Fans of The Boys on Amazon Prime were teased with a musical episode and viewers were eager to see who exactly would be singing. Many theorized that the notoriously silent Black Noir would sing, or even the entire cast. However, the trailers hyping the episode revealed two characters Kimiko and Frenchie singing and dancing, and suspicions were confirmed once the show aired.
Many serious shows have taken part in the musical tradition, taking advantage of cast members who are trained singers or who have backgrounds in broadway. For audiences, it’s a treat to see their fave sing and to discover new talents among the cast of their favorite shows.
The Boys
The episode “The Last Time To Look Back On This World Of Lies” gave fans a fun musical number from Kimiko and Frenchie. As Kimiko lays in a hospital bed recovering from Soldier Boy’s blast, she and Frenchie are enjoying the Judy Garland movie Girl Crazy. She turns to Frenchie and in a halting voice, says the lyrics “I got rhythm”. Then she leaps out of bed and Frenchie takes her hand to dance and sing to the rest of the song in a rendition worthy of Broadway.
Fans have interpreted the sequence to be a look at Kimiko’s desire to have a normal life—and indeed the actress confirmed that the musical was a dream sequence in an interview with IGN. While some might think it out of character for a show like The Boys to have such a sincere and earnest scene, one could argue that it’s entirely in character for Kimiko. She is shown numerous times to possess a childlike wonder, and she does play piano, displaying an interest and competency in music.
Fringe
The Fringe episode “Brown Betty”, named for Walter Bishop’s use of the marijuana in the episode, feature many of the cast members singing popular songs from the past. As Olivia looks for Peter, who dissapeared after learning that he was actually from another universe, Walter explains to her niece what’s going on. He ends up framing the events of the episode as taking place in the 1940’s, with Olivia being a detective and Peter being a man who ran off with Walter’s glass heart.
The episode was part of Fox’s Glee inspired musical week titled “Fox Rocks”. Fringe was a very sci-fi inspired show, and quite serious at times, so it probably had fans scratching their heads over how musical elements could add to the show in any way. But the mixed themed episode, which also had the noir aspect as a framing device, meshed surprisingly well with the music.
Bull
This fictionalized dramatization of Dr. Phil’s early career as a jury expert featured a musical episode starring cast member Christopher Jackson. In it, his character Chunk falls asleep and dreams about picking his daughter up from the airport. He begins belting out the lyrics to “It’s A Shame” by The Spinners, perfectly summarizing his fears concerning his and his daughters’ tumultuous relationship.
Many fans of Bull may have been surprised when Chunk suddenly started singing for apparently no reason. But Christopher Jackson is widely known for his role as Washington in Hamilton. He also starred as Benny in In The Heights, arguably one of top 10 musicals of 2022.
Star Trek: Voyager
In the episode “Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy”, the ship’s Doctor daydreams about singing the opera piece La Donna É Mobile for the crew. As the song continues, Tuvok begins exhibiting symptoms of Pon Farr, and the Doctor alerts Paris via improvised lyrics to throw him a hypospray to subdue Tuvok. The plan works, and the crew erupts in applause as Tuvok collapses and The Doctor completes his tune.
The scene is another reminder that The Doctor is more than just a simple hologram–that he’s complex, or human, enough to day dream and make himself a sort of hero his fantasies. Robert Picardo, the actor who portrays The Doctor, is actually a classically trained singer and has sung multiple times on Star Trek: Voyager, including in a notable scene with actress Jeri Ryan, who plays Seven of Nine.
Leverage
In the episode “The Studio Job”, the gang infiltrates a music company, with Elliot and Parker acting as musicians. While Parker took on a faux Bjork personality, Eliot, became a country singer. As Eliot sings his song Thinking of You, Hardison remarks that his voice-changing software isn’t working. Nathan replies back that it doesn’t need to, imiplying that Eliot, one of the best Leverage characters, is already musically gifted.
The popular show about providing leverage to the little guy had a surprise singer among them in Christian Kane. Fans who do a little digging will find that he’s used his voice talents on many of his roles, including as a guest star in Supernatural, and has two albums available to listen to.
9-1-1
In this love themed episode of 911 titled “Buck, Actually”, viewers get a treat when Maddie and Chimney begin singing karaoke. Their harmonization was a cute hint to their impending relationship status, with a clueless Buck in the background beginning his own relationship with a TV reporter. As Maddie and Chimney sing to “Islands in the Stream”, the TV reporter calls Maddie Chimney’s girlfriend. Buck denies this, saying they were only friends, despite the fact that they very much resemble a couple in love.
Seeing Maddie and Chimney sing was a great moment for #chaddie shippers. The actress who portrays Maddie, Jennifer Love Hewitt, has actually released two studio albums and collaborated with Earth, Wind and Fire on the song “One World” when she was a child. She later voiced Madellaine in Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, singing for the number “I’m Gonna Love You (Madellaine’s Love Song)”. She even recorded a song for the movie I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.
The Vampire Diaries
TVD had a talented vocal actress among the cast Candice King, who played Caroline Forbes, one of Elena’s best friends. In the episode “The House Guest”, Caroline compels the band at the Mystic Grill to let her sing the song “Eternal Flame” so she can tell Matt how she really felt about him. She wows the crowd with her voice and Matt kisses her onstage, to the cheers of the crowd. The character later sings in future episodes from time to time.
Many fans probably ran to the internet to see if that really was Candice singing– and it was! The actress is a professional singer and her album It’s Always the Innocent Ones was popular in Japan in 2008. She also toured with Miley Cyrus as her backup dancer and singer on her Best Of Both World’s Tour.
Code Black
In its last season, Code Black had a little fun with a musical episode featuring a patient who hallucinated the ER singing and dancing. The staff of Angels Memorial Hospital began a rendition of Hozier’s fittingly titled “Angel of Small Death & The Codeine Scene”. The entire production is dazzling, and it was fun for viewers to wait for and point out their favorite character doing jazz hands or even dancing the Tango.
In an interview with TV Guide, the series’ creator Michale Seitzman detailed that the entire shoot was done in only a day. Apparently, Marcia Gay Harden, who played Dr. Leann Rorish (or “Daddy”) as the attending physician of Angel’s memorial, broke her toe on the set the day before. Nevertheless, she both sings and dances ( as does the entire cast) for this musical and they knocked it out of the park.
Supernatural
In one of the last episodes of the series, Dean meets up with an old hunting buddy named Lee. Lee taunts Dean into singing up on stage, saying he can’t lip synch while no one’s watching, and Dean joins him. They both sing “Good Ole Boys”, and Dean receives a standing ovation from the crowd.
Fans of Supernatural will recall all the times Jensen Ackles has lip-synched in outtakes, but they were blown away when the actor really let loose in this episode. Supernatural has had its fair share of silly episodes that break through the more serious tone of the show, but this one had fans tapping their feet. Since the announcement of The Winchester’s, fans will be excited to see Dean Winchester again, along with other characters.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
“Once More, With Feeling” showed Buffy on patrol in a graveyard. She begins singing as she battles foes, preventing a sacrifice. The next day, she realizes that everyone in town is being compelled to sing and reveal their truths. The culprit ends up being a demon named “Sweet”, who relishes in the fact that those who sing too long end up dying of combustion.
Many of the songs in this episode are reminiscent of pop hits from the early 2000’s, but others vary between genres including Spike’s rock ballad “Rest in Peace”, Michelle Trachtenberg’s instrumental ballet number, and Sweet’s jazzy “What You Feel”. The entire cast did their own singing and dancing, a huge feat considering they practiced and learned their parts between shooting other Buffy The Vampire Slayer episodes.
