Today, anyone can become a “star”. Thanks to YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, we can all watch people with varying talents (or no talent) ham it up for the camera in the hopes they amass millions of views and millions of dollars. What they’re doing doesn’t even matter, it just needs to be interesting enough for people to watch and subscribe. Unfortunately, this means some content creators are willing to do even the most absurdly stupid, pointless, or wretched things just to rack up the views and get attention. More unfortunate is that it often works.
When GenX was growing up, regular people had to jump through several hoops to prove themselves worthy of such massive amounts of attention. Mystic mommies couldn’t upload a video onto major networks telling viewers to skip the vaccinations because crystals will heal their babies, and bored teens weren’t incentivized to film themselves doing dangerous pranks, inspiring their viewers to injure themselves trying to mimic them. If you wanted to be seen by millions on tv and possibly become rich and famous, you had to send a physical copy of a tape in an envelope of your performance to the production companies to gain the approval of the head honchos at America’s Funniest Home Videos, Star Search, or my personal favorite, Puttin’ On the Hits.
I believed Allen Fawcett was Farrah Fawcett’s brother for years because Google wasn’t a thing yet
Co-produced by Dick Clark and hosted by Allen Fawcett, Puttin’ On the Hits debuted on September 15th, 1984. Contestants lip-synced to a song while also impersonating the artist or performing their own unique take, for a panel of celebrity guest judges like Linda Blair (The Exorcist) and Don Felder (The Eagles). Contestants were scored up to 10 points each for Originality, Appearance, and Lip Syncing. Every week, I plopped my butt on the avocado green carpet in front of the boob tube to witness what I thought was the most awesome reality show to exist (along with That’s Incredible!). It was like watching music videos but with normal people competing for a $25k Grand Prize ($75k in today’s bucks).
I even remember which ones were my favorites after all these years. So allow me to introduce my Top 3 for your grainy VHS viewing pleasure.
No. 3: “Fast Food” by Dave Margosian
At the time, I found it hilarious for his depiction of how annoying a fast food drive-thru can be. Now, however, I find his repeated angry attempts to order more annoying. I had no idea at the time who he was impersonating and I still have no clue—was this skit entirely original?
No. 2: “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by Brad Cunningham
My eyes were glued to the screen watching this one-man puppet show lip-syncing to The Tokens. It’s one thing to be talented enough to do the lip-syncing for two, but he added humor. Fantastic!
No. 1: “19” by 3D
I remember when Paul Hardcastle’s song played on the radio, I was spellbound listening to the lyrics. I was too young to fully comprehend the Vietnam War but I could detect something sad in the danceable synth music. When my older brother Eddy watched this epic performance on tv with me, he explained 19 was the average age of a soldier fighting in Vietnam.
Watching this man’s extraordinary display still gives me chills. I’ve never seen anyone deserve a perfect score more than this dude. If this show debuted in 2024 instead of ‘84, no doubt someone would upload a TikTok saying 3D must be a cyborg because no human being could master The Robot like that. Then we’d all have to contend with hearing our dumbest and most conspiracy-minded relatives and coworkers grumble about the Robot People taking over the White House or Hollywood or whatever they most want to demonize.
As much fun as it is watching amateurs pretend to sing pop songs, lip-syncing competitions rarely last very long. Puttin’ On the Hits was canceled in 1988, and various copycat shows never lasted more than a few seasons. Viewers would rather watch real singing, as evidenced by 12 seasons of The Masked Singer and 21 seasons of American Idol. For me and many other Gen-Xers, Puttin’ On the Hits was awesome precisely because contestants weren’t real singers; it meant we didn’t have to possess the gift of voice to imagine ourselves competing some day.
That's Incredible! I LOVED that show as a kid and had completely forgotten it even existed. Thanks for calling that one up from the archives! 🙂