The 20 most memorable TV musical shows

For a little while there, Glee really captured the zeitgeist. Primarily, it did that with a bunch of high school students singing popular hits from yesterday and today. It was a very jukebox musical, and it ran its course, but it did give Jane Lynch a great showcase. Also, it inspired a funny and pretty savage parody episode of Community.

Rachel Bloom was given the opportunity for a starring vehicle, and she made a bold choice of not only doing a musical but playing an unlikeable, complicated protagonist. Also, the show did multiple original songs per episode, often of the raunchier variety. There isn’t really another show quite like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

There’s a sweaty premise to this show, as Zoey has a bunch of songs “downloaded” into her brain during an MRI, and suddenly, she can hear people’s inner thoughts and feelings in songs — replete with dance numbers. You know, maybe just have people break into song instead of coming up with a more absurd premise than that? Getting past the conceit, there was a lot of charm to be found in Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, and it had enough of a fan base that Roku gave it a two-hour Christmas special after NBC canceled it.

Galavant had none other than Alan Menken working on it, so you know the original music would bring it. The show was an interesting mix of fantasy, comedy, and musical numbers. It was ambitious and memorable but perhaps too ambitious, as it only lasted two seasons and 18 episodes.

One of TV’s oddest misfires is a true delight. Cop Rock is a police procedural…that is almost a musical. Yes, really. It features some of the most bonkers musical set pieces in television history. If you like bizarre cultural artifacts, check out Cop Rock.

The Disney Channel has been a big fan of shows about teenage musicians, but none is on par with Hannah Montana in terms of cultural impact. Miley Cyrus rose to fame as a girl living a double life as an “ordinary” teenager and Hannah Montana, her pop star alter ego. The show spawned not just a feature film but also a concert film where Cyrus performed as herself and as Hannah.

Primarily, Phineas and Ferb was about the titular stepbrothers on a perpetual summer vacation, creating incredible inventions and breaking the laws of physics quite often. Pretty much every episode also features an original song or two, usually related to the plot and sometimes featuring a character doing the classical musical thing of singing their feelings. Phineas and Ferb is stealthily sort of a musical show.

The Bradys did some singing, but they had nothing on the Partridges when it came to musical families. After all, that is the entire premise of the 1970s sitcom. Shirley Partridge and her five kids buy a bus, make it psychedelic, and begin a musical career that takes them on all sorts of adventures. It’s a show about a family band and about music.

The Monkees were crafted to be a Beatles-esque band, and they were given their own TV show to promote them. Their music was solid, but the show was as dedicated to comedy as the music. Sometimes, the Monkees sing their songs in the show, but invariably, a song by the so-called Pre-Fab Four would also play over some chaotic humor.

There are only three episodes of Tenacious D . Also, they each aired in a different year. That said, when you think of musical acts that double as characters, Tenacious D is up there. Jack Black and Kyle Gass followed up the show by actually releasing music, and the duo has continued to perform as “The D” for decades.

Did you like that one episode of Saved by the Bell where the gang is a band, and they sing the song “Friends Forever"? California Dreams was for you! Another teen sitcom on NBC created by Saved by the Bell creator Peter Engel, this show does the band thing, but in every episode. While California Dreams doesn’t have the same cultural legacy as Zack Morris and company, it ran for five seasons and 78 episodes, featuring 40 original songs.

The metal band at the center of Metalocalypse, Dethklok, was dedicated to the music and being “metal.” Also, since it was animated on Adult Swim, it could be quite gory and violent. It was sort of a satire of metal and a love letter to it in equal measure, and it is the rare metal musical of any kind.

During the heyday of the boy band, MTV decided to use that as a jumping-off point for a comedic take on the phenomenon. First, there was 2gether, the made-for-TV movie, and then we got a TV series. Sadly, art imitated life, as the illness of the character of “Q.T” was based on the real-life struggles with cancer of actor Michael Cuccione, who passed away during the filming of the second season.

Flight of the Conchords had plenty of songs to use for the first season of their fantastic cult HBO show. Bret and Jemaine took their pre-existing songs and used them for the kind of integrated song-and-dance scenes of many a musical. For the second season, they had to write new music, which may have caused a slight dip in quality, and it certainly seemed to cause burnout for the duo, who did not do a third season.

Eli Stone was a wild swing. The titular lawyer starts hallucinating, including a bunch of George Michael songs turning into musical scenes. Then he starts being able to predict the future and stuff. It was a lot, but the show got good critical reviews, even if it only lasted two seasons and is primarily remembered as the show with George Michael music.

Following in the footsteps of Flight of the Conchords, the comedic musical duo of Garfunkel and Oates got their own show. They were able to work their existing songs into the mix for the IFC comedy. It only lasted for eight episodes, but fans of the comedy duo enjoyed it.

Loren Bouchard, the creator of Bob’s Burgers, brought his animation and comedy style to the world of musicals for AppleTV+. Central Park focuses on a family who lives in a castle in Central Park and dealing with an evil land developer. If you like Bob’s Burgers and musicals, Central Park is made for you, and the show is already three seasons in, with the potential for more episodes in the future.

Another AppleTV+ musical series, this one is live-action and more ambitious. Schmigadoon! is a loving parody of the “Golden Age” of the Hollywood musical. Or, that was the case for the six-episode first season. Season 2 moves the action to “Schmicago,” where they can lampoon the musicals of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.

Jim Henson’s Muppets are songsters, but in the TV world, they tend to be doing variety shows. In Fraggle Rock, there is plenty of music, arguably more than in The Muppet Show. The difference is that the characters are singing within their world, and a few episodes are even focused on music and the power of song.

A lot of early musicals, such as the iconic work of Busby Berkeley, were about the staging of a musical, and the music and dance numbers were all taking place within that musical in the film. Smash is the TV equivalent of that. Both seasons of the polarizing show focused on the production of a Broadway musical, including many songs created for those musicals. Smash is the foremost example of this type of musical in TV history.