When Will & Grace ended their final season a few years ago, they had a Very Special Going Away Goodbye Episode. It showed clips of their funniest bits over the show’s lifetime, including the many scenes involving one or all of the cast singing. Though those extremely talented actors have more impressive scenes, one of my favorites is the short bit Jack had with Cher. He thinks she’s an impersonator (or drag queen) and tries to show her how to properly sing “If I Could Turn Back Time.” You can watch it here.
And maybe someday if you’re lucky, I’ll share my own Cher impression with you. If you’re lucky.
It seems like sitcoms these days don’t include nearly as much music as they used to. Of course, you can point to How I Met Your Mother’s tribute to “I Would Walk 500 Miles,” but even though that episode was…wait for it…legendary, the actors weren’t really making music themselves. (See the clip here.)
So for you, I’ve spent my entire morning on YouTube and have some great musical sitcom memories to share. Oh, the things I do for you.
My mom was a big fan of The Monkees. So I learned to love Davy Jones early in life. But my favorite TV memory of that short British singer (5’3”!!) was on My Two Dads. (And I’d totally forgotten that Paul Reiser was in this show!) Check it out here.
Another one of my favorite shows from back in the day was Perfect Strangers. There’s just something so loveable about that wacky Balki Bartokomous! Turns out that he was always singing something, but the one that’s stuck with me all these years is a brief bit of him singing “What’s Love Got to Do With It” while dusting. If I’m ever home alone and dusting (not that this is a common occurrence, let me assure you!), you can bet I’m belting out that song. See it here at 1:02 (it’s a long montage). And for more musical fun with Larry and Balki, go here and here.
One of Photobaby’s favorite sounds to make is “Bah.” So naturally, I respond by singing “Bah-bah-bah, Bah-Barbara Ann.” And for some reason, this has brought Bob Saget to mind. Well, mystery solved. While I remembered the episode of Full House where the whole Tanner family goes to a Beach Boys concert and sings “Kokomo” (see it here), I’d forgotten that they also sang “Barbara Ann.”
I found this on a desperate YouTube search for Danny Tanner singing Moon River at the end of a date. I swear it exists. But despite the trillions of videos online with Full House musical bits, I found no trace of this one. So it’s possible I just made it up. (Anyone else remember that?)
Finally, one of the most striking musical scenes in a sitcom, at least in my opinion: the four Designing Women lip synching “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” You can see their talent show performance here, but to get the full effect, you can learn about why the song meant to much to those ladies here. This episode was one of the first times I learned about – and was moved and disturbed by – domestic violence.
On a lighter note, when I grow up, I SO want to be Julia Sugarbaker!
All right, now it’s your turn. What songs have appeared in your favorite TV shows? Or, what songs make you think of TV shows? Or, what songs make you – randomly – think of Bob Saget? And last but not least…anyone else who had a crush on Uncle Jesse?
hey… it’s erin from church…
i randomly found you on blogger and didn’t even recognize you for a little bit but saw your profile and though, “hey, i’ll check out her blog…” lol. anyway, your blog is great! and i love how you write. very fun to read!
man you were on a mission this morning with all your research! i totally remember jack singing to cher.. that was hillarious. and i loved perfect strangers! i just found it on netflix and am going to rent it one of these days after i get caught up on movies. and full house….. i don’t remember danny singing moon river, but i may not have seen that episode. it’s one of my favorite songs though. and who DIDN’T have a crush on uncle jesse? i love him to this day! but thank goodness nothing brings bob saget to mind. you poor girl. hope you can get him out of your head! :-)
have a good weekend. maybe see you tomorrow!
Oh, I can fill up your comment section on this one!!
1. Funniest Will & Grace music episode ever was Will doing the Footloose dance with Kevin Bacon. But whenever I hear "When you get caught between the moon and New York City…" I think of JUST JACK! (who is a classically trained pianist and is my choice for the star of the movie of my book, I might add).
2. We saw Davy Jones in concert last year. Correction, we made it in time to see Davy Jones perform "Daydream Believer" live. It was incredible. Don't you remember him from The Brady Bunch episode where he takes Marsha to prom?
3. I LOVED Full House and of course had a crush on Uncle Jesse,until I met him when I was in college, and he was greasy and he smelled. That was such a great episode, and for awhile I lived in confusion about whether or not John Stamos was a part of the Beach Boys, who were also a huge part of my life.
