris Pierce played by Milo Ventimiglia and turns into some radical? This is 1966 Philadelphia this isn't California or New York Meg's cultural background and the fact in real life she would have been dating guys like Tommy DeFelice, no way any slimeball like Chris Pierce, who Tommy would have broke his neck like a twig, would have ever dared talk to her. Now after some time at College on LSD and Pot, sure Chris would have a shot but not in HS. The sad thing was by the end of the 3rd season, Meg was so annoying with her silly idealism and naivete about boys and life her character was totally one dimensional. Whereas the other family characters, Roxanne, and Henry's family all had deep back stories and depth and were much more interesting to watch.

All in all, I liked the first two years of the series, but by the third it went off the rails mostly because Brittany Snow was set up to be the main protaganist but by Season 2 was outshone by everyone. Few TV shows survive their main character losing control of the show to a lesser character, Happy Days being a major exception and this was because Ron Howard has real charisma so the Fonz could take over and Ron could play off him no sweat. Brit/Meg's utter lack of all charisma made this impossible. At the end of the series, I scratched my head thinking how either poor casting or poor writing took a home run and turned it into a strike out. I honestly wonder if the writers had something against jocks or cool guys because how they were downplayed to the point of irrelevence was criminal