American Bandstand

USA / ABC / x90m-e / 1957-87

Network TV's longest-running music show was American Bandstand, which also was ABCs longest-running show until ABC's Wide World of Sports surpassed it in 1991 (it was the only 1950s ABC daytime series to survive into the 1970s as well). It began on October 13, 1952 in Philadelphia, but Dick dark did not host it until 1956. Within a few months after Clark started, American Bandstand became the highest-rated local daytime show in Philadelphia, a fact not lost on ABC officials looking to set up their daytime line up in 1957. The show's format was simple and remained basically unchanged for the next 30 years. Clark introduced records and their artists, then cameras caught a swarm of teenagers dancing to the songs. Clark joined the adolescents after a few tunes to introduce one or two guest artists who appeared in the studio to lip sync to a hit or two. A couple of selected dancers got to play "Rate a Record," where they heard two songs and graded them on a scale of 35 to 98 (the range, according to Clark, reflecting the notion that no song is all bad or perfect). Other occasional features were the displaying of the week's top 10 records, and the yearly dance contest.

Shortly after its debut, American Bandstand {massed ABC well enough to try a version Mondays from 7:30-8 p.m. from October 7-December 30, 1957. The daytime show aired throughout most of the 1950s for 90 minutes on the network and two hours locally due to sponsor requests (thus, Philadelphia missed seeing its hometown announcer Ed McMahon on Who Do You Trust? those years, as ABC aired it daily at 3:30 p.m.). It went to nearly an hour daily in the early 1960s, with the last 5 or 10 minutes filled by American Newsstand.

In the fall of 1963 it went to Saturday afternoons only, and shortly thereafter the home base moved from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. The weekday run was so successful that it made Clark into a sizable presence in both television and music. He received some 200 new records a week to use on the show, and he set aside noon to 1 p.m. every day to meet with people who wanted to promote a record.
He joked to TV Guide about the insane desire of some promoters to get a tune on American Bandstand, saying, 'Tm the Number One plug in the country." But he was not laughing when a Senate subcommittee interrogated him in 1959 to see if he was being paid money to play songs on the air. He sold his interests in a few record companies to come clean during the investigation. Clark survived the pressure, but came out somewhat chastened as a result.
Clark moved more into TV and movie production in the 1960s, plus occasional acting and hosting jobs. He still remained a force in the music industry, as did his show, even when it went to Saturdays, and nearly every major and plenty of minor recording acts stopped to do at least one show, with the notable exceptions of Elvis Presley and the Beatles. In fact, American Bandstand lasted longer than most of the recording careers of the artists featured, and lived through all the genres of popular music into the 1980s, from the English invasion to punk rock.

American Bandstand/died not due to a lack of ratings but rather ABCs frequent preemptions or shortenings of the show due to NCAA Football, plus the networks insistence by 1986 that the show run only a half hour. After three decades, a new hour show went into syndication from 1987?89. The USA cable network then accepted the show with a new host, twenty-something David Hirsch, but it ran only from April 8-0ctober7, 1989.
Despite its cancellation, the series maintained a foothold in American pop culture. ABC granted the show a "40th Anniversary Special" on April 13, 1992, and the VH-1 cable network started daily and nightly edited half-hour repeats of the series in 1995. Additionally, several cities now have Dick Clarks American Bandstand Grill restaurants displaying old clips and memorabilia from the series, ensuring that the programs legacy will not be forgotten soon.