The rise of rock and roll in the mid-1950s gave rise to a stream of local dance shows. They popped up all over the country. Aside from Baltimore’s The Buddy Dean Show, there were such favorites as The Lloyd Thaxton Show in Los Angeles, The Big 5 Show in Cleveland, and Top 10 Dance Party in Memphis. These shows featured real live kids doing the same dances they would do at their high school dances.

Question

TV programmers knew rock and roll was a revolution that needed to be broadcast. “They were shrewd enough to recognize that these shows were places where kids could hang out on TV,” says filmmaker Ron Mann, whose 1992 documentary, “Twist,” about the history of rock and roll dances, was recently released on DVD. “They were the MTV of their day.”
Several shows became so popular that they went national—which cost them their soul, in Mann’s view. When American Bandstand left Philadelphia, it lost a lot, he says. “Then you had NBC’s Hullabaloo and ABC’s Shindig, which didn’t have teens dancing. They had professional dancers. It was all choreographed for TV. And that spelled the end of the rock and roll dance era.”
—Frank DeCaro
10
How did the TV shows, The Lloyd Thaxton Show and The Big 5 Show differ from Shindig?
A.
The Lloyd Thaxton Show and The Big 5 Show featured rock and roll music, but Shindig featured Big Band music.
B.
The Lloyd Thaxton Show and The Big 5 Show had real teenagers dancing, but Shindig used professional dancers.
C.
The Lloyd Thaxton Show and The Big 5 Show were weekly shows, but Shindig was a one-time special.
D.
The Lloyd Thaxton Show and The Big 5 Show were live television shows, but Shindig was tape recorded.

Answer 1

B. The Lloyd Thaxton Show and The Big 5 Show had real teenagers dancing, but Shindig used professional dancers.