If You Give a Dance, You Gotta Pay the Band explained

Genre:	Drama
Director:	Fred Coe
Starring:	Donna M. Bryan James Broderick Georgia Burke
Country:	United States
Language:	English
Producer:	David Susskind
Cinematography:	Mike Liberman Jake Ostroff
Editor:	Arline Garson
Runtime:	73 minutes

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.^{[1] [2]}

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.^{[3] [4] [5]}

The teleplay first aired on ABC at 8:30pm ET on Tuesday, December 19, 1972^[3] and was rerun on Wednesday, June 6, 1973 at 9:00pm ET.^[5] 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.

Plot

The story of ghetto boy and girl trying to raise money for the girl to visit her father in prison. It was shot on videotape in November 1972.^[6]

Notes and References

1. TV VIEW; THE NETWORKS HAVEN'T QUITE FORSAKEN QUALITY DRAMA: [REVIEW]O'Connor, John J. New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]03 Feb 1985: A.25.
2. TV: Flirtations With Reality . . . in Various Aspects: ' Stereotypes' Draw a Protest by Viewers A Slice-of-Life Drama Rings True in DetailsBy JOHN J. O'CONNOR. New York Times
3. News: Tuesday [television listings] ]. Bryan, Ohio . The Bryan Times . 90-minute dramatic special . 2021-12-27 . 1972-12-19 .
4. News: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . DeGeneres, de Rossi wed; Barr goes ballistic; the story of Stanley Gray . Monica Haynes . 2008-08-19 . Quick, what was Laurence Fishburne's first movie gig? If you said it was a 1972 television film called "If Give a Dance You Gotta Pay the Band," you're right. . 2021-12-27 .
5. Larry Fishburne, 11, Expands To ABC Teleplay . Jet . 66 . 1973-06-07 . XLIV . 11.
6. SET FIRST PLAY FOR NEW 'ABC THEATRE'Variety; Los Angeles Vol. 268, Iss. 11, (Oct 25, 1972): 33.