What Was the Solid Gold TV Show? The 80s Countdown, Its Hosts and Its Dancers

Solid Gold was a weekly syndicated music show of the 1980s that counted down the hits, put a troupe of dancers on the stage and went through a long run of hosts. The sources print two readings of the premiere. GRAMMY.com says Dionne Warwick spoke during a debut episode on September 15, 1980. A collector’s list dates a Solid Gold episode hosted by Warwick and Paul Anka to September 13, 1980. The end is just as loose: Film Threat says the show “left the air in 1988,” and the Tampa Bay Times describes an eight-year run in syndication from 1980 to 1988. A Los Angeles Times story from April 1989 quotes an MCA executive on “the loss of shows like ‘Solid Gold’,” so the show was gone by then. No source used here gives an end day.

How Solid Gold Started: A Two-Hour Special

Film Threat says Solid Gold “began as a one-shot, two-hour television special broadcast in January 1980 on independent stations across the U.S.” The special “was designed to count down the Top 50 songs of 1979.” Dionne Warwick and Glen Campbell were “the nominal hosts for the special.” Film Threat adds that the special’s ratings “were unusually strong, and it was decided to create a series that would count down each week’s Top 10 songs.”

Others tell the start in their own terms. Director Louis Horvitz says in his Television Academy Foundation interview that the group “did a two-hour pilot at NBC” before Al Masini took the show to the station buyers. Kevin Carlisle, in his own Television Academy Foundation interview, says he thinks the first one was “a two hour TV special of the songs of 1979.” A long-running fan site says Solid Gold, created by Brad Lachman, was originally intended as a one-time, two-hour special in 1979.

GRAMMY.com’s account of the series debut quotes Warwick: “Welcome to ‘Solid Gold!’ Starting right now and for every week to come, we’re gonna bring you the biggest hit records in the country, some by the people that made them famous.”

Who Hosted Solid Gold, Year by Year

The Tampa Bay Times, in 2014, lists “the constantly changing co-hosts” of the 1980 to 1988 run as “Marilyn McCoo, Andy Gibb, Dionne Warwick, Rex Smith, Rick Dees, Arsenio Hall and Nina Blackwood.” The table sets each host against the year the sources give. The Dees year is a point on which the sources disagree, so that row points to the table further down.

Years	Host or hosts	What the sources say
1980-81	Dionne Warwick	GRAMMY.com says Warwick “hosted the entire first season.” The Los Angeles Times (May 15, 1986) says “Warwick hosted the first season of ‘Solid Gold’ in 1980-81.”
1981-82	Marilyn McCoo and Andy Gibb	Film Threat: “Marilyn McCoo and Andy Gibb were brought in as co-hosts for the 1981-82 season.” The Los Angeles Times (March 11, 1988, Robert Hilburn) says Gibb “co-hosted the syndicated television show ‘Solid Gold’ in 1981 and 1982.”
1982-83	McCoo and Rex Smith	Film Threat: “McCoo was teamed with Rex Smith for the 1982-83 season’s hosting gig.” Music Republic Magazine says “Rex replaced Andy Gibb as presenter on popular US TV music show ‘Solid Gold’ in 1982.”
1983-84 (see below)	McCoo	Film Threat: “McCoo was given solo hosting duties for the 1983-84 season.” The Los Angeles Times (May 15, 1986) says “McCoo hosted the show for the next three years, with Andy Gibb, Rex Smith and other co-hosts.”
1984-85 (see below)	Rick Dees	Broadcasting (May 13, 1985) calls Dees the host of “Paramount Television Domestic Syndication’s weekly Solid Gold television series” and says he “departs program effective next August.” The Los Angeles Times (February 3, 1985) describes Dees “during this brief break in the taping of his weekly ‘Solid Gold’ TV show.” Broadcasting’s item gives no reason for the departure.
1985-86	Dionne Warwick	Film Threat: “Warwick came back for a solo hosting gig in the 1985-86 season.” The Los Angeles Times (May 15, 1986) reported that “Dionne Warwick has announced that she will not return to host the seventh season of Paramount’s syndicated contemporary music show.”
The last two years of the run	McCoo, with Nina Blackwood and Arsenio Hall	Film Threat: “For the last two years of the show’s run, McCoo took the hosting helm, with assistance from ex-MTV VJ Nina Blackwood and comic Arsenio Hall.” The Portland Press Herald says that after MTV, Blackwood “was a host of the syndicated pop music and dance show “Solid Gold,”” and that she left MTV in 1986 after her contract was not renewed. The Los Angeles Times (December 27, 1987) says Hall had “worked as co-host of TV’s ‘Solid Gold’ with Marilyn McCoo.”

