American Bandstand
Four Tops / Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots
TV Flash files “Four Tops / Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots” as hour 2252 of 2821 in the TV Flash guide — American Bandstand (1952–1989) on WFIL-TV/ABC, season 20, episode 5, aired 1976-10-02, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S20E05: listed hour 2252 of 2821 in the American Bandstand guide, hour 5 of 50 in season 20. It aired 1976-10-02 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Walter Murphy Band” (S20E04). Next is “Ritchie Family” (S20E06). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Four Tops / Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots sit in the American Bandstand guide?
S20E05 is listed hour 2252 of 2821 — hour 5 of 50 in season 20, season 20 episode 5.
When did American Bandstand S20E05 air?
Four Tops / Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots aired 1976-10-02 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.…