Ability over Appearance: Doris Finsecker was imagined as a young Barbra Streisand type from Brooklyn. The role went to Maureen Teefy, who's of Irish descent rather than Jewish.
Actor-Inspired Element: "Is It Okay if I Call You Mine?" was an original song that Paul McCrane had written himself, and he performed it in his audition. Alan Parker was inspired to use it in the film.
Auditions were held in the actual High School of Performing Arts, although Laura Dean was the only student to be cast in a prominent role. Jim Moody (Mr. Farrell) was the school's drama teacher, and Jonathan Strasser, who appears as the conductor, was the school's music teacher. Several other students appear as extras.
Mr. Shorofsky is played by veteran composer and actor Albert Hague.
Irene Cara (Coco Hernandez) was a former student of the school.
Gene Anthony Ray (Leroy Johnson) had attended the school but got expelled.
Enforced Method Acting: All the musical numbers were performed practically on set, as Alan Parker wanted to avoid having to dub in post production.
Executive Meddling: Not from the studio, but the Board of Education forbid filming in the actual school, due to the profanity in the script (as well as drug depictions and sexual content). Alan Parker's controversial depictions of Turkish prisons in Midnight Express wasn't helping his case. They ended up having to use two disused schools, $200,000 being spent on turning one of them into a sound stage.
Follow the Leader: Fame's music video style choreography ended up influencing the likes of Flashdance, Footloose and Dirty Dancing. Irene Cara even co-wrote and performed the title song for Flashdance.
Harpo Does Something Funny: "Hot Lunch Jam" was heavily improvised, and performed live on set with contributions from everyone.
Never Work with Children or Animals: The High School of Performing Arts insisted that filming happen during the summer, so as not to distract the young actors from their studies. It ended up being a particularly warm summer, making shooting less than pleasant.
Sleeper Hit: A small musical with only an $8 million budget ended up with a $42 million worldwide gross, redefining the teen musical genre, and getting a TV series (which itself got a spin-off), stage adaptation and numerous other spin-off attempts.
Star-Making Role: Irene Cara was put on the map thanks to this film, although more so as a singer rather than actress.
Throw It In!: Alan Parker added in the scene where Doris dances to "The Time Warp" after a group of students invited him to a midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
What Could Have Been: The first vision of the story was for a Lighter and Softer take, to quote manager David De Silva, "the joy of what school represented for these kids". Director Alan Parker was more interested in "where the pain was in going to the school".
Working Title: Hot Lunch was the first title of the script. It was changed both because there was a porn film with the same title, and it was also a New York slang word for oral sex.
The series version provides examples of:
Acting for Two: Season 5's "His Majesty Donlon" has Billy Hufsey and Nia Peeples play royalty in an Arranged Marriage (Prince Frederick of Vatonia; Princess Maryanne of Gimblestein, respectively) in addition to their regular roles as Chris Donlon and Nicole Chapman.
Actor Leaves, Character Dies: Nicole in season 6. Long story short, the writers considered doing a Very Special Episode on drunk driving, but had to get a main character involved. When Nicole's actress Nia Peeples wanted to leave, they got her permission to have Nicole Killed Off for Real; the result was the episode "Go Softly Into The Morning". According to the book Inside Fame on Television: A Behind-the-Scenes History the writers regretted doing this and they would have loved to have Nicole back for the Grand Finale.
The Cast Showoff: As is expected from a show about a performing arts school. Taking the spotlight most often was ironically none of the students but one of the teachers, Lydia Grant (played by Debbie Allen). Allen was also the show's choreographer and was given very wide latitude in that role (with scripts leaving whole scenes blank except for the letters D.W.D. - "Debbie Will Determine").
Directed by Cast Member: The Season 4 Very Special Episode "Reflections" was directed by Valerie Landsburg (who played Doris on the series and whose directorial credit was with her married name of Valerie Landsburg McVay). Debbie Allen directed 11 episodes, and went on to have a successful career as a director.
The Other Darrin: Coco, Montgomery and Doris are not played by the same actors as the movie. Coco starts out with her hair done in the same way as movie!Coco, to make the transition less obvious.
Real-Life Relative: Debbie Allen's husband, then-San Diego (now Los Angeles) Clippers guard Norm Nixon, appeared in the Season 3 episode "Heritage").
Real Life Writes the Plot: The Season 2 "Episodes" had its main plot (Leroy losing a role in the school's play after being tardy when he decided to try out for a dance troupe) based on Gene Anthony Ray (who played Leroy) being constantly late for tapings and rehearsals. Apparently, the message didn't sink in at the time for Ray; who ended up being suspended for 5 episodes in Season 3.
The decision to have Nicole Chapman killed off towards the end was the result of two eerie coincidences - the writers were planning on doing a drunk driving episode around the time Nia Peeples planned on leaving the show. Rather than put Nicole on a bus, they killed her off entirely (and later regretted doing so).
Written By Castmember: Lee Curreri penned "Blood, Sweat And Circuits...", and Valerie Landsburg co-wrote "Signs." Curreri also penned a handful of songs for the series.
