#556687
Private Dancer
Written by: Paul Brown
Directed by: Debbie Allen
Leap Date: October 6, 1979
Original Air Date: March 20, 1991
This time: Sam leaps into a male stripper. As Rod “The Bod’ McCarly, he is the star of Chippendales. One of the waitresses, Diana, ignores the mustachioed bartender, Otto. Their boss, Mario says not to worry since she will be dancing soon anyway. On the dance floor, a woman named Joanna is tearing it up and gets Sam in on the fun. Diana joins but she is told by Mario to get back to work. Sam realizes that Diana is deaf. Al arrives and says that she turns to prostitution, has run ins with the law and eventually dies of AIDS.
Sam talks to Mario in an attempt to keep Diana off that path, but Mario is only intrigued by a deaf stripper. Sam offers to do more dancing on the condition that Diana continues waitressing. After hours, Diana turns up the bass and does some freestyle. She is surprised by Sam though the two bond as Sam takes her home to her apartment. Though as Sam leaves, she heads out to a van parked on the street.
The next day, she finds out about the deal Sam made and is not happy about it, since New York is expen$ive. Sam goes to her ‘apartment,’ only to find out her real address. As it turns out, Joanna is a renowned choreographer and is holding open auditions. Sam convinces Diana to give it a shot. Diana does impress but it becomes clear that Joanna will need to give her extra attention and is not willing to. As if things could not get worse, the police tow Diana’s van.
Desperate for some money, Mario’s assistant offers Diana an opportunity to be a ‘date.’ Sam intrudes and presents Diana with a choice, and she decides to give it another go. He pleads with Joanna to give Diana another chance and it works. Diana becomes a famed dancer and finishes high school. Sam leaps …
… into a pianist. One of the patrons makes a special request.
Stop talking to yourself: Sam’s first thought after leaping in during a dance? Ancient Roman Gladiators.
Only Sam can see and hear: Al has fun in the dance hall. He also is envious of Sam being a dancer. He does not give Sam much beyond his name and does not ogle at the women, but he makes an appearance. For some reason.
Mirror images that were not his own: Sam does not initially notice, but we see him in the mirror after he loses most of his costume but gets some dollar bills in his briefs. Yeah, this might not be a good episode for the kids to see.
Something or someone: Not only do Sam and Al get to watch Diana’s successful audition, Al fills Sam in on what the future holds.
It’s a science project: Your humble rewatcher has been known to dance and while there is some freedom to it, there is a good amount of science in there as well.
Let’s up the rating: Sam leaps into a male stripper and there are scantily clad men dancing nearby.
One more time: “I don’t dance.” “I don’t know honey, I saw you doing some good moves between those bumps and grinds up there.”
Sam being modest and Joanna wanting more
The Rainbow Treknection: Heidi Swedberg plays Valeri, Mario’s assistant and also portrayed Cardassian student/Dissident Rekelen in Profit and Loss.
Trivial Matters: Most shows list guest stars, one of whom might get an “and” of if we are lucky, a “Special Guest Star” billing. Here we get that and an “Introducing.”
Said Special Guest Star, famed choreographer Debbie Allen, also directed this episode. You might recognize her from A Different World and your parents might recognize her from the series Fame. As much as she has dazzled in front of the camera, she is also a noted director as well.
Put right what once went wrong: “I’ve never been degraded like that…” “I would give anything to be degraded like that…” This show has already given Scott Bakula an opportunity to show off his singing chops and will probably continue to based on the preview. This episode lets him show off his dancing chops. He, Allen and Rhondee Beriault as Diana get to show off what they can do along with a random extra jn the first act.
Beriault has a time to shine in this hour with her acting. A deaf actress herself, she put a lot of passion into being a strong woman. She stands up for herself and just asks for a little bit of work, though it does fall on all of us to make sure that the person we are speaking to understands us. We get a lot in this hour with her being hostile initially though that is more of a defense mechanism than anything else. I am fairly certain that the mustache was not the only reason why she ignored Otto as he was moderately expressive. Her scene with the cop shows her at her most vulnerable and she is lucky he does not throw her in jail.
Allen’s Joanna is strong as well. Obviously there to showcase her dancing as well but she also had a good point with being a minority trying to make a name for herself. Directing yourself is not easy but she was able to convey her issues, in between pining over Sam, and she is all over him at times. The rest of the named cast is as well, though they mostly got to be a pimp, jerk or both.
If only I could give the script praise as well. I am not a fan of overcoming a rejection by asking again. If it did not work the first time it will probably not work the second time. What did Joanna see at the second audition that she did not see in the first? By that point, Diana had made it through a few rounds. As good as the directing is, the script contrives reasons for Diana not to read peoples lips and that had to be followed through on set. It does not work when Beriault must go out of her way to avoid looking at people. As you can tell from the brevity of the synopses, there is just not a whole lot happening in this episode thought when you have several dance breaks, that is somewhat expected.
It is too bad because Allen did a good job directing. The movements are not organic, but the cast pulls it off. There are some great crane shots of the street and while so much of it works not all of it does. This could have been a home run, but it turned out to be a base hit.
