Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The Clicker Does It Once More With Feeling Musical episodes in TV series are thankfully few and far between. I say “thankfully” because, while ‘Scrubs’ and ‘Buffy’ may have made the rare technique look easy, the very idea of the characters of ‘24’ or ‘Lost’ singing and dancing their way through an episode is cringe-worthy. That said, when a show does decide to deliver a musical episode, it can be surprisingly entertaining and also a great way to further the plot without the usual dialogue.

Whether it is the show’s original score or an actual song playing, the right music can really set the mood for a scene in a TV show. Very rarely is music used to directly drive the plot forward, though. On occasion, a karaoke scene might pop up in an episode but that’s usually as musical as the characters will ever get. Take for instance last week’s episode of ‘Ugly Betty’ in which we got to see Daniel and Betty sing a few lines of “I Got You, Babe.” ‘Ally McBeal’ often had the characters singing on stage at their favorite bar and you’ll find the occasional musical number in animated shows like ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘South Park,’ but a full-on musical episode is something only a few shows have attempted.

After watching the most recent episode of ‘Scrubs,’ it got me thinking about the whole concept. What does a show need to make a musical episode work? Based on the musical episodes that ‘Scrubs,’ ‘Oz,’ and ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ have done, I’d say there needs to be great writing, catchy tunes and of course, enough musical talent among the cast to carry us through the episode without cringing. I’d like to say I was surprised by the musical abilities of the casts of the shows that have done musical episodes but to be honest, I wasn’t. I don’t think any of them would’ve even attempted to do musical episodes if most of the characters weren’t able to carry a tune. This could explain why the concept is so rare among TV shows. The other reason is probably that few other shows have been able to create a good excuse to explain why the characters are bursting into song.

‘Buffy’s’ “Once More With Feeling” provided the best excuse to justify the musical episode. Then again, ‘Buffy’ had the luxury of relying on the presence demons to provide a reason for any strange or mysterious occurrence in Sunnydale. The episode was written and directed by creator, Joss Whedon and it worked on a number of levels. Whedon managed to pay homage to the musical genre by including a pretty wide variety of song styles. For example, Xander and Anya’s “I’ll Never Tell” reminded me of a 60’s-style musical like Bye Bye Birdie while “Walk Through The Fire” had a more modern feel to it and was that quintessential song that gets the viewers pumped up for the big final act (like “One Day More” from Les Miserables or “Defying Gravity” from Wicked). Along with being an extremely entertaining episode, the musical also managed to push the plot forward quite a bit. What the characters weren’t able to say to each other in previous episodes came out in their songs. “Once More With Feeling” was nominated for an Emmy but an error in the ballots likely cost the episode a lot of votes and it didn’t win, much to the dismay of many ‘Buffy’ fans who believe its one of the best episodes of the series.

The musical episode of ‘Scrubs,’ titled “My Musical” was a success. Similar to ‘Buffy,’ the show was able to find a built in excuse to justify the singing. A patient comes in with a psychological problem that’s causing her to view everything as though it were a musical. The lyricist and composer of the hit Broadway musical Avenue Q, Jeff Marx was brought in along with Robert Lopez to do the music for the episode. Though the lyrics were roughly drafted by the show’s executive story editor, Deb Fordham, Marx and Lopez tweaked her version of the songs and turned them into catchy musical numbers (this, according to a video blog done by Marx, posted at Quickstopentertainment.com).

Like “Once More With Feeling,” “My Musical” parodies the musical genre without mocking it. The songs are well written and some were quite catchy (I still have “Guy Love” stuck in my head). Also like the ‘Buffy’ musical, there was a familiarity to the songs. The song “Friends Forever” brought to mind “We Go Together” from Grease. Another similarity to the ‘Buffy’ musical was that the writers didn’t bother making “My Musical” a stand-alone episode, but rather used the music to further the plot of the story. The issue of whether Carla would return to work or stay home with the baby was one of the major themes in the episode as well as Elliot buying a house and figuring out how to break it to J.D. that she doesn’t want to live with him anymore. The final comparison I can make with “My Musical” and “Once More With Feeling” is that it will most likely become one of the most memorable episodes of the series.

‘Oz’ didn’t exactly have a built in excuse to get the characters singing and dancing. Instead, there was reportedly an issue of their narrator (played by Harold Perrineau Jr.) being unable to shoot the episode due to his involvement in the Matrix films. Rather than using another character to narrate, they replaced the narration with musical numbers. Normally the idea of seeing hardened criminals break into song would be ridiculous but the episode works once again because of the talent among the cast and solid writing.

There are a lot of people who dislike musicals but you’ve got to admit, there’s something to be said for seeing the characters in your favorite show deal with their conflicts through song and dance. There are some shows that I could definitely see being able to pull off a musical episode but honestly, I hope the concept remains rare in television. Of the few shows that have attempted to do it, all of them have been successful but sooner or later some show is going to try it and fail miserably. When that happens, I can only hope it happens to a show I don’t watch.

What show do you think would deliver a great musical episode?