Disco’s Dead, but ‘Fever’s’ Back on the Floor

The moves might change, but dancing never goes out of style.

Nor, evidently, does a TV series that celebrates it. “Dance Fever” initially sprang from the popularity of the disco-themed movie “Saturday Night Fever” and ran in syndication from 1979 to 1987.

ABC Family Channel ups the reality-show ante by launching a new version of the contest with a two-hour premiere Sunday, and it’s a sign of the times that the top prize has doubled. The first time around, each season’s winners could receive as much as $50,000; now a grand prize of $100,000 will go to the victorious individual or team.

Created by entertainment veteran Merv Griffin, who remains an executive producer of the show, “Dance Fever” offers MTV alumnus Eric Nies (“The Grind,” “The Real World”) as host of its new incarnation. Once the field of light-on-their-feet hopefuls is narrowed to 48 finalists, they’ll be judged “American Idol”-style at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas by a panel consisting of actress and sometimes dancer Carmen Electra, rapper MC Hammer and director and choreographer Jamie King.

“I was just a little girl when the original show was on,” Electra remembers, “and I would always watch it with my mom. I used to be in a lot of dance competitions, so Mom would watch the show to get ideas for costumes for me. She was an amazing seamstress.” The young Electra -- then a Cincinnati kid named Tara Leigh Patrick -- got her own ideas from watching “Dance Fever,” so she comes full circle with her new role. “I’ve always wanted to be a judge, just because I was in so many competitions. I knew what a powerful position it was.

“When you’re out there performing and you really want to win, it’s hard and it’s scary. To be perfectly honest, I wish I hadn’t been put in that position as a young girl. When you don’t win, the feelings you experience are really tough.” That’s why Electra isn’t planning to emulate “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell’s scathing critiques of the amateur dancers, nor does she suspect her fellow judges will either. She prefers to keep the comments constructive. “We definitely have an eye for dance, and when you’ve been around it so much, you know what to look for. I’ve gotten back to dancing, in fact, in the group called the Pussycat Dolls.”

Griffin, still a TV industry tycoon thanks to his enduring game shows “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune,” is pleased that “Dance Fever” is getting a new life. He admits, though, that he never really considered it much. “Since the original show, dance has really changed,” he says. “It was mainly confined to discotheques then, and that’s the style we presented. I had spun off the show from my talk show, on which I held the first national disco contest.”

The show will be more than disco this time. “It’s taking on every dance style from hip-hop to swing, with maybe the occasional disco dancer,” says Griffin, whose partner in producing the new “Dance Fever” is “Meet My Folks” executive producer Bruce Nash. “There will also be a lot of salsa, quite a lot of Latin, so it has a whole new flavor. Also, we have the luxury of being on for more than a half-hour this time, so we’ve got cameras out all over the United States to show who the dancers are and how they were picked.”

“Technique is so important in dance, like anything else,” Electra says. “If you study and practice every day, you’re just going to get better and better, so it all starts with your background. Then it’s a matter of how enthusiastic you are, how much personality you put into your moves. We’ll probably be looking for everything in a contestant.”

Electra says she was approached to be on other reality shows but resisted. “Dance Fever” struck the right chord with her, she explains. “It’s something I have a passion for, because of the dance element. I don’t think a lot of people know that I started out as a dancer, but it’s a huge part of my life. I’m really happy to be involved with it again and to show that involvement to people. I’m known mostly for all the sexy images, and I’m cool with that, but that’s not all of who I am.”

“Dance Fever” airs at 7 p.m. Sundays on cable’s ABC Family Channel.

Jay Bobbin writes for Tribune Media Services.

Cover photograph by Jaimie Trueblood.