American Bandstand
AB-281: Frankie Ford
TV Flash files “AB-281: Frankie Ford” as a desk essential hour — American Bandstand (1952–1989) on WFIL-TV/ABC, season 2, episode 1, aired 1958-09-01, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E01: listed hour 285 of 2821 in the American Bandstand guide, first listed hour of season 2. It aired 1958-09-01 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “AB-280” (S01E284). Next is “AB-282” (S02E02). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Essential hour: “AB-281: Frankie Ford”. AB-281: Frankie Ford: numbered after-school landmark, kids still rating records while payola-era survival skills stay off-mic.
Viewer FAQ
Where does AB-281: Frankie Ford sit in the American Bandstand guide?
S02E01 is listed hour 285 of 2821 — first listed hour of season 2, season 2 episode 1.
When did American Bandstand S02E01 air?
AB-281: Frankie Ford aired 1958-09-01 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with Clark's national ABC years: rate-a-record, the dance floor, a guest act paying court. The after-school machine is the point, not a plot.
In the series
Why this series still plays
American Bandstand is Dick Clark's after-school dance floor: kids rating records, stars paying court, payola-era survival skills. Watch it now as the machine that nationalized teen music culture — a Philadelphia floor that taught labels TV could sell singles overnight, and made the host a perpetual industry power broker.
Distribution first: local WFIL-TV Philadelphia, then national ABC from 1957. Dick Clark's after-school floor. **2,821 episodes, 33 seasons**, 1952–1989 in the long count. Kids on camera rating records, artists paying court (often lip-synced), Rate-a-record as participatory UI, dance crazes as the weekly SKU. That is not a sock hop. That is a distribution channel disguised as a dance floor. Rex can hymn the jukebox. The metric is overnight singles.
Filed against
- Dick Clark as Host
Dick Clark made American Bandstand an after-school dance floor with national reach — kids rating records, stars paying court, payola-era survival skills, a Philadelphia machine that taught labels television could sell singles overnight.…