The 13 best musical episodes from non-musical TV shows
Community! Buffy! Scrubs! It’s always a treat when an unlikely series spends a whole installment going full Broadway
TV Lists Eliot
Between the unexpected musical twist this season for Only Murders In The Building and the fantastic recent Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode “Subspace Rhapsody,” we’ve been thinking about musical television lately. It’s always a treat when a series that isn’t known for musical moments decides to spend an installment putting on a show, especially when the cast gets a chance to display hidden talents. These episodes give characters an excuse to express their feelings in completely new ways because, according to the rules of musicals, when words aren’t enough to contain their feelings, the characters sing, and when singing isn’t enough, they dance. Musical episodes can move a story forward a great deal, or they can just be a fun little break from the darker stuff. Either way, we’re here for them.
These are our favorite examples of musical episodes throughout the years. For the purposes of this list, we’re only ranking episodes from shows that aren’t inherently musical in nature, so you won’t find anything from the likes of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Schmigadoon!, or Glee. We also aren’t including series where the performances are part of a show within the context of the story. If the characters aren’t surprised to be suddenly bursting into song or the music they’re singing to is being played by instruments onscreen, then it doesn’t qualify. That still leaves us with plenty of stellar, re-watchable gems, as you’ll see—and hear.
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Everything comes down to Poo
My favorite is the Lexx episode “Brigadoom.”
I was hoping to see this on the list even if the show’s pretty obscure.
It shouldn’t be obscure to the people who write for this site.
There are about five people left on this site, the odds of any one of them knowing any given show have dropped substantially as of late.
Yeah, you’d think ChatGPT would be really up on its Lexx lore.
Haha, though to be fair considering ChatGPT was made by geeks then, yes, Lexx should have come up a bit in its training data.
It also has my favorite pilot episode of any SF show I’ve ever seen. I thought the rest of the show was pretty hit-or-miss, but those two episodes really stand out to me.
Doctors! Nurses! Patients! Dead Guys! XD !!!!!!!
Just clicked on this to ensure the Buffy musical was at the top of the list. Thank you and good day.
Buffy’s Once More With Feeling could be the closest possible thing to a perfect episode of television, minus a couple issues (twist nonsensical reveal that Xander knowingly did it, coupled with some weaksauce early-2000s gay panic to resolve the conflict).Ever since Buffy paved the way (they weren’t the first but they were the best), it feels like every show has scrambled to do their take on it. That was my main thought when watching Star Trek SNW’s, anyway, just that this show is still only in this second season and these relationships are still just being discovered, and we’re going all-in on something that feels rushed and unearned. Buffy’s shadow looms large.
The Strange New Worlds episode was clearly inspired by “Once More with Feeling”, IMO. There were direct references (“I’ve got a theory” and one about bunnies), but just the whole set-up seemed kinda similar.
According to a piece done by EW, the producers very much had Once More With Feeling on their mind and viewed it as the benchmark to aspire to.
Complaints I tend to put in the “true enough, but silly to be annoyed much by” file.
I think it’s kind of a indictment on musical episodes in general that OMwF still tops the list after all these years. Like, has nothing since seriously been better?
I would have thought Mr Greg from Steven Universe would at least rate a mention. IMHO a better overall series and better songs.
Steven Universe had so many other episodes with songs that maybe they’re not counting it. The whole show is practically a musical. Same for Bob’s Burgers.
Yeah, I suspected as much.
Though this list doesn’t even keep to its own “If the characters aren’t surprised to be suddenly bursting into song or
the music they’re singing to is being played by instruments onscreen,
then it doesn’t qualify.” requirement, so I won’t either.
I’ve always found the musical episodes annoying. The music/singing usually isn’t great and plots usually aren’t advanced. For a while after Buffy, it felt like an obligatory thing shows would do and I’m glad that dad seems to have passed.
I’m sorry about your dad.
