Our Favorite Musical Episodes from TV

There are few things gayer than musicals. They're big, beautiful, fabulous, and fundamentally artistic. And every now and then, TV shows will make an entire episode a musical. It's a great way for them to drum up excitement and buzz in the press, and it's usually done by shows that have established a strong Queer fanbase (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek, Ally McBeal, etc.). And viewers around the world watch and end up thinking either, "Oh wow, this is a trainwreck" or "Oh wow, I'll see some of them on Broadway within the year."

Last week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was a musical episode and they knocked it out of the galaxy. The songs were catchy, they incorporated it into the story flawlessly, and most importantly: the voices were impressive across the board. Plus A24 is releasing a new movie musical called, Dicks: The Musical. Feeling inspired by that, we figured we'd take a look at some of our favorite musical episodes of some of the most iconic shows of all time.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Let's start with the newest installment to the genre: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Last week's episode of the Paramount+ hit was titled "Subspace Rhapsody" and had the crew of the Starship Enterprise the crew gets hit with a pulse of energy that crossed with the frequencies of a song they're sending as a form of communication. Each song was executed wonderfully, and every lead had their chance to shine getting to see Anson Mount and Ethan Peck sing and dance was the thing I didn't realize I needed.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"Once More With Feeling." That's the title of the episode that arguably kicked off the whole trend. On Sunday, November 6th, 2001, Buffy's show creator Joss Whedon gifted the world with a genre-changing episode of absolutely fabulous entertainment. He reportedly had wanted to create a musical episode since the series began, and spent 6 months writing it. And like any good musical episode demands: the cast sang all of their own vocals and worked with two choreographers to nail the dances. Critics loved it, and die-hard fans hold it in absolute reverence. Iconic.

Scrubs

Unlike Star Trek: Strange New Words and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the musical episode of Scrubs occurs all from one person's perspective, with the rest of the cast not aware that they're in a musical. With Scrubs being a medical comedy the explanation is of course a medical one (aneurysm... classic.) and the show delivers a really outstanding musical episode. The quality is unsurprising given that show creator Bill Lawrence and a number of the show's staff writers were apparently self-described musical theatre nerds.

The Simpsons

Like all good mediums of art, you can look at most great ideas out there today and say five simple words: "The Simpsons did it first." I could be wrong, but I highly doubt there is any show in the history of television that has incorporated more musical numbers into its canon than The Simpsons. They have entire episodes that are musicals, they have episodes that center on musicals, and they have episodes that simply throw in a musical number just for the hell of it. One of the best such examples is in the 8th episode of Season 5, "Bart After Dark" wherein Bart gets a job working at Brothel to pay off vandalism damages. It leads to Homer singing a song to the whole town about just how important the whorehouse is to the town, and if you've never seen it... whew boy, you're in for a treat.

The Bob's Burgers Movie

Bob's Burgers hasn't utilized musicals quite as much as The Simpsons, but the animated comedy is definitely giving it a good push to catch up. They've got numerous musical moments throughout the series, and The Bob's Burgers Movie has one of its best. The main family members each sing a song about their hopes and desires, and the number is structured beautifully.

Ally McBeal

Whether you've never seen Ally McBeal or simply haven't watched it in years, it's easy to forget just how many holy-$hit-famous people starred in it early in their careers. We're talking Robert Downey, Jr., Regina Hall, James Marsden, Jane Krakowski, Josh Groban, Taye Diggs, and Lucy Liu just to name a few. The series regularly had musical segments, particularly by show lead Calista Flockhart who used singing as part of her personal journey towards self-empowerment. And in one number, Robert Downey, Jr., Taye Diggs, and Peter Macnichols all sing and dance in their famously gender-neutral office bathroom. It's iconic. Enjoy!

SMASH

If you're a diehard fan of musicals, then an absolute "must-watch" for your list should be SMASH. The Stephen Spielberg-produced series tells the story of how a musical gets developed and produced, while itself being a musical TV show. It only lasted two seasons, but has remained a cult favorite, and is officially heading to Broadway as a stage version in the 2024-2025 season.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

If you're unfamiliar with it, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is an entire series that is rooted in musical numbers. Though not quite as much as SMASH, the show employs musical numbers are a main part of its storytelling. If you recognize the above song, it's because it's also been used seemingly countless times as an audio for TikToks and Instagram Reels.

Were the World Mine

Tons of movies, TV shows, and plays have tried to do adaptations of Shakespeare's plays and fallen short. But one of the best versions of a successful adaptation is in the gay love story Were the World Mine, which is a musical adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Timothy (Tanner Cohen) uses a magic elixir to turn his closed-minded town into a bunch of gays brimming with hormones. Specifically, he's hoping to his jock-crush will fall in love with him. The movie is clever, fun, romantic, and full of beautifully-executed musical moments.

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