The Show
When a film is made into a TV show, it can be a painful transition. Anyone who has seen "Ferris Bueller" can attest to that. "Fame," on the other hand, almost works better as a weekly series than a feature film, as it allows the viewer to spend more time with the characters, and allows the characters more time for natural growth. That's a key when dealing with characters in high school, four years that result in a huge swing in growth and development.

"Fame" follows a group of friends attending New York's School for the Arts, a public high-school for students talented in the performing arts. The movie can be forgotten when approaching this series, though if you had a favorite character, most made the move to the small screen, even if they aren't played by the same actor. Among those in both are the stand-out characters of Leroy (Gene Anthony Ray) and Bruno (Lee Curreri), everyone's favorite teacher Mr. Shorofsky, and the show's choreographer Debbie Allen. Maintaining some consistency was a nice touch, but not being slaves to the original was important as well.

The plots here tend to follow closely to the world of performance arts, rather than attempting to mine the world of generic teen drama. Of course, there are some aspects of high-school life that are universal, so the family strife and real world-struggle story ideas raise their heads often in the first season, accounting for 6 of the 16 episodes. Even when they do come into play, they are done well.

The rest of the series focuses on the stress of trying to be a "special" student, and the ways that being a performing arts student affects your life. Starting with new student Julie (Lori Singer, Short Cuts) as the audiences' intro into the School for the Arts keeps the show accessible, while attempting to maintain a level of realism regarding the school. It's more than likely that most people watching the show never had a dance audition or performed on-stage, so Julie was a well-chosen "in."

The interaction between the students and teachers (and amongst the students themselves) provides opportunities for some comic relief in a show that often feels as tense as the students' lives. When the show does get the balance between the drama and laughs correct, the show really works well, drawing some big laughs. That the students are mostly New Yorkers provides a sense of attitude to the show that helps foster that aggressive sarcasm and biting wit among the characters.

Few shows in the history of TV have looked as unique as "Fame" did ("C.S.I." comes to mind.) Each episode is like a short film, put together with true style, from the editing to the camera angles to the shot selection. Even the opening credits, which are some of the longest ever, mark the show as something different. It was likely the subject matter, including the large dance and music numbers, that inspired such distinct techniques, but either way, the look makes the episodes that much better and that much better than the majority of the television created in the 23 years since.

The DVDs
The first season of "Fame," 16 47-minute episodes in all, is spread evenly across four DVDs. The four DVDs are packed in a pair of two-disc ThinPaks, which are wrapped in a cardboard slipcase. The slipcase has a giant embossed "Fame" logo and spot UV coating to enhance the look of the photos.

The ThinPaks include episode descriptions and cast and crew info, but are unfortunately incorrect, as is the disc art. According to the cases and discs, the first two discs have five episodes each, the third has four, and the final has just two. How such a big difference occurred might have something to do with the lack of extras.

The discs feature static, anamorphic widescreen main menus based off the cover art. The options include a play-all choice, episode selections and subtitle choices. The episode selection menu is a text screen with episode names, while the subtitle options include French and English. The episodes also have closed captioning.

The Quality
The title sequence, which includes a lot of exterior shots, is a bit worse for wear, with some noticeable dirt in the transfer. But once inside an episode, the look is incredibly clean, with smooth color and nice detail. Though many shows from the same time frame show the effects of aging, these digitally mastered episodes are practically free of dirt and damage. The only real negative can be found in scenes shot outside, as they look a bit dull and soft in comparison, with obvious dirt.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack recreates the original listening experience well, delivering the dialogue crisply and the many musical numbers solidly. It's not going to blow anyone away, but 5.1 mixes weren't exactly the norm for TV dramas back in 1982. No one should have any complaints.

The Extras
Aside from a handful of previews on the fourth disc, there are no extras included with this set, which is rather unfortunate considering the amount of angles available for exploration in the show, from the adaptation from film to TV to the world of arts education seen in the show.

The Bottom Line
It's unlikely that another show could tackle the subject matter that "Fame" did without feeling redundant. That just shows how good a job the creators did with the concept, creating what should stand as the preeminent vision of performing arts students. The DVD presentation of the show is wonderful overall, but sadly there are no extras, which, along with the shoddy job done on the episode information, points to a somewhat weak effort. If dance, music and theater are your thing, you could do much worse than "Fame," and those who wish to revisit a past favorite can feel confident that this set is worth checking out.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.