Debbie Allen appeared in both Fame‘s 1980 feature film and its subsequent TV adaptation, though her role in the movie came out a bit differently than originally planned.

“My character was really a senior student, and I was written to be the nemesis for Coco. I was supposed to be the senior student that thought she was Miss It,” Allen recalls, laughing.



“But the movie was long, and they just never got to shoot it because [director] Allan Parker, the way he was such a creative genius, he was just getting so many things… So I ended up there in the audition [scene] as the teacher’s assistant… and when they decided to do the series, they came and asked would I play the dance teacher?” Allen agreed, provided that she could be involved in the show’s choreography, and “that was history after that.”

In a move that would become a hallmark of her career, Allen also served as one of the show’s producers and directed several episodes.

https://tvline.com/lists/debbie-allen-tv-roles-greys-anatomy-fame-photos/the-love-boat/