Dance Fever is an American musical variety television series that aired weekly in syndication from January 1979 to September 1987.
The series was technically created by Merv Griffin, but his agent Murray Schwartz actually conceived the idea of a pilot which piggybacked on a special Merv Griffin Show salute to the movie Thank God It's Friday, which would feature top disco dancers from eight cities competing for a title.
Merv's vision was to have frequent Griffin guest Deney Terrio as the host, and to have celebrities dancing with professional disco dancers.
At the end of a 25-week competition, the five semi-final winners all came back to face off in the show's annual Grand Prix Finals for cash and prizes worth over $25,000 which included two brand new cars (one for each member of the winning dance team).
Each week except for the year-end Grand Prix Finals, the show also featured a segment in which some of the top disco, pop, or R&B artists of the day would perform their latest hit.