Cultural Influence of Gilbert and Sullivan - Television

Television

Gilbert and Sullivan, and songs from the operas, have been included in numerous TV series, including The Simpsons in several episodes, including "Cape Feare", "Deep Space Homer", and "Bart's Inner Child"; numerous Frasier episodes; Kavanagh QC, in the episode "Briefs Trooping Gaily", Angel in the fifth season episode "Conviction", where Charles Gunn becomes a good lawyer, and learns a lot of G&S, because it's "great for elocution"; numerous references in Animaniacs; the episode "The Cold Open" (1x02) of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; the episode "Atonement" of Babylon 5; in the Australian soap opera Neighbours, Harold Bishop often makes G&S references; references in the VeggieTales episodes "Lyle the Kindly Viking," "The Wonderful World of Auto-Tainment," "The Star of Christmas" (a Christmas special entirely devoted to spoofing G&S and their operas), and "Sumo of the Opera"; Family Guy referred to and parodied G&S a number of times, especially in season four (beside the examples named above and below, see "Patriot Games", which includes the song from The Sorcerer, "If you'll marry me"). In the UK series Lilies, in the 2007 episode "The Tallyman" both "When I Was a Lad" and "The Sun Whose Rays" are heard. Muppet Wiki has a G&S page. An episode of Car 54, Where Are You? has parodies of several G&S songs. In 1988, episodes of Australian soap opera Home and Away featured a school production of The Mikado. A second-season (1998) episode of the TV show Millennium titled "The Mikado" is based on the Zodiac case.

Gilbert and Sullivan references often appear in The West Wing. Some incidents include an episode-long argument over whether "He is an Englishman" is from H.M.S. Pinafore or The Pirates of Penzance, after one character's invocation of "duty," in the episode And It's Surely to Their Credit; President Bartlet's gift of a CD of The Yeomen of the Guard to his aide Charlie in Stirred; references to The Pirates of Penzance in Mandatory Minimums and Inauguration, Part I; and an excerpt from "A Wand'ring Minstrel I" in A Change Is Gonna Come. Character Sam Seaborn, the Deputy Communications Director, is the former recording secretary of the Princeton Gilbert and Sullivan Society. Creator Aaron Sorkin has stated that the characters' love for Gilbert and Sullivan is part of his attempt to avoid referring to current political and entertainment personalities and to set it in a "parallel universe."

The following are examples of references to some of the best-known G&S operas:

• The Mikado: In addition to those mentioned above, a "Magnum, P.I." episode is entitled "Let the Punishment Fit the Crime"; Larry David's show Curb Your Enthusiasm uses "Three Little Maids" from The Mikado as background music. The Frasier episode, "Leapin' Lizards," the Angel episode "Hole in the World", the Simpsons episode "Cape Feare", Alvin and the Chipmunks episode "Maids in Japan", and The Animaniacs Vol. 1 episode "Hello Nice Warners" all parody "Three Little Maids." A Muppet Show episode featured Rowlf the Dog and Sam the Eagle singing "Tit-Willow". In the 2010 episode "Robots Versus Wrestlers" of the TV sitcom How I Met Your Mother, an exchange concerns a gong described as "a 500-year-old relic that hasn't been struck since W. S. Gilbert hit it at the London premiere of The Mikado in 1885!"

• H.M.S. