IGN's Top 10 TV Show Bands
The...@gmail.com
IGN's Top 10 TV Show Bands
>From Buffy to My Name Is Earl and Lost, we pick our favorite fictional
rockers.
US, November 8, 2006 - Music and television. Two great tastes that can
go great together, or, at the very least, cause some inadvertent
hilarity. For various reasons, many shows throughout the years have had
the occasion to either introduce a character who's part of a band, or
have some of the regular characters suddenly form a band, and the
results have been mixed to be sure. And yet, whether good or bad,
clever or ill-advised, knowingly bad or completely clueless, it's hard
not to be entertained when your favorite character, be it on a sitcom
or drama, is suddenly on stage and rocking out... Or just looking and
sounding ridiculous. Keeping that in mind, we've complied a list of 10
of our favorite bands from TV shows.
Please note that we purposely left out bands that were central to a
show's core concept, such as the Monkees or the Partridge Family,
instead focusing on shows where the inclusion of a musical performance
wasn't so likely. If there's a band or musical group from a TV show
that we didn't mention that's a favorite of yours, let us know and
we'll include it in an edition of the IGN TV Mailbag.
Now, without further ado, here are IGN's Top 10 TV Show Bands!
#10: Phish Tahko
Series: My Name Is Earl
Earl Hickey, before he discovered the concept of karma and reformed his
wicked ways, didn't always do the smartest things. So it wasn't exactly
inspired for him, along with his brother Randy and their friend Ralph,
to form a band, seeing as how they weren't all that talented. However,
that didn't really concern them, as all they really wanted to get out
of it was sex from some random, local girls, and in that respect, the
band was a success (though that doesn't work out as well for Earl, who
ends up sleeping with Ralph's considerably older mother instead). Their
first show was Phish Tahko's one and only performance, until the day
Earl decides to make amends to Tom, the old man they'd originally
picked as their lead singer, only to kick him out. For one night only,
the reunited Phish Tahko once again rocks the socks off the Crab Shack,
as they do a less than memorable, but certainly energetic, version of
The Edgar Winter Group's "Frankenstein." And yes, we are aware -- as
we're sure the Earl producers are -- that, as an instrumental piece,
"Frankenstein" requires no lead singer.
#9: The Lubbock Babes
Series: Just the Ten of Us
Not exactly a stellar show, Just the Ten of Us was a Growing Pains
spinoff, in which Mike Seaver's high school coach moved to a new town
with his wife and eight kids. The show involved Coach Lubbock teaching
at an uptight all-boys Catholic school, and the shenanigans involved
when his four older daughters become the first girls to attend. In a
rather blatant ratings ploy, nearly all the other characters and
storylines (sorry, younger siblings!) were pushed aside in the show's
later episodes, as those aforementioned four daughters, most of whom
were quite attractive, and despite their constant squabbling and vastly
different personalities, inexplicably formed a singing group together.
Suddenly, several episodes were focused around the group, called -- you
guessed it -- The Lubbock Babes, as they performed at local venues,
covering songs like "Born to be Wild" and "Rock Around the Clock." It
made almost no sense for the characters involved, seemed utterly
arbitrary, and thus was extremely amusing, in a bad '80s sitcom way.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#8: Dingoes Ate My Baby
Series: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Daniel "Oz" Osbourne was the ultimate in laid back cool. Here was a guy
who wasn't fazed in the slightest when he learned he was living in a
town plagued by vampires, nor even when he himself was bitten by a
werewolf, and thus became one himself. Plus, you give that guy a bass
guitar and he could rock like nobody else in Sunnydale. Thanks to The
Bronze, a local club the characters frequented, many bands were
featured on Buffy, but none more so than Oz's band, Dingoes Ate My
Baby. Many a night Dingoes played for appreciative fans, and they also
managed to be present for various vampire and zombie attacks throughout
the years. Unlike other shows that suddenly have a character decide to
form a group, Oz was actually introduced via his band, and remained a
member until he fled town due to werewolf/girlfriend-related problems.
One wonders if lead singer Devin and the other members of Dingoes were
able to easily find a replacement.
#7: DriveSHAFT
Series: Lost
"You All Everybody!" Come on everybody, sing along! When not exploring
hatches, polar bears, and other assorted mysteries of the island, the
hit series Lost has ensured that all of us watching can break out in
the chorus of DriveSHAFT's big hit, as we are humorously reminded of
the song from time to time. Bass player Charlie is of course one of the
castaways on the series, but as we've seen in flashbacks, his life
beforehand was a VH1 Behind the Music episode in the making. Charlie
and his brother formed DriveSHAFT, and then squandered their talent and
brief success by falling hard into a heroin fueled life, as they dealt
with everything from the embarrassment of dressing up like babies in a
television commercial, to their failure to create another hit. But what
a hit "You All Everybody" was, becoming so successful that it crossed
over into Lost producer JJ Abrams' other series, Alias, where superspy
Sydney Bristow and her friends listened to it at a party.
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#6: Frozen Embryos, AKA Between Names
Series: My So-Called Life
Tino was a mythical figure on the earnest teen drama My So-Called Life,
who was often mentioned, but never seen, in the tradition of Vera on
Cheers. However, we knew that he was in a band with Angela Chase's
would-be love, Jordan Catalano, that went by the memorable name of
Frozen Embryos. We finally got to see the Embryos in the episode "On
the Wagon," though only after Tino had quit of course. With the band in
need of a new lead singer, Angela's friend Rayanne joined up. At the
same time, Jordan had pointed out that since Tino had named the band in
the first place, he felt a new moniker was needed. Unfortunately, the
woman who introduced them on stage misunderstood Jordan's statement of
fact as a band name, and so Between Names played their first show.
Rayanne then suffered from some truly dreadful and embarrassing stage
fright, which ended with her running off stage. Jordan stepping up and
taking over the vocals on a cover of The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated"
was a nice moment for the often flaky character, and a preview of Jared
Leto's modern day success with his real-life band, 30 Seconds to Mars.
#5: The Blowholes
Series: The Adventures of Pete & Pete
The Adventures of Pete and Pete was one bizarre show, and so
appropriately, the band assembled by one of the main characters was
also appropriately bizarre. This very eccentric family comedy focused
on two young brothers, both named Pete. The series used music in a
major way, from the songs provided throughout the series by alternative
group Polaris, to guest appearances by everyone from Michael Stipe, to
Iggy Pop and Luscious Jackson. On the episode "Hard Day's Pete," Little
Pete's obsession with a song he hears one time (by Polaris, naturally)
leads him to form his own band in order to recreate it. That band is
The Blowholes, and Pete is joined in the oddball lineup by a friend
from school who has prematurely been able to grow some serious
muttonchops; a local meter man; and even the uber-nerdy math teacher,
Ms. Fingerwood, who Pete says may have a head, "filled with numbers,
but her veins throb with gasoline." The Blowholes perform songs with
names like "Surfin' Bum, Surfin' Fun" and the Zeppelin-inspired
"Marmalade Cream", before Pete is triumphantly able to recall all of
his beloved favorite song, "Summerbaby."
#4: The Brady Six, AKA The Silver Platters
Series: The Brady Bunch
Not quite as much of an "official" band as others on this list (on the
show that is; in real life they'd go on to release albums and tour),
this singing sextet holds a special place to the many, many people who
grew up on this blissfully upbeat, classic show. Greg, Marcia, Peter,
Jan, Bobby and Cindy might have their squabbles, but that didn't mean
they couldn't put aside those differences in order to take to the stage
in '70s attire, while belting out cheesy but catchy songs like "It's a
Sunshine Day (Everybody's Smiling)" and "Keep On." Though they went
through a couple of name changes, still the kids kept on finding the
occasional reason to perform. Perhaps their most memorable performance
was the song "Time to Change," from the episode "Dough Re Mi," in which
Peter gets over the discomfort and embarrassment over his changing
voice by having it incorporated into both a Brady song and another
tried but true Brady Life Lesson.
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#3: Creation
Series: Freaks and Geeks
This wonderful high school set series was a warts and all look at the
lives of some average kids, and had one of the most realistic looks at
what a bunch of high school kids forming a "garage band" (or in this
case, basement band) is often really like - In short, they sucked. Of
course most of the members of Creation could care less, not so much
invested in actually performing songs well as much as they liked
looking cool and pretending to be rock stars. The exception though was
drummer Nick, who had actual aspirations to be a musician. This put him
into conflict with his friends on the episode "I'm with the Band," when
he dared point out that their songs didn't actually sound good and they
might need to actually practice playing a song more than once in order
to improve. This led to the temporary breakup of the band, and Nick's
sad attempt to join a legitimate group, who were not so impressed by
this high school kid's talent level. By the end of the episode Creation
was back together, and while it was clear that Freaks and Geeks did not
exist in a universe where they were headed for success, at least it
seemed they'd have a good time not getting there.
#2: Cold Slither
Series: G.I. Joe
Cobra tried a lot of different ways to take over the world: replacing
prop rockets on the roofs of a restaurant chain with real rockets...
Destroying money... Weather domination... But one of their most amusing
plans involved using the power of rock! To that end, they took their
most band worthy agents, The Dreadnoks (we hear Crock Master and Wild
Weasel were jealous they weren't asked), and molded them into the band
Cold Slither, who had subliminal messages built into their music to
control their audience. Who can forget the epic lyrics from Cold
Slither's self-titled song, which went, "We're Cold Slither, you'll be
joining us soon! A band of vipers playin' our tune! With iron fists and
a reptile hiss, we shall roar!"
