Erin Giannini, PhD, has served as an editor and contributor at PopMatters and has published and presented work on television series such as Supernatural, Dollhouse, iZombie, and Angel. She is the author of Community: Going Back to School with Television's Best Sitcom (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025), Supernatural: A History of Television’s Unearthly Roadtrip (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) and Joss Whedon Versus the Corporation: Big Business Critiqued in the Films and Television Programs (2017). She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Giannini offers a breezy, informative history of TV musicals...The works discussed are wide-ranging and lovingly, meticulously analyzed. Aficionados of musicals will be entertained.

• Introduction Part 1: Music and TelevisionChapter 1: The Big Big Show: Variety Shows on TVChapter 2: Broadway in Your Living Room: Musical SpecialsChapter 3: The Mix Tapes: Synergy and SoundtracksChapter 4: How the Sausage Is Made: Fame, Smash, and the Backstage MusicalPart 2: With a Song in Their Hearts: When Television Goes MusicalChapter 5: “And you can sing along”: Buffy, Scrubs, and BeyondChapter 6: “Bloody Celestial Karaoke Jam”: Pop, Rock, and Everything In BetweenChapter 7: A Swing and A Miss: Cop RockChapter 8: “Got any song requests?”: Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist and GleeChapter 9: “It’s a lot more nuanced than that!”: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Subversive SongsChapter 10: When the Past Meets the Future: Schmigadoon! and When Musicals Go StreamingAppendix: EPISODES: The 20 Must-See Musical EpisodesBibliographyNotesIndexAbout the Author

Erin Giannini, PhD, has served as an editor and contributor at PopMatters and has published and presented work on television series such as Supernatural, Dollhouse, iZombie, and Angel. She is the author of Community: Going Back to School with Television's Best Sitcom (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025), Supernatural: A History of Television’s Unearthly Roadtrip (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) and Joss Whedon Versus the Corporation: Big Business Critiqued in the Films and Television Programs (2017). She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Giannini offers a breezy, informative history of TV musicals...The works discussed are wide-ranging and lovingly, meticulously analyzed. Aficionados of musicals will be entertained.

• Introduction Part 1: Music and TelevisionChapter 1: The Big Big Show: Variety Shows on TVChapter 2: Broadway in Your Living Room: Musical SpecialsChapter 3: The Mix Tapes: Synergy and SoundtracksChapter 4: How the Sausage Is Made: Fame, Smash, and the Backstage MusicalPart 2: With a Song in Their Hearts: When Television Goes MusicalChapter 5: “And you can sing along”: Buffy, Scrubs, and BeyondChapter 6: “Bloody Celestial Karaoke Jam”: Pop, Rock, and Everything In BetweenChapter 7: A Swing and A Miss: Cop RockChapter 8: “Got any song requests?”: Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist and GleeChapter 9: “It’s a lot more nuanced than that!”: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Subversive SongsChapter 10: When the Past Meets the Future: Schmigadoon! and When Musicals Go StreamingAppendix: EPISODES: The 20 Must-See Musical EpisodesBibliographyNotesIndexAbout the Author

Erin Giannini, PhD, has served as an editor and contributor at PopMatters and has published and presented work on television series such as Supernatural, Dollhouse, iZombie, and Angel. She is the author of Community: Going Back to School with Television's Best Sitcom (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025), Supernatural: A History of Television’s Unearthly Roadtrip (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) and Joss Whedon Versus the Corporation: Big Business Critiqued in the Films and Television Programs (2017). She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Giannini offers a breezy, informative history of TV musicals...The works discussed are wide-ranging and lovingly, meticulously analyzed. Aficionados of musicals will be entertained.

• Introduction Part 1: Music and TelevisionChapter 1: The Big Big Show: Variety Shows on TVChapter 2: Broadway in Your Living Room: Musical SpecialsChapter 3: The Mix Tapes: Synergy and SoundtracksChapter 4: How the Sausage Is Made: Fame, Smash, and the Backstage MusicalPart 2: With a Song in Their Hearts: When Television Goes MusicalChapter 5: “And you can sing along”: Buffy, Scrubs, and BeyondChapter 6: “Bloody Celestial Karaoke Jam”: Pop, Rock, and Everything In BetweenChapter 7: A Swing and A Miss: Cop RockChapter 8: “Got any song requests?”: Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist and GleeChapter 9: “It’s a lot more nuanced than that!”: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Subversive SongsChapter 10: When the Past Meets the Future: Schmigadoon! and When Musicals Go StreamingAppendix: EPISODES: The 20 Must-See Musical EpisodesBibliographyNotesIndexAbout the Author