About the Dees year. Broadcasting’s May 13, 1985 item says Dees would continue his daily Los Angeles radio show, his syndicated weekly radio series and his film development activities. It states no reason for his leaving Solid Gold. Film Threat says Dees “left the show before the season was over” and that guest hosts filled in for him. A long-running fan site says the same: that he left before the end of the season and that various singers, as co-hosts or alone, filled in for the remaining shows. No source used here says why he left.

How Solid Gold Was Made and Sold

The producers. Broadcasting (January 16, 1984) wrote that “Banner’s production company currently produces two other first-run syndicated series: Solid Gold and Star Search.” Richard Frank, who in his Television Academy Foundation interview says he was given the job of head of all of television at Paramount, recalls that “Bob Banner worked with us” and that Brad Lachman worked with them too. A long-running fan site credits Lachman as the show’s producer and creator and says Louis Horvitz directed it for the first five seasons. The Television Academy Foundation’s page for the show describes Horvitz as the director of Solid Gold. By 1986 Broadcasting (May 5) wrote that Paramount “has produced two recent syndie powerhouses, Entertainment Tonight and Solid Gold.”

The sales route. The Television Academy’s December 2010 news item on Al Masini says “Operation Prime Time included the popular series Solid Gold, Star Search and Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous.” It describes Operation Prime Time as a programming block begun in 1976 that aimed to take new television shows straight to first-run syndication instead of through a network. In other words, the route skipped the networks.

Two Television Academy Foundation interviewees describe the sales story in their own words. Horvitz recalls that Masini took Solid Gold and his five movies of the week, invited the syndicated television people and then the buyers from the local stations to Los Angeles, and told them: “It’s called Operation Prime Time. It’s just for you guys. You’re the buyers.” Horvitz says Masini’s reasoning was that a syndicator could afford either a two-hour show once a week or five half-hour shows. Frank says Solid Gold was offered to a group of stations to see whether a first-run weekly music show could work, and that Masini, who was running the rep firm Telerep, “was very active in programming ideas.”

The market count. Broadcasting (April 14, 1986) reported that Paramount said it had cleared Solid Gold in 145 markets for 1986-87, “its seventh year on the air.” The item says the show was “Formerly sold by TPE” and was now “cleared in 45 of the top 50 markets.”

Where and how it was taped. A long-running fan site says the show was taped on Stage 6 at KTLA Studios from the fall of 1980 until the summer of 1984, then moved to Stage 29 at Paramount Studios. The site says shows were taped two at a time, bi-weekly (the site’s word), on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, usually two to three weeks before the air date, with two tapings a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It adds that tickets were free, seating was first come, first served, and the doors shut one hour before taping began.

The people who made the show describe the pace in their own terms. Choreographer Anita Mann says she was asked to “come in the middle of season two,” and that they shot two shows every ten days with about 17 numbers a week for her to teach. Horvitz says they did two one-hour shows in three days.

The Numbers: Ratings, Rank and Ad Revenue

These are the dated ranks and figures that appear in the sources, quoted as printed. They come from separate issues and reports, not from one continuous series.

When	Source	What it printed	How to read it
November 1983 (the item ran April 9, 1984 and names only the month)	Broadcasting, April 9, 1984	“Paramount’s Solid Gold, which ranked 13th with a 7.6/18 in November”	Rank 13. The sentence does not label the two numbers.
February 1984	Broadcasting, April 9, 1984	“skidded to 16th, with a 7.3/17”	Rank 16. Same item, same caution about the two numbers.
1984, on average	Broadcasting, January 7, 1985: a commentary by David Lerner, broadcast supervisor at the advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding	“During 1984, on average, 18 million Americans watched Solid Gold weekly.”	An advertising agency’s figure in a commentary, not a ratings table. The sentence names no ratings service.
The first nine months of 1986	Broadcasting, November 24, 1986, reporting a study by BAR	Solid Gold fourth among “the top five shows in terms of estimated revenues”: Wheel of Fortune $27,525,950; Entertainment Tonight/This Week $25,150,500; a third show at $24,600,000 whose title the scan prints as “Faine”; Solid Gold 19,058,500; Star Search $16,887,100	Fourth of five on the list. The scanned text prints no dollar sign on the Solid Gold figure, while the other four carry one.
The week ended May 17, 1987	Broadcasting, June 1, 1987: Nielsen Syndication Service preliminary program audience estimates of syndicated shows	Solid Gold, rank 13, 4.4 / 193, 96	The table’s headings are Rank, Show, Rating/Markets and % coverage, so by position: a 4.4 rating, 193 markets, 96 under % coverage. The table’s footnote reads “includes multiple airings,” and its mark sits on this rating.

