{"id":137140,"date":"2026-06-25T09:58:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=137140"},"modified":"2026-06-25T09:58:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:58:46","slug":"1980s-tv-shows-a-trip-down-memory-lane-with-michael-delorenzo-michael-in-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=137140","title":{"rendered":"1980s TV Shows:  A Trip Down Memory Lane With\u2026 Michael DeLorenzo (Michael in \u201cFame\u201d)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1545664804358300\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block; text-align: center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1545664804358300\" data-ad-slot=\"8616314829\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=137140\" rel=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=137140\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-137141 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Michael-DeLorenzo-300x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Michael-DeLorenzo-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Michael-DeLorenzo-1024x1024.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Michael-DeLorenzo-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Michael-DeLorenzo-768x768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Michael-DeLorenzo.jpeg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Exclusive Interview by Karen Beishuizen<br \/>\nPhoto credit Peter Konerko<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Fame is a musical television series based on the 1980 film of the same name. The series aired on NBC from 1982 to 1987. It ran for 6 seasons and 136 episodes. The show follows the students and teachers at a New York High School of Performing Arts. It starred Debbie Allen as dance teacher Lydia Grant, Lee Curreri as Bruna Martelli and Erica Gimpel as Coco Hernandez. Michael DeLorenzo played Michael, a dancer, in season 1 to 3 of the series. He went to the actual school in New York where the show was based on. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: &#8220;Fame&#8221;: What was the show about?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFame\u201d was based on the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan, where they taught dancing, acting and singing. Sometimes the arts were taught in the first half of the school year, and then the academics in the second half; other times it was academics in the first half of the school day, and then after lunch, it was dance, acting and singing. The show followed a group of friends on their journey in school\u2026the ups and downs of learning their craft on the road to being a great artist or in some cases just famous. Just FYI I went to the actual school as well&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: How did you get the part as Michael?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Going back to the dead of winter at an open call for the movie \u201cFame\u201d&#8230; I auditioned as a dancer, and booked the job. While I was filming the movie, I auditioned for the Broadway revival of \u201cWest Side Story\u201d, which starred Debbie Allen. I booked \u201cWest Side Story\u201d and had to leave the movie \u201cFame\u201d before I filmed the big ending&#8230; Debbie admired my dancing and hired me as her assistant on \u201cFame\u201d, TV series, as well as being a dancer on the show.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: What did you like about the character and how do you make it your own?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m told I was getting lots of fan mail as a dancer, and they decided to give me a few lines here and there, and they made the character really close to me as much as possible.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: How did a week on the set look like from getting the script to filming?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>There was always at least one big production number and a few dance classes. So just imagine ten to twelve hours of rehearsal, pretty much every day until filming.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: Where was the show filmed?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The pilot was filmed in New York. But then we filmed on the MGM lot in Culver City and we had two sound stages. One was where the school was located as well as the huge dance classroom, hallways and other classrooms. On the other soundstage, they basically had a New York street scene and the exterior of the school.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: What was it like working with Debbie Allen and the rest of the cast?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>You couldn&#8217;t ask for a better time when you&#8217;re just starting out your career\u2026 and getting to watch incredible people do incredible things in front of you! Debbie worked incredibly hard choreographing the dance numbers, acting her a** off and just basically being the captain of the ship.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: Are you still in touch with actors from the show?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>As much as we can we keep in touch&#8230;I&#8217;ll get texts here and there&#8230;Phone calls here and there.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: Do you have a favorite episode on the whole show and why this one?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Well, this probably won&#8217;t come as a surprise., but for so many reasons my favorite episode is the breakdance episode. It was my first time starring in the entire episode. It was directed by Michael Peters and it was just an amazing affirmation for all the hard work I did to get there&#8230;.and finally getting to be the center of the universe in this episode. It was amazing!<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: Looking back now would you have played Michael differently?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Ohh, we can all look back and say so many things about what we might have done differently in any situation, but, overall, I am very happy with my work on the show. I will say this, I was incredibly lucky that I was offered the opportunity to be a part of this amazing cast and show.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: Why do you think &#8220;Fame&#8221; is still beloved after 40+ years?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Well, it&#8217;s hard not to love it. It&#8217;s got everything going for it\u2026 youth, energy, the vibrancy of a time that is etched in all our souls. The coming of age of it all\u2026 striving, and not knowing will I make it. I think an audience loves an underdog story, and you can&#8217;t beat the dancing or the music still to this day.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #808000;\"><a style=\"color: #808000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.authorhouse.com\/en\/bookstore\/bookdetails\/232300-BOXING-INTERVIEWS-OF-A-LIFETIME\">Click Here to Order Boxing Interviews Of A Lifetime By &#8220;Bad&#8221; Brad Berkwitt<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"wpforms-container wpforms-container-full\" id=\"wpforms-126533\"><form id=\"wpforms-form-126533\" class=\"wpforms-validate wpforms-form wpforms-ajax-form\" data-formid=\"126533\" method=\"post\" enctype=\"multipart\/form-data\" action=\"\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F137140\" data-token=\"a9c78ecfebb246b031541939daea6728\" data-token-time=\"1782409661\"><noscript class=\"wpforms-error-noscript\">Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.<\/noscript><div class=\"wpforms-field-container\"><div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-name\" data-field-id=\"1\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\">Name <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><div class=\"wpforms-field-row wpforms-field-medium\"><div class=\"wpforms-field-row-block wpforms-first wpforms-one-half\"><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-name-first wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1][first]\" required><label for=\"wpforms-126533-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-sublabel after\">First<\/label><\/div><div class=\"wpforms-field-row-block wpforms-one-half\"><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-last\" class=\"wpforms-field-name-last wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1][last]\" required><label for=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-last\" class=\"wpforms-field-sublabel after\">Last<\/label><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t<div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_4-container\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-text\"\n\t\t\tdata-field-type=\"text\"\n\t\t\tdata-field-id=\"4\"\n\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t<label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_4\" >Name Message or<\/label>\n\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_4\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium\" name=\"wpforms[fields][4]\" >\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_2-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-email\" data-field-id=\"2\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_2\">Email <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><input type=\"email\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_2\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][2]\" spellcheck=\"false\" required><\/div><div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_3-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-textarea\" data-field-id=\"3\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_3\">Comment or Message<\/label><textarea id=\"wpforms-126533-field_3\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium\" name=\"wpforms[fields][3]\" ><\/textarea><\/div><script>\n\t\t\t\t( function() {\n\t\t\t\t\tconst style = document.createElement( 'style' );\n\t\t\t\t\tstyle.appendChild( document.createTextNode( '#wpforms-126533-field_4-container { position: absolute !important; 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The series aired on NBC from 1982 to 1987. It ran for 6 seasons and 136 episodes. The show follows the students and teachers at a New York High School of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":13,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35042],"tags":[35464],"class_list":["post-137140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1980s-tv-shows-a-trip-down-memory-lane-with","tag-1980s-tv-shows-a-trip-down-memory-lane-with-michael-delorenzo-michael-in-fame"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137140"}],"version-history":[{"count":-2,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/137141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}