{{Short description|American television series}} {{italic title}} {{Multiple issues| {{review|date=September 2014}} {{More citations needed|date=December 2023}} }} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
'''''The Buddy Deane Show''''' is an American teen dance television show, created by Zvi Shoubin, hosted by '''Winston "Buddy" Deane''' (1924–2003), and aired on WJZ-TV (Channel 13), the ABC affiliate station in Baltimore from 1957 until 1964. It is similar to Philadelphia's ''American Bandstand''.
''The Buddy Deane Show'' was taken off the air because of a feud Deane had with WJZ-TV regarding the integration of African-American dancers on the program; WJZ-TV wanted virulently to have said dancers booked for his program, but Deane felt that the city of Baltimore had Southern orientations and that its white population would be greatly resistant to the inclusion of those dancers as a result.<ref name="usat"/>
==Synopsis==
Deane's dance party television show debuted in 1957 and was for a time the most popular local show in the United States. It aired for two and a half hours a day, six days a week. Teenagers who appeared on the show every day were known as "The Committee". Committee 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 teens learned the latest dances by watching Committee members on the show, copying their personal style, and following their life stories and interactions.{{citation needed|date=September 2014}}
Many top acts of the day, both black and white, appeared on ''The Buddy Deane Show''. Acts that appeared on the show first reportedly were barred from appearing on ''American Bandstand'', but if they had been on ''Bandstand'' first they could still be on ''The Buddy Deane Show''. The rivalry with Dick Clark meant that Deane urged all his performers not to mention ''American Bandstand'' or visits to Clark in Philadelphia. Although WJZ-TV, owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting (now CBS since January 2, 1995), was an ABC affiliate, the station "blacked out" the network broadcast of ''American Bandstand'' in Baltimore and instead broadcast the Deane program, reportedly because ''Bandstand'' showed black teenagers dancing on the show (but black and white teenagers were not allowed to dance together until the show was moved to California in 1964). The Deane program set aside every other Friday for a show featuring only black teenagers. For the rest of the time, the show's participants were all white. However, as the civil rights movement gained strength in the United States, WJZ-TV began insisting on the program having a regular lineup of racially-integrated dancers.<ref name="usat"/> Deane complied briefly, featuring such a lineup for a few months until protests from segregationists prompted him to have a racially-segregated lineup of dancers again, prompting protests from integrationists. Deane, who believed his program fell victim to the debate over integrated dancing, remarked, on the subject of it being incorporated on his show, that "you're in trouble if you do and in trouble if you don't."<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=December 14, 1963 |title=Deane Says Integration Problems Ended TV Show |url=https://baltimoresun.newspapers.com/article/the-baltimore-sun/31265782/ |work=The Sun |location=Baltimore, Maryland, United States |access-date=December 26, 2023}}</ref> WJZ-TV denied that the debate over integration had played a role in the series' cancellation, arguing that the decision was instead brought about by changing musical tastes and declining ratings for the program.<ref>{{cite news |last=Cedrone, Jr. |first=Louis R. |date=January 7, 1964 |title=Buddy Deane Show Leaves WJZ-TV |url=https://baltimoresun.newspapers.com/article/the-evening-sun/31266050/ |work=The Evening Sun |location=Baltimore, Maryland, United States |access-date=December 26, 2023}}</ref>
Owing to Deane's mid-South roots and work history, he featured many performers from the ranks of country and western music (e.g., Skeeter Davis, singing "The End of the World" and Brenda Lee singing "Sweet Nothin's"), who then achieved cross-over hits among rock and roll fans. Deane also played songs that other disc jockeys, including Dick Clark, refused to present to mostly white teen TV audiences because the acts sounded "too black" (e.g. "Do You Love Me" by The Contours, or "Hide and Go Seek" by Bunker Hill).{{citation needed|date=September 2014}} With an ear for music seasoned by many more years as a disc jockey than Clark, Deane brought to his audience a wider array of white musical acts than were seen on ''American Bandstand''. For example, Carole King appeared on the show playing her single "It Might as Well Rain Until September", nearly a decade before she achieved popularity with her 1971 album ''Tapestry''. Deane also presented British artist Helen Shapiro, who sang her Baltimore hit "Tell Me What He Said" at about the time that she was touring England with The Beatles as one of her supporting acts.
Deane organized and disc-jockeyed dances in public venues across the WJZ-TV broadcast area, including much of central Maryland, Delaware, and southern Pennsylvania where tens of thousands of teenagers were exposed to live recording artists and TV personalities.{{citation needed|date=September 2014}} In several instances, the show went on location to the Milford Mill swim club on the westside of suburban Baltimore County. Almost all dancers wore swim wear and beach attire, with music provided by WJZ-TV. One show was even broadcast from a local farm in Westminster, Maryland. Participants dressed in "country" style and danced to country and western music as well as pop. Several local art contests were held on the show, with viewers submitting their own art work. Deane held dances at various Maryland American Legion posts and National Guard armories, which were not taped or broadcast on television.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}
"Buddy" Deane was a broadcaster for more than 50 years, beginning his career in Little Rock, Arkansas, moving to the Memphis, Tennessee market, and moving to Baltimore, where he worked at WITH radio. He was one of the early disc jockeys in the area to regularly feature rock and roll. Deane died in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on July 16, 2003 after suffering a stroke.<ref name="usat">{{cite news |work=Associated Press via USA Today |title=Radio pioneer Buddy Deane dies |date=2003-07-16 |url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/2003-07-16-deane-obit_x.htm |location=Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030719114109/https://www.usatoday.com/life/2003-07-16-deane-obit_x.htm |archive-date=July 19, 2003 |access-date=December 26, 2023}}</ref> He was 78.
== 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, dubbed ''The Corny Collins Show'', provides the backdrop to the 1988 John Waters film ''Hairspray''. The film spawned a 2002 Broadway musical adaptation starring Harvey Fierstein and Marissa Jaret Winokur, and a 2007 film adaptation of the musical starring John Travolta and Nikki Blonsky. Although he never appeared on Deane's show, Waters attended high school with a "Buddy Deaner" and later gave Deane a cameo in the film, in which Deane played a TV reporter who tried to interview the governor who was besieged by integration protesters.<ref name="usat"/>
As with many other local TV shows, little footage of the show is known to have survived. When Barry Levinson, another Baltimore native, requested video from the show for his film ''Diner'', the station told him it had no footage.<ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Waters |author-link=John Waters (filmmaker) |title=Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters |year=1985 |edition=1st |publisher= MacMillan Publishing Company |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-0-02-624440-4 |chapter=Ladies and Gentlemen…The Nicest Kids in Town! |page=89}}</ref>
== See also == * ''The Clay Cole Show'' * ''The Groovy Show'' * ''The Milt Grant Show''
== References == <references />
== Further reading == * Warner, Tony, ''Buddy's Top 20: The Story of Baltimore's Hottest TV Dance Show and the Guy Who Brought It to Life!'', 2003 * ''Washington Post'', "Winston "Buddy" Deane – Baltimore DJ" obituary, Friday, July 18, 2003, Page B-7.
{{Hairspray}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buddy Deane Show}} Category:1957 American television series debuts Category:1964 American television series endings Category:1950s American music television series Category:1960s American music television series Category:1950s American variety television series Category:1960s American variety television series Category:Race-related controversies in television Category:Dance television shows Category:Local music television shows in the United States Category:American television series about teenagers Category:African-American-related controversies Category:African-American history in Baltimore Category:Hairspray (franchise) Category:Civil rights movement Category:Television controversies in the United States Category:Obscenity controversies in television