Frustrated when network brass reject his sitcom idea, producer Pierre Delacroix pitches the worst idea he can think of in an attempt to get fired: a 21st century minstrel show. The network not only airs it, but it becomes a smash hit.
It's New Year's Eve on Sesame Street and around the world! Anchorman Elmo and the Monster News Network provide special reports showing us the New Year's customs and celebrations.
Max Washington has just been released from prison after serving time for burglary. He returns to his old hangout, a hoofer club. His old girl friend, Amy, who still works at the club as a Tap instructor, is less than thrilled to see him. Her father, Little Mo, is happy to see him, because he has plans for a show involving Max. In addition, Max's old partners in crime have another job for him.
The life of the legendary showman Bill Robinson, African American tap dancing star of stage and screen, better known as Mr. Bojangles.
Timeless: Live in Concert, recorded at her Las Vegas show on New Year's Eve 1999, takes as its subject the star herself. It opens with a dramatization of her first, amateur recording session, with young Lauren Frost playing a part described in the credits as "Young Girl," though Streisand later refers to her as "mini-me." Frost doesn't get too far before being joined by Streisand herself on a stirring version of "Something's Coming" from West Side Story. The rest of "Act One" traces Streisand's career from her club days to her movie performances. "Act Two" has less of a narrative structure, though it is equally autobiographical, with Streisand displaying and commenting on videos of herself performing with other stars and building up to the stroke of midnight with a combination of old, recent, and new specially written songs. At 57 that night, Streisand remains in good voice.
In the 1940s, the Nicholas Brothers performed a dance routine so seminal it prefigured hip hop by three decades. Contemporary dancers Les Twins choreograph and perform their homage to the one and only duo.
Rehearsals for a fundraising gala become the arena for a struggle between two men; one, the gala director and the other, a richly talented but unstable rock drummer. As their battle for expression and control escalates against a relentless rhythmic backdrop, their public and private selves explosively collide.
The composer-arranger-producer is honored in a tribute taped in 1997.
The story of three items left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall: a pencil holder, a sheriff's badge, and an electric guitar. Each item connects the living with the dead and are left as either memorials or to heal the wounds of war.
"Shangri-La Plaza" is a musical-comedy pilot made for CBS-TV in 1990. The all-sung “Shangri-La Plaza” was directed by Nick Castle and written and created by Mark Mueller and Nick Castle. It starred The Office’s Melora Hardin, Chris Sarandon and Broadway’s original Beast and Javert Terrence Mann, a two-time Tony Award Nominee for Best Actor. It also featured the very young tap dancing phenomenon Savion Glover in one of his first television appearances. The pilot was filmed on location in an actual mini-mall at the corner of Vineland Avenue and Burbank Boulevard in North Hollywood, California.
A behind-the-scenes look at the making of Spike Lee's satirical take on the American entertainment industry.
Documentary containing interviews with performers discussing the influence that Michael Jackson had on their career, combined with clips from Jackson's music videos.
Sesame Street All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever! was a 1994 TV special that aired on ABC to celebrate Sesame Street's 25th anniversary. It was originally broadcast on May 18, 1994. The show featured Joe Pesci (as Ronald Grump), Corbin Bernsen (as real estate attorney, Arnie), Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman (as a Worm TV hosts), John Goodman (as Tough Guy Helpline operator), Charles Grodin (as Chaz), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (as reporter Kathie Lee Kathie), Rosie O'Donnell (as the Good Hope Fairy), Susan Sarandon (as Bitsy), Barbara Walters (reporting for 25/25), and Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford (as themselves).
Sesame Street Jam: A Musical Celebration is a special produced forSesame Street’s 25th anniversary. Released in a slightly different form on video as Sesame Street: 25 Wonderful Years in October 1993, the special was shelved for its broadcast premiere on PBS until 1994, during pledge drive season, and in many markets, aired as part of a marathon block with three show episodes. The special was a companion to the prime-time network special, Sesame Street's All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever!