Fame is a 1980 musical film conceived and produced by David De Silva, directed by Alan Parker. The film follows a group of students through their studies at a New York high school for performing arts (later renamed Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts).
"Fame" was a pop song written by Michael Gore (music) and Dean Pitchford (lyrics) that was released in 1980 and achieved chart success as the theme song to the Fame movie and TV series. The song was performed by Irene Cara, who played the role of Coco Hernandez in the original movie. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for the same.
Fame ran on NBC in the summer of 2003. The show was essentially NBC's attempt to duplicate the success of mega-hit American Idol, right down to their selection of judges. Former pop star Carnie Wilson was similar in her judgements to American Idol's Paula Abdul, Johnny Wright, the veteran music producer, was the show's analogue of Randy Jackson, and Jo Jo Wright was, like Simon Cowell, the judge who says things to stir people up.