Fame is set at New York's High School of Performing Arts, where talented
teens train for show-business careers. The film concentrates on five of the
most gifted students: singer Irene Cara, actors Paul McCrane and Barry
Miller, dancer Gene Anthony Ray, and musician Lee Currieri. More so than
the subsequent TV series Fame, the film emphasizes the importance of
keeping up one's academic achievements in this specialized school. The
faculty includes no-nonsense English teacher Ann Meara, erudite musical
instructor Albert Hague, and martinet dance teacher Debbie Allen.
Unfortunately, both the film and the TV series suggest that the High School's
student body was inclined to spontaneous street performances and outsized
stage productions; unhappy with this misrepresentation, the real-life School
of Performing Arts would not permit director Alan Parker to shoot the picture
within its walls. Outside of the school scenes, the film's best sequence
occurs during a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Of the
film's cast, Ray, Currieri, Allen and Hague were carried over to the TV
version of Fame, which premiered in 1981. The score for the film version of
Fame was honored with an Academy Award