Written by: Paul Brown
Directed by: Debbie Allen
Leap Date: October 6, 1979
Original Air Date: March 20, 1991
This time: Sam leaps into a male stripper. As Rod “The Bod’ McCarly, he is the star of Chippendales. One of the waitresses, Diana, ignores the mustachioed bartender, Otto. Their boss, Mario says not to worry since she will be dancing soon anyway. On the dance floor, a woman named Joanna is tearing it up and gets Sam in on the fun. Diana joins but she is told by Mario to get back to work. Sam realizes that Diana is deaf. Al arrives and says that she turns to prostitution, has run ins with the law and eventually dies of AIDS.
Sam talks to Mario in an attempt to keep Diana off that path, but Mario is only intrigued by a deaf stripper. Sam offers to do more dancing on the condition that Diana continues waitressing. After hours, Diana turns up the bass and does some freestyle. She is surprised by Sam though the two bond as Sam takes her home to her apartment. Though as Sam leaves, she heads out to a van parked on the street.
The next day, she finds out about the deal Sam made and is not happy about it, since New York is expen$ive. Sam goes to her ‘apartment,’ only to find out her real address. As it turns out, Joanna is a renowned choreographer and is holding open auditions. Sam convinces Diana to give it a shot. Diana does impress but it becomes clear that Joanna will need to give her extra attention and is not willing to. As if things could not get worse, the police tow Diana’s van.
Desperate for some money, Mario’s assistant offers Diana an opportunity to be a ‘date.’ Sam intrudes and presents Diana with a choice, and she decides to give it another go. He pleads with Joanna to give Diana another chance and it works. Diana becomes a famed dancer and finishes high school. Sam leaps …
… into a pianist. One of the patrons makes a special request.
Stop talking to yourself: Sam’s first thought after leaping in during a dance? Ancient Roman Gladiators.
Only Sam can see and hear: Al has fun in the dance hall. He also is envious of Sam being a dancer. He does not give Sam much beyond his name and does not ogle at the women, but he makes an appearance. For some reason.
Mirror images that were not his own: Sam does not initially notice, but we see him in the mirror after he loses most of his costume but gets some dollar bills in his briefs. Yeah, this might not be a good episode for the kids to see.
Something or someone: Not only do Sam and Al get to watch Diana’s successful audition, Al fills Sam in on what the future holds.
It’s a science project: Your humble rewatcher has been known to dance and while there is some freedom to it, there is a good amount of science in there as well.
Let’s up the rating: Sam leaps into a male stripper and there are scantily clad men dancing nearby.
One more time: “I don’t dance.” “I don’t know honey, I saw you doing some good moves between those bumps and grinds up there.”
Sam being modest and Joanna wanting more
The Rainbow Treknection: Heidi Swedberg plays Valeri, Mario’s assistant and also portrayed Cardassian student/Dissident Rekelen in Profit and Loss.
Trivial Matters: Most shows list guest stars, one of whom might get an “and” of if we are lucky, a “Special Guest Star” billing. Here we get that and an “Introducing.”
Said Special Guest Star, famed choreographer Debbie Allen, also directed this episode. You might recognize her from A Different World and your parents might recognize her from the series Fame. As much as she has dazzled in front of the camera, she is also a noted director as well.
Put right what once went wrong: “I’ve never been degraded like that…” “I would give anything to be degraded like that…” This show has already given Scott Bakula an opportunity to show off his singing chops and will probably continue to based on the preview. This episode lets him show off his dancing chops. He, Allen and Rhondee Beriault as Diana get to show off what they can do along with a random extra jn the first act.
Beriault has a time to shine in this hour with her acting. A deaf actress herself, she put a lot of passion into being a strong woman. She stands up for herself and just asks for a little bit of work, though it does fall on all of us to make sure that the person we are speaking to understands us. We get a lot in this hour with her being hostile initially though that is more of a defense mechanism than anything else. I am fairly certain that the mustache was not the only reason why she ignored Otto as he was moderately expressive. Her scene with the cop shows her at her most vulnerable and she is lucky he does not throw her in jail.
Allen’s Joanna is strong as well. Obviously there to showcase her dancing as well but she also had a good point with being a minority trying to make a name for herself. Directing yourself is not easy but she was able to convey her issues, in between pining over Sam, and she is all over him at times. The rest of the named cast is as well, though they mostly got to be a pimp, jerk or both.
If only I could give the script praise as well. I am not a fan of overcoming a rejection by asking again. If it did not work the first time it will probably not work the second time. What did Joanna see at the second audition that she did not see in the first? By that point, Diana had made it through a few rounds. As good as the directing is, the script contrives reasons for Diana not to read peoples lips and that had to be followed through on set. It does not work when Beriault must go out of her way to avoid looking at people. As you can tell from the brevity of the synopses, there is just not a whole lot happening in this episode thought when you have several dance breaks, that is somewhat expected.
It is too bad because Allen did a good job directing. The movements are not organic, but the cast pulls it off. There are some great crane shots of the street and while so much of it works not all of it does. This could have been a home run, but it turned out to be a base hit.
New places for old(er) keywords: Continuing Mission
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Cardassians and Federation posturing it out: Showdown: Four Lights