time warp to happier days, a and sounds.rage of sugary sights >> MAN: And I remember singing along like every other little fool in the movie theater, and it was brilliant. >> WOMAN: In<i> Grease</i> there is no political message or agenda. It's going back, it's nostalgic. >> TRAVOLTA: I mean, you know how it is, rocking and rolling. >> NARRATOR: It was a breakaway Broadway hit, but<i> Grease's</i> good vibes got bogged down in Tinseltown. >> MAN: Nobody ever thought it was going to be made into a movie. Everyone had given up. >> TRAVOLTA: What a hunk of junk. >> NARRATOR: Then, after almost a decade of fits and starts, <i> Grease</i> made its way to Hollywood. >> MAN: Hey, there's Danny. We didn't know at the time that this was going to be what it's turned out to be. We really didn't. >> TRAVOLTA: Sandy! >> TRAVOLTA AND NEWTON-JOHN: ♪ You're the one that I want... ♪ >> NARRATOR: Lubed up with crackling tunes and sizzling sex appeal, the '50s farce broke box-office records at the speed of sound. >> TRAVOLTA: Together it was like, you know... >> NEWTON-JOHN: Zzzt. >> TRAVOLTA: Yeah. >> NEWTON-JOHN: I thought was really cute. >> TRAVOLTA: It was kismet. Sandy! >> T BIRDS: ♪ Tell me more tell me more Did you get very far? ♪ >> NARRATOR:<i> Grease's</i> saucy on- screen scenes were topped only by the off-screen antics of its cast. >> MAN: A hickey form Kenickie is like a Hallmark card. >> MAN: A series of events occurred-- scandalous Hollywood events. >> MAN: Jeff Conaway was trying to get me laid. There was a rumor on the set he was trying to get me a hooker. Oh, thank you. >> MAN: Because he's always saying, "I want to get laid." >> MAN: Hello. >> NARRATOR: Now the movie and the melodies you can't get out of your heads--<i> Grease: Behind</i> <i> the Music.</i> <font color="#FFFF00"> [Captioning sponsored by the</font> <font color="#FFFF00"> U.S. Department of Education</font> <font color="#FFFF00"> and VH1]</font> >> TRAVOLTA: ♪ Go greased lightning ♪ you're burning up the quarter-mile... ♪ >> T BIRDS: ♪ Greased lightning go greased lighting... ♪ >> NARRATOR: 20 years after it first exploded on-screen,<i> Grease</i> was the word again. >> TRAVOLTA: ♪ You are supreme the chicks will cream for greased lighting... ♪ >> NARRATOR: The retro-rock picture was re-released in the summer of '98 and struck moviegoers with a second bolt of greased lightning. >> CONN: Hollywood Boulevard was closed down, and people were screaming as we all got out of the car, you know, the limo with the red carpet, the whole thing. >> TRAVOLTA: ♪ Go greased lightning... ♪ >> NARRATOR: In its first week of re-release, the '50s farce grossed $13 million, reigniting a smash-hit soundtrack that has sold an astonishing 24 million copies. >> JACOBS: It's obviously touched some kind of a responsive chord worldwide that takes people somewhere. Where? To being teenagers again, a happier time? >> MAN: Okay, let's go find the chicks. >> MAN: Yeah. >> FLICK: You have the nostalgia of the '50s, where everything was simpler, everything was nice. You take all that and you stir it up and you get the album <i> Grease,</i> and you get a lot of people very, very excited. >> CAST: ♪ Wop bop-a-loo bop wop bam boom... ♪ >> NARRATOR: It was an unlikely blockbuster in '78. Now it was a guilty pleasure to a whole new generation of fans and a continuing source of pride to stars like Olivia Newton- John. >> NEWTON-JOHN: Tell me about it, stud. I feel very lucky to have been part of that. It changed my life in many ways. I'll always be Sandy to a lot of people. >> TRAVOLTA AND NEWTON-JOHN: ♪ You're the one that I want you hoo hoo honey the one that I want... ♪ >> BIRCH:<i> Grease</i> ain't ever going to die. Kids love it-- relate to the beat. Old kids love it. We grew up on it. And young kids seem to relate to it. >> TRAVOLTA AND NEWTON-JOHN: ♪ Oh yes indeed you're the one that I want... ♪ >> NARRATOR: The good-time grooves of<i> Grease</i> were the brainchild of '50s fanatic Jim Jacobs. In 1959, he was a high-school senior on Chicago's South Side, a 17-year-old greaser whose friends shared a taste for doo-wop and daredevils. >> JACOBS: The characters that were going to my high school were like James Dean in<i> Rebel</i> <i> Without a Cause.</i> >> NARRATOR: Raised during rock's golden era, Jim fantasized about a life in the spotlight while playing guitar in a high-school band called DDT and thDynamiters. >> JACOBS: It was when Elvis and Bill Haley first hit on the scene, you know-- teenagers for the first time in American history really having their own music, performed by kids their age, written by kids their age, singing "Rock and roll is here to stay." (<i> explosions</i> ) >> NARRATOR: But by the mid '60s, the carefree days of the '50s had become a distant memory. America was involved in a bloody conflict in Vietnam and painful struggles over the war and civil rights were tearing up the home front. >> Jefferson Airplane: ♪ Look what's happening on the streets ♪ Got a revolution hey I'm dancing down the street ♪ Got a revolution... ♪ >> NARRATOR: The music of the '60s reflected the turmoil of the times, leaving Jim Jacobs and his friends longing for the simpler days of the past. >> Jefferson Airplane: ♪ This generation got no destination to hold... ♪ >> JACOBS: We were really tired of acid rock and psychedelic head-trip music. And just for the fun of it, a lot, at parties and whatnot, someone would always have a guitar and they'd be over in the corner singing some Bob Dylan tune or something, and we'd grab the guitar away and I'd do Dion and the Belmonts' "Teenager In Love." >> NARRATOR: By 1969, Jim Jacobs was an actor on the Chicago theater circuit. That winter he proposed an idea to fellow actor Warren Casey: take people on a rock and roll journey away from the barricades and bomb threats and back to a happier time of bobby socks and Buicks. >> JACOBS: People said, "Well, you can't have nostalgia. That was only ten years ago." And we said, "Yeah, but in that ten years, what has happened?" With, you know, Vietnam, the birth-control pill, ecology, racial unrest, I mean, you know we just rattled off a million things that had changed in America in those ten years. >> NARRATOR: With little experience, the two friends began working on catchy musical confections like "Summer Nights," one of several songs about fast cars and falling in love. >> TRAVOLTA: ♪ Summer lovin' had me a blast... ♪ >> NEWTON-JOHN: ♪ Summer lovin' happened so fast... ♪ >> VALLI: I think it was refreshing. With all the protest music and everything else, it became overbearing. >> TRAVOLTA AND NEWTON-JOHN: ♪ Summer days drifting away to oh, oh those summer nights... ♪ >> CROWE: In<i> Grease,</i> there is no political message or agenda. The sound of<i> Grease</i> and "Greased Lightning," I mean, it basically... it's going back, it's nostalgic. You're going back into a time period, but they freshened it up. >> NARTOR: The musical centered around the love affair between two students at a fictional school called Rydell High. In an age when few agreed on anything, the show's authors hoped to bring people together with fond memories everyone shared. >> JACOBS: It is a show that's really about firsts in all young adults' lives. You know, it's your first girlfriend, boyfriend. >> TRAVOLTA: Sandy! >> NEWTON-JOHN: Danny?! >> JACOBS: It's your first car. >> TRAVOLTA: What a hunk of junk. >> JACOBS: It's your first heartbreak. >> CONN: Listen, Sandy, men are rats. >> JACOBS: And it seems that everybody in the world knows, from their school, a Rizzo and a Danny Zuko... >> CHANNING: Somebody snaking you, Danny? >> TRAVOLTA: Oh, bite the weenie, Rizz. >> CHANNING: With relish. >> JACOBS: They're universal characters, you know. >> NARRATOR: By the beginning of '71, Jim and Warren d penned a raunchy and raw play they called <i> Grease.