The Best TV Musical Episodes

Considering how strange Buffy could get at times it was almost inevitable that eventually the characters would end up breaking into song. What no one expected was for the songs to be so catchy, the performances by the non-professional singer filled cast to be so good and for the songs to actually have relevance to the rest of the series. The feelings expressed in each of the songs weren't just dealt with in the musical episode, they continued on into future episodes and were important to the character's. It would even be referenced again in season 7 when we'd get a flashback in an Anya episode where she sang another brilliant song.

What helped this episode a lot was that there was a valid explanation (by Buffy standards) about why everyone was singing... a demon did it. I know it sounds silly but in context it makes perfect sense.

BEST SONG: Standing - Any time Giles sings I'm happy, and his song was sweet and touching and signaled to everyone that he was going to leave Buffy, a perfect song sung beautifully.

WORST SONG: Dawn's Ballet - I get that Michelle Trachtenberg didn't really want to sing, but at the same time her ballet just seemed forced, and this is in an episode where someone singing about mustard felt normal. I honestly wanted to hear how Dawn's Lament ended, her voice might've been a little high for my taste but I would have honestly preferred it to her ballet

A lot of cartoons have episodes where they burst into song, since the world is animated it's a lot easier to get away with having them sing in a natural way, but this episode of Daria had something too it. The people weren't singing in any way that would be considered professional or even good, but the singing perfectly suited the characters and was filled with the sarcastic humor that the show became famous for. While the singing is never explained it still works because the characters sing exactly how you'd imagine they would. In cartoons it's incredibly easy to hire professional singers to take over when the voice actors can't do it (Disney do it all the time) but this show made the actual actors sing.

BEST SONG: The Big Wet Rainstorms Over - It has a good energy, some fun dancing, tied up the story and of course had Jake going mental on a little girl at the end... in the episode it's hilarious trust me.

WORST SONG: Manly - Again this is one of those ones that felt forced, there wasn't really any point to the plot and it was basically just Jake whining which can be funny, but it wasn't in this case. The reprise however felt better, mostly because of Daria's deadpan line "My great aunt could do better and she's dead"

Another show that was almost certain to do a musical episode eventually and had previously had the cast perform a few songs turned up the heat by getting the whole cast to do a musical, starring Stephanie D'Abruzzo who had just hit it big with her starring role in Avenue Q. It's songs were funny, catchy and full of references that every scrubs fan could love. Also this show explained why everyone was singing in a way that was perfectly plausible in this world. Stephanie's character had a brain tumor that causes her to hear everyone singing, and we only ever hear anyone singing when Stephanie is in the room so it works.

BEST SONG: Everything comes down to poo - Even if you ignored the obvious fact that this is a song about poo, it's also very catchy and the tune is fantastic... also there are poo jokes.

WORST SONG: Friends Forever - Every other song in this episode was highly original, but this one was nothing more than a rip off of "We Go Together" from Grease, except with medical terminology instead of nonsense words. I'm OK with parodies, in fact the next item on this list is a pure parody episode, but this was a lazy parody

Possibly the best parody of a Disney film to date, this episode took the beloved Disney classic Mary Poppins and inflicted that nice sweet innocent lady with Bart, Lisa and Maggie... and we watch as Mary (Known in this episode as Shary Bobbins) slowly loses her happy smile and goes into depression. Done in a style only the Simpsons could pull off successfully the parodies in this episode are perfect for each of the characters singing them, fit well into the Simpson universe and are brilliantly sung.

BEST SONG: Cut Every Corner - A parody of the ever popular "Spoonful of Sugar" this song was just pure fun. It took the scene we all associate with the original (The room cleaning) and does it exactly how we'd expect The Simpsons too... they cheat.

WORST SONG: Happy Just The Way We Are - Even though the song does have it's moments (Flander's lines and Shary's last line are hilarious) on the whole it just felt wrong. It took me a while to realise this was a parody of the song "The Life I Lead" which is one of the more forgettable songs from the original movie. There were only 4 songs in this episode and there's over a dozen to choose from the original movie. A parody of "Chim-Chim-Cheree" or even "I Love to Laugh" would have been preferable.

South Park often has songs in it, all of which are hilarious and well written. When it became a movie the whole thing was an R rated musical so to pick just one episode as the best musical episode is hard but I had to pick this one simply because it is a brilliant spoof of High School Musical, a movie series that needed someone to mock it and I'm glad it was South Park. They took the idea of the first movie (A football jock wanting to sing) and swapped it, so the schools best singer wanted to be a football jock. He also has an abusive father, who effeminately slaps anyone who annoys him... while singing.

BEST SONG: You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do - Just a perfect parody of those High School Musical songs, made funnier because the boys end up singing it AFTER the HSM craze ends at school. Seeing the main 4 boys make asses of themselves always makes me smile.

WORST SONG: Go With The Status Quo - This isn't a bad song, just compared to the others it's the one that's least appealing because I swear it is identical to the HSM song it's parodying... which could be the point since it is the song the boys are watching when they try to catch up on the fad but still, it's just not as fun as the others.

There's only really one long song so no best or worst here, just look back and remember how brilliant this short cartoon was. It took Robert Wagners brilliant operas, mocked them with Bugs and Elmer, and did it all in under 7 minutes. The lyrics perfectly fit the characters, it's tone is dramatic and beautiful, it's possibly the only cartoon where Elmer is actually an imposing figure and the ending where Bugs is killed is so depressing that it's perfect... and instantly undercut by Bugs poking his head up and saying "Well what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?"

I knew I'd be crucified if I didn't include this one, and I understand why. It's a fun show that has a good reason for the characters to burst into song, they're in a glee club so singing is inevitable. The only real downside is that every single song is a cover. I'm not against TV shows doing covers, if they can fit them into an episode and make it work I say good on them, but it would be nice if just once this show could give the kids on it something original to sing that they can make their own because right now every single song they sing is instantly compared to the original, to the point where some people won't watch just because they don't want to hear their favorite song being covered which is a shame because the cast have incredibly good voices.

BEST SONG: Poker Face - I don't get why this one is so often sidelined because I love it. It took a pop song and turned it into a ballad. Changing the genre of a song is incredibly hard to pull off and can backfire but with Lea and Idina singing this as a powerful mother/daughter duet that works beautifully. You can tell both actresses were having fun singing it and it was the closest the show has come to doing an original song.

WORST SONG: Singing in the Rain/Umbrella - The show has done mashups before and usually they've worked on some level, but this one just didn't. It took a great classic song from a great musical that is well loved, and inflicted a bad pop song on it. The singing was fine, I have never had a problem with the singing on this show (I even liked Sing! because the bad singing perfectly matched the song) but as a mashup this one just doesn't work. Separately I could see both these songs being great, but together all I kept thinking was that one of the best musicals of all time was being ruined before my eyes.

While the show has had several songs in it's past, this episode ended the series (Before Comedy Central revived it) in an opera. The entire last act of the show was all sung by the cast and was hilarious. Like What's Opera Doc this was just one long song so no best or worst but I will say that the best singer of the bunch was Katey Segal who seemed to slide into full blown opera without any issue. Delightfully funny and incredibly clever, this is a musical you must hear to believe.

Yes it's a clip show of all the musical moments of the series up to that point but it's just wonderful to see all these great songs. While none are actually sung by the cast, the enthuseasm they put into their dancing and the way each song works in context is marvelous. Personally I love the Rocky Horror/Priscilla mashup number, the dances were very different to the original but it was epic in it's scope. All in all a fun episode with some great dancing and lipsynching.