Musical Episodes
Since the dawn of, well, the 90s, there have been television shows of all kinds incorporating musical episodes into their seasons.
It is not just that these rare and entertaining occurrences are hilarious and if not well sung then at least still enjoyable to watch, but they express something unique about characters’ psyches that might not have otherwise been displayed openly if not through song.
Sci fi and Fantasy television shows are no exception to this phenomenon, and today I am going to go through the many wonderful examples of musical episodes fitting my beloved geek theme. This includes live action and animated examples, so hang on, pop in your favorite show-tunes album to set the mood, and enjoy the show.
XENA
Now, credit must go to my supervisor again, Kat, for suggesting this blog entry to begin with, and one of the reasons it sprang to mind for her was because of the less recent Xena example.
Actually, Xena Warrior Princess had two musical episodes, if you can believe it. There was the humorous episode that parodied the “battle of the bands” idea, and the more serious and possibly more memorable “Bitter Suite” episode that was nominated for two Emmy awards.
“Bitter Suite,” unlike most musical episodes for a series, is a pinnacle moment for the main protagonists, Xena and Gabrielle, because it serves to bring the pair back together and realize their love and willingness to sacrifice themselves for one another despite having been torn apart by hatred and vengeance.
Here the musical episode is actually a deux ex machine, but still a wonderful mix of comedy and bitter sweet drama.
X PLAY
X Play, the video game review show, initially did a musical number in honor of the message board fanatics that often criticize the hosts. Then, later in 2007, they debuted their first all-musical episode counting down the top five video-game soundtracks of all time while telling the story of the making of X-Play: The Game.
The video game is fake, as is the story of their number one fan Billy getting cancer from playing it, and then dying despite Morgan and Adam giving the game a 1 out of 5.
KAMEN RIDER FAIZ
Now, most of you might not have heard of Kamen Rider as it is one of the many shows still airing in Japan today that would probably remind you of Power Rangers. Kamen Rider is a series that has a new hero and storyline for every arc, and there have been many, spanning a time of over ten years.
Kamen Rider Faiz is one of the more serious arcs, which is probably why the musical episode is so ridiculously awesome. While it is not actually one of the main episodes but instead a Hyper Battle Video, a sort of side thing that all of the Kamen Rider series do at some point, Faiz is the only one so far to go for a musical version, and I can admit I was entertained.
The episode is only about ten minutes long, and can be interpreted as either a dream of the main hero, Faiz, or the plot of the evil Smart Brain group to take over the world by making everyone burst into song.
BUFFY
Possibly the most famous musical episode of all time, and my personal favorite, was Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s “Once More, With Feeling” from the sixth season. It was brilliant, funny, ridiculous at times, and yet it still had a huge importance for character and plot development in that season. Not all of the characters were all that good at singing, but damn, could they dance.
What I particularly loved was the various genres of music used, like the vampire character Spike singing a sort of rock love ballad.
The explanation for the characters bursting into song and dance was perfectly matching with the universe of Buffy since it was the fault of a demon that brought out such behavior in the inhabitants of the town with the consequence of spontaneously combusting.
In this episode, through song, Buffy finally admits to her friends that when she died the previous season she did not go to some Hell dimension that they then rescued her from, but Heaven, where she was happy and at peace until they ripped her out of it. Heavy stuff for a musical, and that’s one of the reasons it was so monumental.
I own the soundtrack and have watched this particular Buffy episode probably more than any others. “Once More, With Feeling” can also be dubbed as some of the inspiration for Joss Whedon’s later success with “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog.”
ANIMATED
Live action does not hold the monopoly on musical episodes, however. Some of the following examples you might not consider to be strictly sci fi or fantasy, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t shown those elements on occasion.
The Simpsons has done countless musical episodes, including parodies of real musicals, and often just throwing in a single song. “Stop the Planet of the Apes, I want to get off!” is only one of many examples.
South Park has done many musical episodes, too, and also has much singing in the movie. Personally, I enjoyed one of the newer episodes from last season that made fun of “High School Musical”.
The Powerpuff Girls practically did a Rock Opera with “See Me Feel Me Gnomey” in which almost the entire episode is done in song.
And, really, every other episode of Family Guy features a song so it could almost be considered a musical show.
I can’t forget to mention Reboot, of course.
CONCLUSION
While most of the time, and almost always in the case of animated shows, musical episodes are used purely for the added entertainment and humor, for live action it is more often a way to break tension during serious segments of the series, and can sometimes even alter the entire season’s progression, like in the examples of Xena and Buffy.
I hope there is more to come. I hope there is a slew of Dr. Horrible-like series that are musicals within themselves. Fans already create their own musical adaptations and episodes for already existing media. Bring on more!
There are plenty other musical examples, like the awesome “Scrubs” musical episode, but as for the more geek related ones, make sure you at least watch a few of the above mentioned if you haven’t already. Believe me, they are worth every minute.
~G³
To embellish on a comment I made in The Zombie Plan blog, next time I’m going to make an ode to horror movies with a look at the main cause of character death: The Survivor Girl.
Thanks for tuning in.
Images taken from:
http://flickerbat.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/04/25/omwf0076.jpg
http://n2.nabble.com/file/n3157441/Xena%252520%2526%252520Gabrielle.jpg
http://images.quebarato.com.br/photos/big/E/2/1684E2_2.jpg
http://martianchronicles.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/drhorribleneilharris.jpg
http://sidewalkdiving.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/2005_house_of_wax_026.jpg
http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/buffy-musical-2.jpg
Yay, Kamen Rider!!! The others are good too.
@Janskoller: For such a ridiculous show, the musical Hyper Battle Video was equally ridiculous, and can be found, for those others interested in seeing it, on YouTube.
I love musical episodes – I can’t remember if Hercules also had one… And bunnies – musn’t forget about bunnies.
As far as survivor girls go – I always picture Paris Hilton as a perfect example. Or maybe it’s just horribly satisfying to see her perish on screen in some horrible way after causing the death of at least one good character.
@Megali: Paris Hilton is a good example, though she still does end up dead and most Survivor Girls, well…survive. She still gets others killed though, so I’d count her, even though Survivors Girls have existed since the dawn of slasher films. There is something special about seeing that rare almost Survivor Girl end up dead. Like in the Friday the 13th remake, though that girl wasn’t terrible, I was still happy she died.
Bunnies!