</i> In February it debuted at Chicago's Kingston Mines Theatre, a dank converted trolley barn. It was the first show that either had ever written, and even they thought it would close quickly. >> JACOBS: It was only going to run four performances-- Friday, Saturday of this weekend, Friday and Saturday of the next weekend, then close. Okay, it became an immediate hit. It ended up running there for seven months. >> NARRATOR:<i> Grease</i> was funneling a nontoxic sound to a shell-shocked generation, and soon it had attracted the interest of the Big Apple. >> MOORE: I remember particularly hearing "We Go Together" and thinking this could become an anthem of some sort. >> NARRATOR: Broadway director Tom Moore was one of<i> Grease's</i> first believers. Another was choreographer Patricia Birch. >> BIRCH: I first heard the music of<i> Grease</i> on a guitar in our living room with Jim Jacobs playing. And I thought, "Oh, what's that?" Jim doesn't sing so hot. But there was something already infectious about the songs. >> NARRATOR: The play was spruced up for a New York premiere. Still, when it debuted in February '72, it was at a little known venue way off off Broadway called the Eden Theatre. >> JACOBS: You know, struggling down there on the Lower East Side, but almost immediately found an audience, people liked it. >> NARRATOR: The response was so encouraging that in late 1972 the play attracted financial backers and became a bona fide on-Broadway show, moving to the Royale Theatre in Times Square. >> MOORE: I was very concerned because I didn't know that Broadway audiences would accept it. But it brought in all kinds of new audiences, new kids, into the theater. >> NARRATOR: Audiences couldn't get enough of<i> Grease.</i> The play that was expected to close in four days ended up running for eight show-stopping years. >> JACOBS: It ultimately became the longest running show in Broadway history, passing <i> Fiddler On The Roof.</i> >> CONAWAY: I think the music is very catchy, the score is great, the arrangements are great, it's exciting, it's colorful. >> NARRATOR: Jeff Conaway played leader of the pack Danny Zuko for much of 1974. The play was a rite of passage for many future Hollywood stars, including Richard Gere, Peter Gallagher, and John Travolta. >> JACOBS: When John Travolta auditioned for<i> Grease</i> the first time, he was 16 or something, and he didn't make it. He popped up then a year later to audition for the show that was the first national tour. >> TRAVOLTA: I had seen it off Broadway at the Eden Theater in New York, and it was, like, my favorite show, and I desperately wanted to be in it. >> JACOBS: We decided we wanted to have John as... in the role of Doody. >> NARRATOR: Soon,<i> Grease</i> ignited interest from Hollywood producers. Jim Jacobs fielded dozens of proposals ranging from banal to bizarre. >> JACOBS: They wanted to do it as a full-length animated feature. They said that at the end Danny Zuko commits suicide. >> TRAVOLTA: Don't make me laugh. Ha ha ha. >> JACOBS: So Warren and I went, "Yeah, well, maybe." And we walked out the room, "Holy cow, man, what is that?" You know. >> NARRATOR: For years, no one was able to harness the spirit of the play. Most of Hollywood believed that musicals were a thing of the past. And by the mid '70s, the play's loyalists were convinced that it would never hit the silver screen. >> CHANNING: Well, maybe if you believe in miracles, Prince Charming will show up again someday, somewhere unexpected. See you later. >> NARRATOR: Next, the play's authors are cast off the movie set. >> JACOBS: They made damn sure that Warren and I were cut out. Which really hurt. >> NARRATOR: And later, a low- budget bet pays off in a box- office bonanza... >> MAN: It's the kind of math that in 2001 would make a studio executive cry. >> NARRATOR: ...when Behind the