Teenage disco sensation

Madonna and I were on the TV show Dancin' on Air, four episodes of which will be marathon-ed Saturday on WPHL-TV.

OK, so she and I weren't on Channel 17's legendary program on the same day. Or even in the same year.

This much is true: Madonna -- then a New York City dance club diva-in-training -- taped a DOA episode in 1981.

Some time later, I too was in that somewhat low budget Wynnefield Avenue studio to do a story about the show.

While videos of Madonna's energetic lip-synch of her debut disco smash "Everybody" come and go on YouTube, no tapes of my off-screen appearance are known to exist.

Or at least I hope so.

Say what you will about the astonishing hair and preposterous clothing, and the numbingly dumb thump-i-ness of too much '80s pop music: Dancin' on Air was pure Philly.

From 1981 to 1987, the city that gave my generation American Bandstand offered a later crop of kids a chance to dance, on TV, to all their fave hits.

Speaking of which, on the day I watched a taping I had hoped a club music starlet – Lisa Lisa, say, or Stacy Q – would show up.

Instead, the guest was Gary Puckett, without the Union Gap and by then a has-been for nearly 20 years.

Gary lip-sank to one of his vaguely leering oldies about young girls and temptation and going too far, etc.

It was totally cringe-worthy.

But those crazy Dancin' on Air kids danced anyway.