4. Finally, I will add the Huxtable family's lip-synching tribute to the grandparents on their anniversary as one of the greatest musical sitcom moments ever.
Sorry to take up so much space! Maybe I should have just written my own post. :)
davy jones was my first tv crush. (and no, not cuz i’m that old. cuz mtv brought ‘the monkees’ back when i was 5.)
of course there are ‘full house’ music memories (actually, i just friday randomly thought of the one where danny sings ‘the horn went beep beep beep’ to d.j. and her date). and of course i had a crush on uncle jesse. what a silly question.
there are also many ‘the office’ moments. ‘teach the children well’ was great. as was ‘mambo no.5’ on the recorder. and ‘islands in the stream.’ and ‘the ainbow-ray onnection-cay.’ and ‘the gambler.’ and there’s ‘tiny dancer.’ and i’ll stop now.
i don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but every episode of ‘full house’ had music, whether it was the guys singing a lullaby to michelle, dj and kimmy singing with their walkmans, or jesse and joey doing a commercial jingle. but there was always at least one song.
:D to cosby’s anniversary episode and the office’s ainbow-ay onnection-ay.
john stamos toured (as drummer) with the beach boys for one summer, and was in the ‘kokomo’ video
Erin – HI! I hope you come back to visit often! :)
Amy – I LOVE that episode of the Cosby Show!! So perfect! And um, wow, you have met a LOT of famous people!! Oh yeah, I remember Davy Jones from the Brady Bunch, but for some reason he sticks out in My Two Dads more – weird, right?
Mel, that’s a good point – The Office has had a lot of music. Of course, a lot of it is the wonderful a capella, so you know I love it. :)
Hobsis, thanks for the Beach Boys info. I remember being confused by that when it happened!
Oh, I didn’t mean to be a name-dropper! Well, I did, but it was a relevant drop…
Haha, Amy – it was definitely relevant! I’m just amazed, that’s all! :)
I haven’t thought about the Monkees for a while, that was a good show! And I remember Davy Jones on the Brady Bunch. I think both shows I watched as reruns after school. Speaking of the Brady Bunch, didn’t they do a little music in a few episodes (e.g. “we’re gonna keep on, keep on, keep on, keep on dancing all through the night”)?
Will & Grace – so entertaining :D But I had NO IDEA you had your own Cher impression! Please “cher” next time I see you! (hehe:)
I hadn’t noticed the lack of music in sitcoms nowadays, but you’re right! Although, I also didn’t remember how much music was in the old sitcoms you mentioned! Especially ‘Perfect Strangers’! I remember watching it (although maybe not regularly), but I didn’t even remember that about Balke! That show was kind of all about music! And it was so funny & cute! (thanks for sharing:) I guess it’s been a long time… you have a much better memory than I do! ;)
Where was Michelle in that ‘Full House’ Beach Boys episode? I remember the episode, but I don’t remember that and didn’t see her on stage. And who just sings ‘Moon River’ at the end of a date? That Danny Tanner… Oh, wait: I bet Andy Bernard would do that. :) Only, maybe in pig latin. ;) And I agree with everyone else here: who didn’t have a crush on Uncle Jesse??
I wanna be Julia too! (based on those clips you had; I don’t remember this show all that well either, even though I remember watching reruns of it:)
Thanks for spending your entire morning on Youtube “for us,” btw. You should do that more often. ;)
Amy, who just meets John Stamos in person? :P ;)
chelley, you sounded like me right there! :)
someone else’s turn to define the word: dappaity :)
i hadn’t remembered my two dads or perfect strangers, but i used to love those shows.
my favorite music sitcom moment has to be ross playing the babgpipes. ever seen it? pee my pants funny.
ohmigosh, yes! how did i forget that one?! and phoebe singing along was priceless. yay!
I can not believe you brought up all of these shows! This is why we were good friends and why I am enjoying your blog so much. It’s like reading parts of my own childhood. Jenny and I LOVED Perfect Strangers. We always did the ‘happy dance’ :-)
I was always ashamed to admit it, but Will and Grace is possibly one of the funniest shows ever. And last, but not least, I too want to grow up to be Julia Sugarbaker. I love her…