Music continues. >> TRAVOLTA AND NEWTON-JOHN: ♪ You're the one that I want you hoo hoo honey... ♪)[( a chnr tune moviegoers and record buyers still can't get out of their heads, a song and a scene that have become camp classics. >> TRAVOLTA AND NEWTON-JOHN: ♪ ...the one I need oh yes indeed... ♪ >> NARRATOR: But back in the mid '70s, it seemed that no one in Hollywood wanted<i> Grease</i> badly enough to see it made into a film. >> DONNELLY: See a penny pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck. >> JACOBS: The motion picture rights to<i> Grease</i> had been sold a number of times, three, four times over the years. >> ST. LOUIS: Nobody ever thought it was going to be made into a movie. Everyone had given up. >> CHANNING: Relax, I think our luck is changing. >> NARRATOR: Then, in 1976, film producer Allan Carr decided that <i> Grease</i> had the grit to make Hollywood musicals shine again. >> ST. LOUIS: Allan Carr, who was an extraordinary lover of show business, believed that there was a movie there and believed that it would be a movie that would reopen the doors to musicals in Hollywood.■ >> NARRATOR: Carr teamed up with Australian entrepreneur Robert Stigwood. Together, they purchased the movie rights to<i> Grease</i> for $260,000 and began looking for a charismatic lead. The performer who caught their eye was a veteran of<i> Grease</i> who had since moved from the stage to television. In 1977, John Travolta was a TV sensation, starring as the dashing but dense Vinnie Barbarino on<i> Welcome Back</i> <i> Kotter.</i> >> JACOBS: Robert Stigwood saw <i> Welcome Back Kotter,</i> and he saw Travolta, and he said, "That guy's going to be a star." >> NARRATOR: Stigwood and Carr signed Travolta to a three- picture, million-dollar deal with Paramount. They immediately cast him in their disco flick<i> Saturday Night</i> <i> Fever</i> and in<i> Grease</i> as Danny Zuko. >> STIGWOOD: In those days they didn't think TV artists could cross over to film. Everyone declared me mad. >> NARRATOR: The producers' gamble on Travolta left little room for error. Their entire budget was just $6 million-- all that Paramount was willing to risk on a musical after recent film flops like <i> Hello, Dolly!</i> and<i> Godspell.</i> >> MARK: I think they thought <i> ease</i> was a real but long shot, which is why the budget was enormously low. It was a gamble from Paramount's part, absolutely a gamble. >> NARRATOR: Hoping to broaden the film's appeal, Allan Carr and screenwriter Bronte Woodard changed the story's setting from windy Chicago to sunny Los Angeles and toned down the stage version's sex and violence. >> CONAWAY: You're cruising for a bruising. >> NARRATOR: With plastic combs replacing pocketknives, the play's authors worried the movie was about to become a campy catastrophe. >> TRAVOLTA: Guys... be cool, huh? >> JACOBS: Warren and I were sitting there cringing, you know, just going, "Oh, my god." Guys I grew up with would never do this, you know. They would have beat these guys up in an instant, you know. >> NARRATOR: Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs were unhappy with the direction the film was taking and soon found themselves unwelcome on the set. >> ST. LOUIS: A series of events occurred, scandalous Hollywood events. Jim was not given a position of any kind of supervisory position over the music on the film. >> JACOBS: All of a sudden one day I pull up-- "Sorry, you're not on the list." So I was like, you know, banned from going in there. So I was not at all a part of the making of the motion picture. They made damn sure that Warren and I were cut out. Which really hurt. I mean, this was our baby. >> NARRATOR: Determined to give <i> Grease</i> a makeover, Carr and Stigwood pushed the play's creators out of the picture, pairing veteran choreographer Pat Birch with director Randal Kleiser. >> BIRCH: We all trusted each other. It
