In case you missed it—and we’re not sure how you could—Peter Pan Live! is airing tonight on NBC—so we’re celebrating #TBT with a look at other song-and-dance shows that have graced the small screen over the years.
Of course no list of musical television would be complete without the dictionary definition of flop: Steven Bochco’s 1990 dud Cop Rock. This promo from WABC promised that the series was “a totally new form of television.”
As any student of television knows, ABC didn’t really deliver on that promise, seeing as the series now ranks as one of the worst of all time. But it did give us this bizarre opening title sequence starring Randy Newman:
There must have been something in the water when the networks were developing the 1990 season, because Cop Rock wasn’t the only musical series on the air.
NBC had Hull High—spoiler alert: it didn’t last either—which featured its own musical interludes. We don’t have a promo for the series, but the little number below gives you a taste of what Hull High had to offer viewers:
CBS gave the musical drama another shot in 2007 with Hugh Jackman starring in Viva Laughlin, an adaptation of the BBC’s popular Viva Blackpool, but American viewers quickly rejected the premise.
In 2009, Fox successfully returned the scripted musical back to TV with Glee, which proved to be a huge hit in its early seasons. This promo for the first season DVD shows exactly how the network was positioning the series to viewers in the early years. Shout out to Mrs. Shue!
Then there’s Carrie Underwood’s Sound of Music Live! which kicked off the most recent trend at NBC. Here’s how the network promoted last year’s live holiday special, which kicked off a new trend in broadcast network programming:
Tags: