If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band (1972)
1h 13m
Running Time
December 19, 1972Release Date
If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band (1972)
1h 13m
Running Time
December 19, 1972Release Date
Plot.
Life in a black ghetto isn't easy for 14-year-old Billie Jean Sims, who has a father in jail, a blind grandmother, and a brother with a drug habit. Growing up among drug pushers, prostitutes, and pimps, Billie Jean still has some things going for her: fierce pride, a loyal friend named Fish, and, at last, enough savings to visit her father 1200 miles away in prison.
Where to Watch.
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Cast & Crew.
Donna M. Bryan
Billie Jean Sims
James Broderick
Trick
Georgia Burke
Grannie
Laurence Fishburne
Fish
Sonny Jim Gaines
Mr. Sims
Arthur French
Customer
Moses Gunn
Mr. Miller
Albert Hall
T-Bone Sims
Dots Johnson
Jim
John Marriott
Jessie
George Miles
Shake-a-Hand
Haywood Nelson
Ronnie
Jim Pelham
Eddie
Joseph Ray
Walkin' Willie
Dick Sabol
Prison Guard
B.J. Bachman
Continuity
Stanley L. Gray
Writer
Arline Garson
Editor
Hal Schaffel
Production Manager
Maury Beaumont
Unit Manager
Jake Ostroff
Director of Photography
Jacob Stern
Music Supervisor
Tom Horin
Technical Supervisor
Pamela Susskind
Associate Producer
Michael Lieberman
Director of Photography
Blake Norton
Sound
Ferd Manning
Lighting Director
Robert Gundlach
Art Direction
Richard Merrell
Set Decoration
David Susskind
Producer
Fred Coe
Director
Lee Dichter
Sound Mixer
William Pelt
Production Assistant
Martin Begley
Supervising Technical Director
Details.
Wiki.
If You Give a Dance You Gotta Pay the Band is a 1972 American TV movie. It was the first program shown under the umbrella ABC Theater.
The production (at the time referred to as a "dramatic special" or "teleplay" rather than a made-for-TV movie) was the first screen credit for Laurence Fishburne and led to him getting a role later on in the soap opera One Life to Live.
The teleplay first aired on ABC at 8:30pm ET on Tuesday, December 19, 1972 and was rerun on Wednesday, June 6, 1973 at 9:00pm ET. In TV listings of the era, the title was generally given as If You Give a Dance You Gotta Pay the Band without a comma.