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#1: Zack Attack
Series: Saved by the Bell
Let's face it, how can you not make the number one choice the band that
rocked America with the smash hit, "Friends Forever"? Saved by the Bell
is a remarkable show, because we all know it's bad, we all know it's
cheesier then a slice of cheddar, and yet we love it. In a storyline,
which, like many on this show, only existed to further the plot of an
episode or two, and then was never mentioned again, Zack and the gang
suddenly had their own band, called, of course, Zack Attack. The first
time we see Zack Attack, in the episode "The Last Dance," Jessie is the
lead singer, and the next time we see them, in the episode,
"Rockumentary," she's not even present, and Kelly's taken her place.
But hey, who needs continuity? The important thing is that
"Rockumentary" especially is a camp classic, as we see Zack's dream
that Zack Attack becomes a huge, smash success with their horrible,
clearly lip-synched songs. Terrible costumes and terrible music make
for some great entertainment, as they sing unbelievably goofy songs
like "Did We Ever Have a Chance?", "Love Me Now" and of course, the
sublimely ridiculous "Friends Forever." Any band that has Slater on
drums and Screech on keyboards is destined for great things, that much
is for sure.
Torrey M. Spears
The...@gmail.com wrote:
> http://uk.tv.ign.com/articles/744/744722p2.html
>
> IGN's Top 10 TV Show Bands
> >From Buffy to My Name Is Earl and Lost, we pick our favorite fictional
> rockers.
Dr. Funke's 100% Good Time Family Band Solution says hello.
And... "Teamocil!"
-- TMS
David E. Powell
(Real) Ghostbusters also did an episode where they played jazz. I also
can't forget the classical music that characters were always playing on
Star Trek: The Next Generation.
I haven't even brought up the Ninja Turtles yet.
Rowan Hawthorn
> Cold Slither owned. Did the Flintstones have a band they played in?
Not that I recall, although Barney Rubble banged a pretty mean piano on
a couple of episodes. Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm did the duet thing during
the '60s show, though, and had a band with some of their high school
friends in a '70s(?) spin-off.
--
Rowan Hawthorn
"Occasionally, I'm callous and strange." - Willow Rosenberg, "Buffy the
Vampire Slayer"
Dead Walrus
--
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http://www.mp3sugar.com/?friend=GiantPinkBunny
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CrossfaceWalls
Dead Walrus wrote:
> Where are "the Monkees" and "the Partridge Family"? Both had hits.
The article said they intentionally left them out because of the fact
they were real bands.
Rob
"CrossfaceWalls" <Crossfa...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1163116183.2...@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Then shouldn't the Brady Six also be left out?
And I'm wondering how Zach Attack beat out it's partner show California
Dreams on a list of TV bands. California Dreams was pretty much an entire
series of Zach Attack.
Don Sample
"Rob" <robe...@gmail.com> wrote:
What the article actually said was:
Please note that we purposely left out bands that were central
to a show's core concept, such as the Monkees or the Partridge
Family, instead focusing on shows where the inclusion of a
musical performance wasn't so likely.
Not that they left them out because they were "real bands."
--
Quando omni flunkus moritati
Visit the Buffy Body Count at <http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/>
Andrew Ryan Chang
>Dr. Funke's 100% Good Time Family Band Solution says hello.
Seconded. Also, Ted's band (aka "The Worthless Peons") from
"Scrubs".
--
"corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places
will follow, and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working
on the prejudices of the people until wealth is aggregated in a few hands
and the Republic is destroyed." -- Abraham Lincoln, Nov 21, 1864
lab~rat >:-)
>http://uk.tv.ign.com/articles/744/744722p2.html
>
>IGN's Top 10 TV Show Bands
>>From Buffy to My Name Is Earl and Lost, we pick our favorite fictional
>rockers.
What about Rockstar Supernova? The Monkees?
--
lab~rat >:-)
Do you want polite or do you want sincere?
Kevrob
> On 9 Nov 2006 10:44:51 -0800, The...@gmail.com puked:
>
> >http://uk.tv.ign.com/articles/744/744722p2.html
> >
> >IGN's Top 10 TV Show Bands
> >>From Buffy to My Name Is Earl and Lost, we pick our favorite fictional
> >rockers.
>
> What about Rockstar Supernova? The Monkees?
> --
The article stolen by the OP explicitly excluded bands from shows that
revolved around a band.
One more to consider: Scrantonicity, Kevin's band from the U.S. version
of The Office.
Kevin (not the one with the band)