Film Threat calls Solid Gold a “314-episode series.”

Awards. The Television Academy’s awards listing for the show reads “9 Nominations 3 Emmys.” The wins it lists are for outstanding lighting direction (electronic) for a series: Bob Dickinson and C. Frank Olivas in 1983 and 1984, and Bob Dickinson in 1986. The listing also names Anita Mann as a 1986 nominee for outstanding achievement in choreography.

The Countdown, the Music and the Solid Gold Dancers

How the countdown worked

According to Film Threat, the weekly Top 10 was “determined by the airplay charts in the entertainment trade journal Radio & Records.” Horvitz describes the idea this way: “we present the top ten hits of the day.”

A long-running fan site says Lachman read the recording-industry trade magazines and, because shows were taped two to three weeks before they aired, had to work out which songs would be in the top ten when each show aired. Mann says she had to cast the countdowns ahead of time “because they had to do the costumes.”

Where the Solid Gold Dancers came from

Frank explains the dancers as an answer to a problem with a countdown show. You find out very rapidly, he says, that songs stay there week to week, so you do not necessarily want to have them every week. The idea then started, he says, to have somebody sing the other songs as covers. After that, he says, the thought was to “dance the numbers in between,” which is “where we came up with the Solid Gold Dancers.” Frank says the dancers became probably more famous than the whole show.

The fan site says the countdown dances ran about thirty seconds. The sources here name no individual dancers.

The theme song

The site 80sXChange says the Solid Gold theme “was co-written by the show’s musical director Michael Miller along with lyrics by Dean Pitchford.” Pitchford, quoted there, says “it was decided to go into the studio and cut it twice,” once as the opening of the show and a second time as a record-length track. According to 80sXChange, the theme was “performed by the show’s current host,” except in 1984-85, when session singer Deborah Ludwig Davis performed it. The same site says Warwick, the first-season host, performed the theme, and it shows end credits from a 1982 episode with the theme performed by McCoo and Gibb.

A long-running fan site, on its page about the band and background singers, gives the theme’s lead vocal by season: Dionne Warwick in 1980-81, Marilyn McCoo and Andy Gibb in 1981-82, McCoo and Rex Smith in 1982-83, McCoo in 1983-84, Deborah Davis in 1984-85 and Warwick in 1985-86. The site’s list stops at 1985-86.

On whether the acts sang, Film Threat says “the performers mostly lip-synced their numbers” and GRAMMY.com says “most numbers were lip-synched.” A long-running fan site, which says musical director Michael Miller answered its questions about the music, tells it the other way: most of the recording artists who appeared did not lip-sync, and the singing happened in real time over taped music.

The guests

Film Threat names Madonna, Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Culture Club, KISS, Ozzy Osbourne, The Go-Gos, Tears for Fears, Men at Work and Fleetwood Mac as acts that “turned up for memorable appearances.”

The Comedians and Regulars

Film Threat says the show had “stand-up comedy bits throughout the episodes” and names Marty Cohen and Jeff Altman among the comics. Horvitz describes the thinking in the Television Academy Foundation interview: “we also integrate into this some comedy to give it a variety.”

Film Threat singles out the puppet act: “genuine fun could be found from ventriloquist Wayland Flowers and his bawdy old lady puppet Madame.” A Los Angeles Times obituary of Flowers (October 12, 1988) says that he and Madame “were regulars for four years on the music show ‘Solid Gold’.” The Coachella Valley Independent (March 12, 2013) says Madame “was a regular on Solid Gold.” Provincetown Magazine says the act landed on “shows like Hollywood Squares and Solid Gold.”

