7 most memorable musical TV episodes
In honor of the Riverdale musical, we gathered together some other memorable musical TV episodes from non-musical shows.
Riverdale‘s high school production of “Carrie the Musical” gave the show a perfect reason to tackle a musical episode. And the actors did a great job singing and dancing their way through the production (see our review).
The musical TV episode in a traditionally non-musical show is a high-wire act, but Riverdale managed to pull it off. The musical episode fits in with the show’s moody tone while moving its plot forward at the same time. If you want to check out the episode, it’s available to stream on The CW website.
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The challenge of a musical episode is something many other shows have decided to take on with varying degrees of success.
Unlike shows like Glee and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that include song-and-dance numbers in every episode, musical episodes in non-musical shows need to explain the reason their characters suddenly burst into song.
Fantasy series, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, can use magic to justify their actors’ warbling. On the other hand, it can be disconcerting when characters on shows that are typically grounded in reality, like Grey’s Anatomy, start giving voice to the song in their hearts.
Whether sublime or head-scratching or both, musical episodes can be a fun change of pace for a show.
Here, we cover some of the shows that took on the musical episode, for better and for worse.