And then we have the grownups, played by a who's-who of former sitcom casts. We have Kelsey Grammer, who was in a couple of fairly famous sitcoms, if I recall correctly. And Bebe Neuwirth, who seems to follow Grammer around, casting-wise; what's that about?! Throw in Will & Grace's Megan Mullally, and Debbie Allen (who's been in everything from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and A Different World to Everybody Hates Chris and The Game), and it feels more like the cast of a sitcom-turned-movie than the remake of an '80s dance show. (Although Charles S. Dutton is really more of a film and TV drama character actor; I'm not sure how he made it into the cast.)

But look a little closer and you'll find that those sitcom actors might have just been biding their time (and earning buckets of money) for roles just like the ones they're getting in Fame. After all, most of them have prestigious backgrounds in the performing arts (they're not just actors!). Take a look: Mullally graduated from the School of American Ballet; Grammer attended Juilliard; Dutton went to the Yale School of Drama and Neuwirth has won two Tonys. Oh, and Allen was in the original Fame, which gives her plenty of Fame remake cred; who needs a Juilliard degree or Tonys when you were in the original movie, right?

These casting choices seem pretty smart to me. Casting unknowns in the kids' roles makes a lot of sense, but throwing in some familiar faces adds a little intrigue and the tiniest bit of box office credibility for those who might not show up for nothing more than a simple remake, with none of the principals and no one famous enough to be a draw. Casting Allen was especially important. After all, if you're making a film that should be aimed squarely at teens, but you want to draw us oldsters based on nostalgia, you need to put something in it that feels familiar.