Arsenio Hall appears in the sources as a comic and as a co-host. Film Threat calls him “comic Arsenio Hall” and lists him with the hosting team for the last two years. A collector’s list has a September 14, 1985 episode with Dionne Warwick (rebroadcast December 28, 1985) and notes “Comedy with Arsenio Hall.” The Los Angeles Times (December 27, 1987) says he had “worked as co-host of TV’s ‘Solid Gold’ with Marilyn McCoo.”

No announcer is named in the dated sources used here. A long-running fan site names Robert W. Morgan, a Los Angeles disc jockey, as the show’s announcer.

Solid Gold in Concert and the End of the Show

Broadcasting (August 31, 1987) reported that Paramount’s show “has been retitled Solid Gold in Concert beginning with the premiere of its eighth season” and “will now include performances by artists in a new concert-like setting.” The item says nothing else about the format.

A long-running fan site says that at the end of the 1985-86 season the producers decided to take the show in a different direction, and that Dionne Warwick, the choreographer and several dancers were replaced. The same site says a half-hour show called Solid Gold Hits aired Monday to Friday in the summer of 1984, hosted by Grant Goodeve.

On the end itself, Film Threat says Solid Gold “left the air in 1988.” The Los Angeles Times (April 12, 1989) quotes Solters, a senior vice president of music at MCA: “It’s much harder to get the exposure with the loss of shows like ‘Solid Gold’ and the old variety shows.” No dated source used on this page gives a final airdate, and none gives a reason the show ended.

Where the Record Disagrees

These are places where two readings sit side by side in the sources. The table does not rule on either of them.

Question	One reading	The other reading
When did Solid Gold premiere?	GRAMMY.com: host Dionne Warwick “said during its debut episode on Sept. 15, 1980.”	A collector’s list: “Solid Gold 9/13/80 Hosted by Dionne Warwick & Paul Anka.” The entry does not say it was the debut.
Which year did Rick Dees host?	1984-85. Broadcasting (May 13, 1985) calls him host of the weekly series and says he departs “effective next August”; the Los Angeles Times (February 3, 1985) describes “his weekly ‘Solid Gold’ TV show”; the Los Angeles Times (May 15, 1986) says “Rick Dees hosted the fifth season”; Film Threat puts him in the 1984-85 season.	1983-84. The Museum of Broadcast Communications’ entry on Dees says “Dees hosted the syndicated TV show Solid Gold (1983-84),” and a Los Angeles Times Q&A with Dees (February 12, 1994) says “In 1983-84 he was host of the variety show ‘Solid Gold’.”

The Bottom Line

Solid Gold was a weekly syndicated countdown show built on a two-hour special, produced by Paramount by 1986 and carried by a rotating line of hosts. It put the Solid Gold Dancers in the spotlight and, in the one 1987 Nielsen syndication table on record here, ranked 13th for the week ended May 17. The premiere day, the end day and the reason it ended are not settled by the sources here, so the disagreements are printed as they stand.

Eight seasons and seven hosts leave room to misremember, which is why each year, rank and name on this page was checked against the record before it printed.

FAQ

Who hosted the Solid Gold TV show?
Dionne Warwick hosted the first season, according to GRAMMY.com. After that the sources list Marilyn McCoo, with Andy Gibb in 1981-82, with Rex Smith in 1982-83 and alone in 1983-84; Rick Dees, whose year the sources give two ways; Warwick again in 1985-86; and, for the last two years, McCoo with Nina Blackwood and Arsenio Hall.

When was the Solid Gold TV show on the air?
The Tampa Bay Times describes an eight-year run in syndication from 1980 to 1988. GRAMMY.com dates a debut episode to September 15, 1980, a collector’s list has a September 13, 1980 episode, and Film Threat says the show left the air in 1988. No source used here gives an end day.

Who were the Solid Gold Dancers, and what was the countdown?
The Solid Gold Dancers danced the countdown numbers. Richard Frank, who says he was given the job of head of all of television at Paramount, says the idea of dancing the numbers in between is where they came from, and a long-running fan site says the countdown dances ran about thirty seconds. The countdown was a weekly Top 10 that Film Threat says was determined by the airplay charts of Radio & Records. The sources used here give no roster of dancers.

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For more of the decade, start with our 80s TV shows guide, then read about the 80s music icons and the 80s one-hit wonders.