Five Truly Great Musical Episodes From Otherwise Non-Musical TV Shows

Musicals are polarising things, and arguably one of the most difficult mediums of entertainment to pull off well, even in their own native stage-based environment.

So, when the format is transplanted to another arena — like, say, television — it's understandable if the prevailing feeling is one of caution and scepticism. After all, we've been burnt before; for example, The Simpsons' much-maligned ninth-season clip show, All Singing, All Dancing, was one of the most poorly received episodes of the pre-Mike Scully era. It was unexpectedly sucky; The Simpsons had spent nearly a decade offering up some wonderful musical parody bits in its episodes, even releasing a compilation album, Songs In The Key Of Springfield, but for some reason, in the clip-show format - and despite the original, thematic song that bookended the variable throwback segments - it fell totally flat.

That said, it's not impossible to make musicals work on TV. Hell, some shows hang their hat on it — Glee and, more overtly, Galavant are prime examples of shows that put a musical focus at their core and thrive despite (or because of) it. Still, it's clearly not an easy thing to do, less so to do well — and that's why these one-off musical episodes of otherwise non-musical TV shows are so damn great, and well worth your time.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd take your seats and switch your phones to silent...

once more, with feeling — buffy the vampire slayer

The melodic, madcap sixth-season episode of Joss Whedon's iconic cult series Buffy The Vampire Slayer has, not without merit, become pretty much the go-to point of reference anytime someone mentions the words "musical episode". In the years since the show wrapped up, it has ascended to legendary heights among die-hard fans and beyond, even netting #13 on UK station Channel 4's list of Top 100 Musicals, above some better-known (or "more legitimate") shows such as Cabaret, Bugsy Malone, Phantom Of The Opera and Little Shop Of Horrors.

The episode went above and beyond the call of duty by providing an in-story reason for all of Sunnydale to be bursting into song at random — the melodic meanderings actually being the nefarious work of a demon known as Sweet, who is pulling invisible strings to compel the Hellmouth's citizens to belt out their hidden secrets like they're villains in an Andrew Lloyd Webber production. It all makes for a funnier, more frantic 40 minutes than usual, and the diversity of styles highlighted across the Whedon-penned songs, from retro rock to jazzy big-band, are a testament not only to the man's preternatural writing talents — he'd never written a song before he penned an episode full of corkers — but the adaptable versatility of the medium at large.

mayhem of the music meister! — batman: the brave and the bold

Along the same lines of Buffy's "demon made us do it" exposition, kids' show Batman: Brave & The Bold went full musical for their season-one episode Mayhem of The Music Meister!, starring real-life Broadway darling and all-round amazing human Neil Patrick Harris as the titular villain, compelling the heroes and villains of the DCU to start singing so that he can take over the world, because that makes sense. At the very least, it is probably easier than leaving riddles everywhere about how you're going to rob Gotham First National Bank on Friday at 3pm, Edward.

Anyway, Batman is, naturally, immune to the Music Meister's schemes (Batman don't sing, unless you've got Wonder Woman hostage) and eventually defeats him, but not before we've seen Black Canary, Green Arrow and Aquaman dancing and singing with villains Black Manta, Gorilla Grodd and Clock King a la West Side Story, been treated to an homage to Phantom Of The Opera, and spent 20 minutes melting into our couches due to the sheer fire that is NPH's singing voice. Seriously, this show might be for actual children, but it's just as effective at bringing out the kid within, and Mayhem Of The Music Meister! is a prime example of its brilliance.

my musical — scrubs

Grease references, a song about human faeces and the iconic tune Guy Love — not to mention Scrubs' usual mix of offbeat, rapid-fire humour and blindsiding its viewers with emotional gut-punches — all conspire to elevate the beloved medical comedy-drama's sixth-season musical, in which a patient (Stephanie D'Abruzzo) starts hearing other people's speech as song, to genuine heights of televised excellence. Believe us, this episode didn't garner four Emmy nominations and a win for nothing.

In some ways, it's a little unsurprising it's so well regarded — its creative pedigree includes a Tony Award winner (Doug Besterman), Avenue Q writers Jeff Marx & Robert Lopez, a member of The Worthless Peons (Paul Perry) and Scrubs composer Jan Stevens, with lyrics by episode scribe Debra Fordham — plus most of the main cast had at least some prior experience with or love for musical theatre, which always helps in situations such as this.

the nightman cometh — it's always sunny in philadelphia

The Nightman Cometh — the production at the centre of this episode, as written by resident idiot savant Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day) and reluctantly, poorly acted out by his terrible friends — is (deliberately) not a good musical; not really. 

But, for some reason, The Nightman Cometh — the fourth-season finale episode of venerated FX comedy It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia — is a great musical episode. And that, somehow, makes The Nightman Cometh, the musical, seem good too, or at least good enough to get its own real-life live performance courtesy of the Sunny cast.

In some ways, it thrives on turning musical theatre on its head, paying less attention to making the on-stage component watchable and spending more time highlighting the very real and unusually abusive behind-the-scenes aspects of putting on a show, via the highly strung attitude adopted by theatre directors channelled through the exasperated Charlie, or routine actors' woes such as Dennis' compulsive eating, Mac's inability to find his gravitas, Dee's obsession about being mistaken for a paedophile because of lyrics in her song, and Frank willfully slurring the words "boy's soul" to sound like "boy's hole". Basically, it's one of the most realistic depictions of what it's like to be anywhere near the backstage of a theatre production. Trust us, they nailed it.

...Oh, all right. Dayman is, admittedly, a great song.

psych: the musical — psych

Long-running procedural comedy Psych — which wrapped its eight-season run in March last year — teased fans with the promise of a musical episode for the better part of three or so years before the much-rumoured and eagerly awaited two-hour special, Psych: The Musical, finally made its premiere in 2013 at the end of its seventh season.

It proved to be more than worth the wait, with series creator Steve Franks pulling together a wonderful and wacky look at the adventures of fake psychic Shawn Spencer and his reluctant, loyal partner Burton "Gus" Guster as they chase down an escaped mental patient and former musical-theatre writer who was accused of burning down a theatre and killing a critic, and who they fear has made the dash for freedom to seek bloody revenge against an old producer for destroying his vision, a gritty retelling of the tale of Jack the Ripper, through countless rewrites and last-minute changes, before finally using his original script under a different name for a new production while he languished in an institution.

The episode is designed as a standalone piece — as in, you don't have to have watched the previous seven seasons of the show to be brought up to speed and understand the plot — but you'll miss a tonne of the in-jokes and throwback references if this is your first outing with the show. Nonetheless, the main cast — especially Dule Hill and Timothy Omundson — absolutely shine, and guest stars Ally Sheedy and Anthony Rapp (Rent), as well as an offbeat song essentially about being a cuckold as sung by Kurt Fuller's gloriously pathetic recurring character Woody, the Coroner, fill in the gaps to make this a stunning achievement for small-screen musicals, right up there with Buffy's efforts, even if it's nowhere near as widely known.

Plus, the episode-ending track, Jamaican Inspector — which includes lyrical pearls such as "Don't worry, all is well, you English jezebels" and "Me no like this nonsense me hearin'/people slashed from necklace to earrin'/Ripper! Leave them prostitutes alone!" — is pretty much worth the entire show, even if it wasn't such a standout. (A recurring theme throughout the episode is Gus' attempts to convince the producers of the new Ripper production to cast him as the Inspector, taking exception to the idea that "black people weren't invented yet" in 1880s London. It's amazing.)