One night in Chicago, two semi-employed actors drifted through some musical memories.
"I pulled out a bunch of my old 45s," Jim Jacobs recalls. "I said, 'Just think of a Broadway musical with music like this.' Then we both laughed."
Then they figured the idea wasn't so silly after all. They created "Grease," which became a hit on stage and in a movie. Now, it has a key function for NBC. With its football season finished, NBC has to build a new Sunday night lineup. Beginning Jan. 7, it has:
-- "Dateline" at 7 p.m.
-- "Grease: You're the One That I Want" at 8. It's a reality show in which viewers will get to choose the people who will star as main characters Danny and Sandy in a Broadway revival of "Grease."
-- "The Apprentice," debut at 9:30 p.m., then at 9 for the remaining episodes. After five rounds in New York, the show is now in Los Angeles. This time, Donald Trump says, NBC asked for fewer product-placement plugs and more quirky tasks. "They wanted to go back a little to the selling of lemonade that first year."
-- "Crossing Jordan" starts its season at 10 p.m. on Jan. 14.
The "Grease" reality show will be hosted by Billy Bush, who has seen the movie "10 times, at least," he says.
His co-host will be Denise Van Outen, a British musical star. The judges are Kathleen Marshall (who will direct and choreograph the Broadway show), David Ian (a British producer) and Jacobs -- who recently gave Bush a "Grease" tour.
"I went to the old Polish neighborhoods of Chicago," Bush says. "We went to his old high school. I met the real Patty Simcox."
Or, at least, the person after which Patty was patterned. Jacobs, 64, says he and co-writer Warren Casey based "Grease" on kids they once knew.
"Everyone had a Danny Zuko," Jacobs says. "He was the leader of the guys. He had the charisma of Elmer Gantry."
That was in a late-'50s era between wars with time to fill. "We stole cars, we got in fights, we hung around," Jacobs recalls.
A decade later it all seemed so benign. In 1969, he pulled out his old 45 records with all the do-wops and falsettos and such.
This was the music that had first stirred Jacobs. "I was listening to the same things my mom and dad did -- Perry Como, Bing Crosby. Then I turned way to the end of the dial and heard Little Richard. Hallelujah -- that was it!"
He suggested turning such sounds into a musical. Casey focused on clever novelty songs, including "Beauty School Dropout." Jacobs did straight-ahead rockers like "Greased Lightning."
Together, they crafted the story of bad-boy Danny and sweet Sandy, with a twist. "We didn't want to see James Dean settle down and move to the suburbs," Jacobs says. Instead, Sandy would change.
Legend has it that "Grease" opened with a ragged, five-hour production in an old trolley barn. Only the barn part is true, Jacobs says. "Maybe we were an hour and 20 minutes for each act, but that was it."
The show was an instant hit in Chicago, he says, and moved to Broadway. It opened in 1972 and ran eight years, then a record. There was also the 1978 movie starring John Travolta as Danny and Olivia Newton-John as Sandy.
Similar themes have persisted, from "Happy Days" to "High School Musical." Still, Jacobs says there was a time when he thought the phenomenon had faded. Then, in 1988, he saw a vibrant Japanese production.
"I thought, 'Geez, this thing is going to keep going.' "
Casey never learned the extent of it. He died of AIDS in 1988, Jacobs says, on the day before a tape of the Japanese show arrived.
There has been much more since then, including a 1994 Broadway revival. Then British producers suggested the reality show.
Auditions in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles brought thousands of would-be Dannys and Sandys, Jacobs says. Some bore no resemblance. "I finally said, 'Are there no mirrors in your house?' "
Others had the look and attitude but nothing else.
"They were the coolest guys in their neighborhoods," Jacobs says. "But there's more to being Danny Zuko than that. You have to be able to dance and sing and act."
(BREAKOUT MATERIAL)
On the tube
-- What: "Grease: You're the One That I Want."
-- When: 8 p.m. Sundays. Opener (Jan. 7) is 90 minutes; other episodes are an hour.
-- Where: NBC.
-- Did you know? The 1994 Broadway revival had Ricky Paull Goldin and Susan Wood as Danny and Sandy. Others included Rosie O'Donnell as Rizzo, Megan Mullally as Marty and Sam Harris as Doody.
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SOURCE: Gannett News Service
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