Before America’s Got Talent, there was Stairway to Stardom, a public access talent show, broadcast in New York during the late 1970s and 1980s. Shot in what looks like someone’s basement, or the rehearsal room for a David Lynch film, Stairway to Stardom offered the young, the old, and even the deluded a chance to achieve the success their ambition suggested was theirs. Clips of this wonderfully bizarre series have popped up on YouTube over the years, and reveal what fans of Stairway to Stardom have known for years - that this camp, fun and rather charming show is still well ahead of Simon Cowell’s smug, corporate juggernaut.
 

Horowitz and Spector sing “Something’s Rotten in Translyvania”, 1988
 

Dante sings the “Theme from Exodus”, 1987
 

Reason To Live sing “Funky Groove”, 1983
 

Anthony Ciulla interprets the “Theme to Flashdance”, 1983
 

Precious Taft delivers a dramatic monologue, 1983
 

Don Costello does his comedy turn, 1983
 

Stairway to Stardom - Opening Titles 1984
 
With thanks to Fernando Caetano