“Shakedown” — Late-Night Baltimore Dance TV Show

WJZ revives dance show

(The Baltimore Sun, 4/15/1992)

Almost 160 local dancers aged 18 to 25 will get at least one chance to star on local television as WJZ-Channel 13 brings back to the airwaves the dance program “Shakedown.”

The show will premiere at 11:30 p.m. April 25, and will run at least 11 weeks in that Saturday night slot.

Although auditions April 3 and 4 at White Marsh and Owings Mills malls won about 160 dancers a chance to appear on the show, only about 60 dancers can appear on any one edition “because that’s all we can fit into the studio,” says producer Terry Todesco. As the show continues, it is likely producers will choose a fixed group of regulars.

Hosts for the program will be announced soon.

“Shakedown” is a revival of a dance show of that name which ran for 44 weeks on Channel 13 in 1986-’87. In turn, that effort was an attempt to revive the local-production excitement of the original “Buddy Deane Show,” which ran from 1957 to 1964 on Channel 13.

Shakedown episode on Archive.org

shakedown1986JoeyMunchel
Shakedown Dance Auditions rules shared to the Shakedown Facebook group by Joey Munchel.

This entry was posted in 1990s, Music, Music Video and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

25 Responses to “Shakedown” — Late-Night Baltimore Dance TV Show

    • Seana says:

      Oh the memories lol. Wow I remember this like it was yesterday! I also remember being exhausted because we went out the night before taping. Thanks for posting these!

      • George says:

        I remember being on first show back in the 80’s . When the song SUMMERTIME came out and she came and song on the show. Those were the good old days.

        Carver high baby!!!

  1. Tyrone Thorpe says:

    Well you know this was the third run of this show. The first show was in 1986 with Harold Anthony.

  2. Seana says:

    Hi Tyrone. This is actually the 2nd run of Shakedown…I was on it. The videos posted on this page were of the very 1st episode that we taped. I’m in there and LMAO each time I watch this! 😀

    • Tyrone Thorpe says:

      I wish there was a listing of all the first run of the show cause a song is really escaping my right now. “I got you coming. It’s gonna be alright” was the chorus. And for a 10-year-0ld who was up too late for his age, I remember that show when it was an hour show. I know it was the one with Connie on it and the song came on at the end of the show and the artist also performed.

      The chorus is seriously humping my brain.

  3. Tammy C says:

    i went to the try outs at white marsh mall . i loved it i wish the show would have continued . i wish i could get a hold of the shows last 3 episodes which i was on

  4. Stacy says:

    I had a blast taping for this show. It’s funny to look back at all the 90’s clothes. I looked pretty fly in my fly girl attire

  5. I have one episode I need to encode and post on Youtube. Hope you’re in it!

  6. Christopher Eastman says:

    OMG…i was a regular on here. I got nicknamed the “mad hatter” cause i wore a different hay on each episode except the pilot. Too funny to watch now! Wish I could find amp the shows. I had them on vhs tape back in the day. So much fun!!

  7. Joan Weston says:

    My son Christopher Clark was a regular on the original show. He passed in July 2014 I wish I had tapes to show his children but WJZ wasn’t able to help can anyone love you more

  8. Joan Weston says:

    I listed the wrong year for Christopher’s passing it was 2012 but when you miss someone it seems like yesterday

  9. Stacy says:

    I was on that show in 1992! LMAO! I was on each episode except for the last 2 tapings. It was a fun time and I have a few more episodes on VHS..not sure how to convert them over.

    • Seana Lee says:

      I Stacy. I was on the 92 run of the show too. It would be totally awesome if you could find a way to convert your recordings of the show to DVD or whatever. I would so love to see them all again so I can get a good laugh. 🙂

  10. I have one episode I’ll upload but it will take a month or two to locate!
    I hope Stacy can get her tapes online, it’s pretty easy to do if you have a dvd recorder.
    Thanks for reading!

  11. paul arseneau jr says:

    I remember Harold Anthony was the host for a while?

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  13. Tearza Johnson says:

    OK wow…I remember this like it was yesterday. It was cold out and hot as heck in. I had on black shorts, short black ruffe shirt, purple hat, and purple boots. I was in the middle of floor then I got my 10 sec of airtime in the last segment on the side.. I wanna do it again.

  14. Zachary Grant says:

    Oh wow what memories !! Ellie and I (Eleanora and Zach) were two of the older original Shakedown crew 1985-86,we had 9-5’s. We hustled (hand danced) and held it down. The show had live entertainment.

  15. andrew Ehrlich says:

    This drew” ehrlich omg shackdown on channel 13 dance show in the eighties was unbelievable !! Love danceing my ass off then and still do

  16. Suzanne Barton Treshman says:

    Danced on the show in the 1980’s almost every show . Loved and missed it

  17. Joel Eagle says:

    Holy cow, talk about a walk down memory lane, I co-produced the last installment of Shakedown in 1992 along with Terry Todesco. We lasted longer than expected and for the budget we had, put on a pretty decent product. Sure it looks dated and a bit cheesy now, but back in the day Baltimore was hip hopping away on Saturday nights, regularly beating SNL’s ratings. We took Prime out in the field and interviewed some pretty big names at the time, Beastie Boys, MC Serch, CeCe Penison, Boys to Men, even Kris Kross, we also played some pretty fresh music. Fun times at WJZ

  18. Mark says:

    I was in the first 2 seasons. Working graveyard shift I remember getting home fro work, grabbing my 2 outfits and heading t TV hill. Back then we taped 2 episodes every 2 weeks. They served us lunch in between tapings and often the show’s sponsors came in to give us freebies.

    My biggest memory was when The Vamps were the live music group.

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