Bandstand" Gets "Idol"-ized
Mon May 24, 7:15 PM ET Add Television - E! Online to My Yahoo!
By Joal Ryan
Not that Ryan Seacrest needs another job, but another dream gig may have just come along.
American Bandstand, the Dick Clark-hosted TV sock hop that spanned oldies rock to new wave, will be revived, in part, by the executive producer behind the Seacrest-hosted American Idol, it was announced Monday.
Clark and Idol's Simon Fuller will executive produce along with Allen Shapiro of the film and music company Mosaic Media Group.
A summer 2005 launch is being eyed. A network home is thought to be likely, though none was announced.
Also not announced: a host.
The supposedly ageless Clark, now 74, spun records, interviewed bands and rapped with kids in the studio audience for 31 years, from Bandstand's roots in local Philadelphia TV to its four-decade run on ABC.
The show left the network in 1987. It continued on in syndication for nearly two years. In 1989, it moved to cable's USA with Clark's hand-picked successor, the immortal David Hirsch. The retooled Bandstand was played out in about six months. (Its old self lives on today in vintage clips on NBC's Clark-produced American Dreams.)
On Monday, a press release promised a "nationwide search" for the Bandstand host of the 21st century.
Will one of the candidates be Seacrest, whose admiration of all things Dick Clark is well documented?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=797&ncid=797&e=5&u=/eo/20040524/en_tv_eo/14176