I always enjoy the ones that have less polished singing.
imo a musical episode is worse than a normal episode in 99.9% of shows. I have a huge library of old shows I love to watch and those horrible musical episodes always get skipped. Out of that slideshow only the community episode is good. The rest were actively bad.
Don’t worry, some of us Xena fans are always happy to remind people that the show did it well before Buffy and get annoyed when people talk like the vampire slayer show did something innovative.
kewl
I’ll allow exceptions for Buffy, The Magicians, and Space Dandy.
But musical episodes are almost always a terrible idea, and yes, I’m one of the haters who includes Subspace Rhapsody in that list.
Once More With Feeling is indisputably number one.Regional Holiday Musical should be higher. It’s become one of my favorite episodes of the series, not least of which because of how, in true Community fashion, it’s both a musical and a horror.The Grey’s Anatomy episode shouldn’t even rank.There was a lot of skepticism from the fandom going into Subspace Rhapsody, but I think both it and the LD crossover are going to be remembered as classics of the franchise for years to come.
Community should be #2. What even is this garbage website anymore.
Honourable mention for Moonlighting?
I’d say “Big Man on Mulberry Street” is better than several shows on this list. Maybe it doesn’t qualify for some reason…?
It’s not the full episode, and is basically a dance routine to an existing track, so maybe doesn’t qualify, but in terms of the later examples, it was probably quite influential.
“Duet” is great as a musical, and absolutely terrible as an episode. Melissa and Grant pair up their good chemistry with good musical numbers that really does them justice. However, the episode is a rather frightful way to resolve what is going on between Kara and Mon-El. Kara has very legitimate grievances about their relationship, which the episode craps all over, and then. Has. Her. Apologize. To. Him. For things that he’s done.
It does very much feel like someone was just like “-shrug- Melissa and Grant were on Glee. Let’s milk that.” They’re both super talented, but in that moment, in that episode, the musical was not needed.
Yeah the Kara aspects were not well done and should have been resolved in the next ep in her own show (really don’t get why the writers of both shows teamed up on the script and it was just the Flash team). Other than that, and the fact that there weren’t more original numbers, the episode was good. I’d place the SNW musical over it on the list just for the fact that it was all original numbers and the plot flowed better. Heck that show had a whole relationship change too.
On the other hand, Barry’s singing proposal to Iris is like the one time Barry and Iris’s relationship is actually moving.
No Riverdale?
I would bump My Musical from Scrubs up in that it works as a musical and as an episode of the show. In world, they make it make sense and the songs were fun.
Is this supposed to be ranked? Because there’s no fucking way Grey’s Anatomy’s musical episode is better than Regional Holiday Music. Especially being just a “jukebox” covers musical.
“Why don’t we let Britta sing her awkward song?”
I viscerally hate jukebox musicals. Write your own damn songs or don’t bother.
By that rationale Singin’ in the Rain would never have been made and the inspiration for many musicals you’ve probably enjoyed wouldn’t have existed.
The greatest fuckin’ musical ever is jukebox:
Boopy doopy doop boop SEX
It’s too bad no one on Enterprise thought of doing a musical episode, considering Bakula’s background.And I think “The Night Man Cometh” or “The Gang Turns Black” belongs on this list.
Linda Park suggested it, and so did Ron Moore on TNG and DS9.
If you put “The Gang Turns Black” on the list you can get Bakula in the top 13 through a technicality
Finally someone remembers to include the Bitter Suite!
With Buffy S6, I always got the sense that Whedon was pretty much over Buffy and had moved on to other projects. I believe the only writing credit he gets for S6 is OMwF, and it really seemed like he wanted to do a musical episode of something and just returned to a show that was still his, even if largely abandoned, to do it.
