Solid Gold was a music countdown television series that Al Created that aired from 1980 to 1988, usually on Saturdays in the early evening time slot. During its 7th season (1986 to 1987), it was renamed Solid Gold ’86/’87, and in its 8th season (1987 to 1988) it was retitled Solid Gold in Concert. The main premise of Solid Gold consisted of the “Solid Gold Dancers” doing elaborate (and sometimes borderline risqué) dances to the top ten hits of the week. Many other specials aired in which the dancers would also dance to older pop hits.
LISTEN NOW: Solid Gold Theme Song
[audio:solidgold.mp3]
The premiere and much of the first season was hosted by Dionne Warwick and Marty Cohen, known more commonly as “Partyin’ Marty Hardy”. In the fall of the 1981-1982 season, Marilyn McCoo of The 5th Dimension and Andy Gibb took over hosting duties. McCoo stayed on as host for the 1982-1983 season and the 1983-84 season, hosting with Rex Smith in the first of those two years and alone the second. In September 1984, Rick Dees joined Solid Gold as its host and more comedy bits were added to the show. However, Dees did not have success as host and by the middle of the season he left the series. For the remainder of the 1984-85 season, the producers of Solid Gold relied on a rotation arrangement where two music stars would host each week.
Dionne Warwick returned for the 1985-1986 season, which was her last year as host of the program. After taking two seasons off, Marilyn McCoo once again replaced Warwick as host in September 1986. She was joined as host by former MTV VJ Nina Blackwood and comedian Arsenio Hall, and all three presided over Solid Gold until its eventual cancellation in 1988.
The weekly one-hour show played segments from the Top 10 charting songs accompanied by the Solid Gold Dancers. Darcel Wynne was the principal dancer on Solid Gold during her five-year reign. She appeared on the show from 1980 to 1984, took most of the 1984-1985 season off and rejoined the cast for 1985-1986. In 1986, Darcel had many speaking roles on Solid Gold, regularly announcing the countdown re-caps towards the end of the show. Wynne and most of the other dancers left the program at the end of that season.
