Dance Fever

Inception

The official creator of the series was Merv Griffin, but the original pilot concept came from his agent, Murray Schwartz. That idea was built around a special episode of The Merv Griffin Show that saluted the film Thank God It's Friday, bringing in top disco dancers from eight different cities to compete for a title. Because Casablanca Records had already covered the cost of the set, the pilot could be made for much less money. Griffin wanted frequent guest Deney Terrio to host, with celebrities dancing alongside professional disco dancers—a format that would later resemble Dancing with the Stars.

However, producer Ernest Chambers couldn't get any of the approached celebrities to agree to appear; they worried about looking foolish on camera. The Sunday before the show, director Dick Carson suggested a different plan: since the dancers were already booked for the Thank God It's Friday salute, they could pick the best four couples from that event and have them compete on the pilot, with celebrities serving as judges instead of partners. Carson famously remarked, "Nobody's ever going to see this thing anyway." Within a few days, Sherman Hemsley, Barbi Benton, and Herve Villechaize were signed on as judges. After taping the Thursday night Griffin special, staffers Larry Strawther and Paul Gilbert were told to secretly recruit the top four finishers for the pilot the next night.

The secret didn't hold, and tension arose among the dancers—made worse by a one-night stand between two of them that created a rift. Despite all this, the pilot was completed and eventually sold. Paul Abeyta, another longtime Griffin employee, produced the first two seasons, which were written by Tony Garofalo. Paul Gilbert handled production for the later seasons.

Format

Four couples took the stage each week, each performing a routine lasting between 90 and 120 seconds. A panel of celebrity judges awarded scores from 70 to 100 based on originality, showmanship, style, and technique. The team with the highest average score won the weekly $1,000 prize and moved on to the next round. If two couples tied, the judges dropped one set of scores to break it.

Every fifth week, the previous four weeks’ winners competed in a semi-final for $5,000. After 25 weeks, the five semi-final champions returned for the annual Grand Prix Finals, where the winning duo took home cash and prizes worth over $25,000, including two new cars. In September 1984, that grand prize rose to $50,000. Except for the year-end finals, each episode also featured a performance segment where top disco, pop, or R&B artists of the era performed their latest hits.