Abstract
Abstract Not only were ABC executives stunned by the success of American Bandstand, they were also impressed with Dick Clark’s facile manner. When ABC originally contracted for its teenage dance show the network viewed Clark as being indispensible to the show’s success; now ABC realized that Bandstand’s personable young host was everything they had expected—and then some. “We saw that he was a property in himself,“ recalled Ted Fetter. “Here we had a guy who was obviously a star. He had something; he had a knack, and so we said, ‘How can we develop this thing?’ It was just in the cards that we were going to try our best to capitalize on this guy.“ ABC wanted Clark in prime time. Just two weeks after American Bandstand was added to ABC’s permanent schedule the press noted that he was “reportedly set“ for his own nighttime program on the network, which was supposedly going to air on Saturday evenings from New York City and follow a similar format to American Bandstand.1 But plans to develop a new show for Clark fell victim to ABC’s longstanding practice of employing the bottom line to determine network programming. Instead of developing an entirely new show for Clark, the network decided to institute a live Monday night version of American Bandstand. Since American Bandstand was making money in the afternoon, why not also air the popular program at night?
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