Man, if ever there was a show from “back when” on Netflix that deserves a resurgence, it’s The Magicians. That “Under Pressure” scene was done/edited so well that I was in tears by the end. “Glossy Armor” was okay – jukebox musical, after all – I respected it more than fully got into it. A couple of the 80’s tunes are too cheap and too easy. “Don’t Get Me Wrong” (?) seemed beneath Eliot (even a dream Eliot). “Here I Go Again” worked pretty much overall – it was thematic to the character. And now i must IMDB the entire cast to see where they landed.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. The “Under Pressure” episode hit a lot harder than everything off Glossy Armor. But overall all the Magicians’s musical episodes were great, even if Jade Taylor was oversinging constantly.
You can pull the girl out of the bar band, but you’ll never pull the bar band out of the girl – or something like that.
The Magicians is fucking incredible and the fact that it never became a huge hit is just more proof that we are living in the worst timeline.
Absolutely true. At least it didn’t get a hard axe and was able to wrap up mostly on its own terms, but hot damn I could definitely go for more seasons.
Especially after the last season – getting rid of Dollar Store Harry Potter made the show soooo much better.
The Magicians was definitely a show I found myself liking more with the passage of time. My vote for the best musical number is probably the “Take on Me” moment at the end of S4 (for reasons that I will refrain from mentioning, even though, yes, we are long since past the spoiler window on this). But I also loved “Glossy Armor” mostly for the heavy focus on Margo, who had become my favorite by that point in the show.
Total agreement. So gratifying to watch “side characters” Margo and Eliot gradually move center stage over five seasons. “Take on Me” was another gut punch.
Could have sworn Legends of Tomorrow would have had a full musical episode, but after scanning their seasons, many many shows built to a musical number – but none did the full show. The Satanist’s Apprentice might count – fully half the show was an animated riff on Beauty and the Beast. Plus Zari had her “Masked Singer” episode and one that ended in a Bollywood number.Favorite: Tom Wilson (season guest star) singing James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James” to a Minotaur.
All right, I’m gonna be that listicle commenter and ask, “No mention of Daria? Really?”
Is this a best-of list, or pretty much an all-of list?
I mean there’s maybe a handful of other series that have had musical episodes, but if you’re doing an arbitrary number like “top 13″ then you’re just listing shows you know.
I would have put Neighbors on this list. I loved almost everything about that show, but of 2 seasons worth of episodes, the musical ranks at the top. Loved it.
Like I said, there a handful of other shows that could have probably made this a nice round top 20. Just AV Club would have to do a bit more than 5 minutes research, but I guess that’s the commenters job now.
It’s kind of neither. Otherwise they would have included Ally McBeal, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Good Times!
It’s another one of their “all-we-know-of” lists.
So no Galavant?I read the disclaimer so I know, but it was an easy way to bring up the amazing Galavant.
Of course Dule Hill can dance? He got his start tap dancing on Broadway??
13 non-musical tv shows that SHOULD have had musical episodes. I’ll start:Succession.
24.
The Sopranos (it’s right there in the gabagooling name, people).
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“Once More With Feeling” is always such a frustrating enigma to me, because I really really want to show it to friends so they can appreciate what an amazing episode it is, but most of the weight relies on having watched at least the past couple seasons worth of episodes to understand the subtext of what’s going on. Oh well. At least I can appreciate it. 🙂
Not even an honorable mention of the Lexx episode “Brigadoom”? For shame!
Buffy’s musical turn was brilliant and the most memoral episode next to “Hush.” And there are more plot points than just the revelation of Buffy’s time away. There is a very sexy musical moment between witches Willow and Tara.We discover that Giles is struggling with his role as Buffy’s surrogate father, the cracks in the relationship between Xander and Anya start to widen, and Dawn’s habit as a shoplifter is discovered. How and why Xander ended up cursing everyone could have been clearer, but the musical is so perfectly self-aware and sardonic that, even though the characters can’t believe it’s happening, it is perfectly believable.
The musical episode of Dead End: Paranormal Park is another good one.
Absence of Daria feels glaring.