Spurred by the public's mild tolerance of the 70s period drama Swingtown, Showtime is reaching beyond the risqué suburbanite couples Twister nights of the era, and straight to the heart of disco debauchery with Studio, a 70s period drama about a place that has been documented to death, Studio 54.
From The Hollywood Reporter:
The 1970s era of disco, drugs and excess is coming back with "Studio," a drama series project for Showtime centering on the iconic New York nightclub Studio 54.
"Studio" centers on flamboyant co-founder Steve Rubell and starts off in the months leading to the club's April 1977 opening.
But "Studio," which is in development, will be a fictional series and not a biopic or docudrama. Rubell will be the only real person featured, with the rest of the characters fictional or composites.
"The show is less about the history of Studio 54 than it is about New York in the late '70s, what people were going through, the political and social issues," Hodge said. "Studio 54 is the backdrop for exploring that."
I hope the creators of the show stick to the "Studio 54 as backdrop only" idea, but even so at this point it's a pretty worn-out backdrop. After 54 and Last Days Of Disco, not to mention an exhaustive E! True Hollywood Story and an A & E documentary, as well as the two-hour Studio 54 episode of Behind The Music that was basically the entirety of VH1's programming schedule for the better part of two years, "Making a TV show about Studio 54" could easily replace the expression "Beating a dead horse." The moon-with-coke-spoon statue, the remarkable entrance of Bianca Jagger on a white horse, the sex in the balconies, the colorful cast of regulars—it's just not interesting the millionth time around. In fact, here are a few night spots that would make better backdrops for TV series than the mangled horse carcass of a pop cultural touchstone that is Studio 54:
1. Plato's Retreat, NYC