Before he was one half of the voice you hear talking about the 80s every week, Jason Pascoe was living the 80s out loud — on a Philadelphia soundstage, on national cable, dancing to the same songs everybody in the tri-state area had on their radio.

Jason Pascoe was a regular on Dance Party USA from 1986 to 1988 — the USA Network teen dance show that ran from 1986 to 1992 — and today he co-hosts Bobby and Jason’s Awesome 80s Podcast alongside his fellow Dance Party USA alum, Bobby Catalano. He didn’t just study the decade from the outside — he was one of the kids inside the studio, part of the show that a whole generation of East Coast teenagers rushed home to watch.

One of the regulars

Dance Party USA was built on its dancers. The show filmed in Philadelphia, with production offices in Camden, New Jersey, and it filled the floor with photogenic, high-energy teenagers who danced and lip-synced to the current hits. The regulars were the whole draw — viewers had favorites, learned their moves, and treated them like the local celebrities they became across the tri-state area.

Jason was one of those regulars, on the floor with Bobby Catalano from 1986 to 1988. For two Jersey kids, being on a nationally cablecast dance show wasn’t an abstract brush with fame — it was after-school life, and it’s exactly why the decade still lives in their bones.

Why it stuck

Plenty of people love the 80s. Very few actually danced their way through it on TV. That’s the difference Jason brings to everything he does now: this isn’t nostalgia learned from a documentary, it’s lived memory. He was in the room — the lights, the crowd, the lip-syncs, the songs — and that first-hand connection is the engine behind the podcast he co-hosts today.

Remember when being a regular on the local dance show made you a minor celebrity in your own hometown? For the tri-state kids who watched Dance Party USA, the dancers on that floor were the coolest people around.

From the floor to the mic

The bridge from Dance Party USA to the podcast isn’t a stretch — it’s the same instinct, decades apart. The show was built on real teenagers dancing to freestyle and the current hits on daily national cable, and its regulars became familiar faces across the tri-state area. Jason was part of that world, and the enthusiasm that put him in the studio as a kid is the same enthusiasm that now has him breaking down the decade’s music, movies, and TV every week. Where a lot of nostalgia is secondhand, his is lived — he was in the studio, under the lights, for the real thing.

Jason Pascoe now

Today Jason co-hosts Bobby and Jason’s Awesome 80s Podcast and this site, bobbyandjason.com, turning that firsthand 80s experience into a running celebration of the decade’s music, movies, TV, and pop culture. The studio became a microphone, and the same kid who lip-synced to the hits on cable now breaks them down for a new audience. Some people grow out of the 80s. Jason just kept the party going.

FAQ

Who is Jason Pascoe?
Jason Pascoe is a former Dance Party USA regular who now co-hosts Bobby and Jason’s Awesome 80s Podcast and runs bobbyandjason.com with Bobby Catalano.

Was Jason Pascoe on Dance Party USA?
Yes — he was one of the show’s regulars from 1986 to 1988, during its run on the USA Network.

What is Jason Pascoe doing now?
He co-hosts an 80s nostalgia podcast celebrating the decade’s music, movies, television, and pop culture.

How does Jason Pascoe know Bobby Catalano?
The two were both on Dance Party USA together — Bobby as a regular and later host, Jason as a regular — and they’ve teamed up again as podcast co-hosts.

Where is Dance Party USA from?
It was a Philadelphia–South Jersey production, filmed in Philly with offices in Camden, New Jersey, which is why it was such a big deal in the tri-state area Jason and Bobby come from.

Jason’s other half is just a click away — read our Bobby Catalano profile, or step back onto the floor with the Dance Party USA dancers.