by bhs82 » Thu Sep 11, 2003 5:18 pm
Michael,
What clubs?? Was the "Seven Seas" one of them?? It was cool to see the "Seven Seas" imortalized as a background shot in "Valley Girl" while they were cruising Hollywood (A movie of fairly accurate geographical and cultural portrayals of the time).
Anyway, most of your post was correct except for just a couple of things.
I was actually a dancer on MV3!
I don't know how other dancers were recruited, but I heard of it word of mouth through some guys at an OC club called "Circus Circus"
Another OC club was "Dejavu". "Louis" appeared in dance contests and usually won at these clubs before getting the lead in Madonna's "Borderline", and going on to date her, then be sponsored by her in his short lived musical carreer.
MV3 did stand for Music Videos 3, and I think that the "3" referred to the number of hosts.
It was taped at a little stage / studio in Burbank, CA, right off the 5 fwy @ Alameda. The studio was on a side street running along side the 5, just S. of Alameda on the E. side... it is now a plumbing supply wherehouse. From the show, you would have thought the studio huge, but it was actually very small.
I thought that it aired on channel 9 at the time - now know as KCAL, but back then it was something else. Anyway, KCOP 13's studios are on LaBrea, and most certainly a far cry from where we shot MV3 when I was on it.
I always thought that MV3 was merely a local show here in LA. I am floored by the posts here - absolutely floored. I can not believe y'all remember the show, let alone the impact and the widespread distribution.
I lived in Orange County at the time, and split the club scene between OC and LA. I was also trying to break into acting at the time and had stints in Michael Jackson's "Beat It" video as well as Dwight Twilley's "Girls", while getting the lead for Kiss's "I Love It Loud". We shot "Beat It" just as "Billy Jean" was starting to air on MV3. For years I've heard black artists mention that MTV didn't play black artists until "Thriller", which seemed off to me because I remember so vividly that when we filmed "Beat It", I was a fan from the "Off the Wall" days, and "Billy Jean" (song and video) had surfaced, but not caught on yet.... Now after reading here, I realize that MV3 was where I saw "Billy Jean", and yes - they were innovative and playing black artists before their big brother ever did.
Back to filming, or taping actually... There was a giant Blue Screen (same kind they use behind news people). - It may have been Green, I honestly don't remember the exact color having worked with both over the years... Anyway, whichever color it was, dancers would have to avoid wearing the same color, otherwise they would "dissapear". If I remember correctly, they would shoot several episodes in a day, and dancers were asked to bring several changes of clothes. They never actually showed videos on-screen in the studio, except on occasion to start off a song. So, we, as dancers, only got to see the videos by watching the show on TV, just like everybody else. I had a lot of fun doing the show, but people I knew wouldn't return more than once because it was much less glamorous than it appeared.
Besides the "live" performances by bands like Psych Furs, Berlin and so on, I also remember other odd things like commedians - Vic Dunlop for instance. The "stage" was directly opposite the Video Screen, and occasionally we got to get up on stage and dance while a band was performing as with Berlin.
Michael, I am curious if one of the people you knew was "Debbie Diamond"? She was the one wearing the outragoeous and cool outfits like dresses reminicent of Little Bo Peep - Bleached Blonde?? My wife went to school in the San Gabriel Valley (she is about to go to her 20 year reunion, and the thing she is most tickled about is telling a certain couple of friends that she married an MV3 dancer), where Debbie was from and had friends that had friends that knew her. I remember pulling her onto an episode of "Square Pegs" when some rockabilly band was playing (I think the "Copy Cats"), and then of course, when we showed up and Richard Blade was also in the episode, we had our little MV3 sub thing going on.
I did extra work on "Square Pegs" at the time, and they did a couple of shows that featured elements of the "80s" dancing scene.
Anyway, like all of you, and perhaps even a little more, in todays age of technology, I would love to get my hands on some of these episodes and preserve them. I recently succeeded in acquiring some of the music videos and tv episodes I mentioned, but not any MV3 ones. I would love to know who has the rights to these things... I am sure the episodes are sitting in some vault somewhere... Perhaps attempting to contact Richard Blade may be a good lead??
Thank y'all for taking me down memory lane, and perking me up! I really had no idea. I always thought what we were doing was in the class of a local public access channel, but with the cool - not mainstream - scene. The people I danced there with thought that a lot of things were cheesy - some of the intros (writing), having comedians, etc. I always thought that although they keyed on and into the scene, they often strayed and were not centrally focussed. In retrospect, I imagine Richard Blade brought the scene to the party, and the (clueless)producers probably insisted on some of the other, and the result was a little splintered. Nevertheless, it was a milestone, and much more so than I ever knew. Please - please post any resources!
Cheers