The Buddy Deane Show

Synopsis

The Buddy Deane Show first hit the air in 1957 and quickly became the most popular local program in the country. It ran for two and a half hours each day, six days a week. The teenagers who appeared every day were called "The Committee," and its members included Jonas and Joanie Cash, Mike Miller, Charlie Bledsoe, Ron Osher, Mary Lou Raines, Pat(ricia) Tacey, and Cathy Schmink. Hundreds of thousands of young viewers picked up the latest dance moves by watching the Committee, copying their look, and following their personal dramas.

The show hosted many major acts of the era, both black and white. If an act performed on Deane’s show first, they were reportedly banned from appearing on American Bandstand, but if they had already been on Bandstand, they could still appear on Deane’s program. Deane told his performers not to mention American Bandstand or any visits to Dick Clark. WJZ-TV, the station that carried the show, blocked the network broadcast of American Bandstand in Baltimore. This was reportedly because Bandstand showed black teenagers dancing, though black and white teens were not allowed to dance together on that show until it moved to California in 1964.

Deane’s program set aside every other Friday for a show with only black teenagers; the rest of the time, the dancers were all white. As the civil rights movement grew, WJZ-TV pushed for a regular integrated lineup. Deane tried it for a few months, but segregationist protests pushed him back to a segregated lineup, which then sparked protests from integrationists. Deane said that on the issue of integration, "you're in trouble if you do and in trouble if you don't." WJZ-TV denied that the integration debate caused the show’s cancellation, instead blaming changing musical tastes and falling ratings.

Legacy

Dick Clark patterned his ABC-TV show Where the Action Is after local remotes done by Deane in Maryland. The racial integration of a take-off of the show, called The Corny Collins Show, provides the backdrop to the 1988 John Waters film Hairspray, which spawned a 2002 Broadway musical and a 2007 film adaptation. Waters appeared on the show with Mary Vivian Pearce but was removed for dancing the "dirty boogie"; he later gave Deane a cameo in the film. Little footage of the show is known to have survived; when Barry Levinson requested video for his film Diner, the station told him it had no footage.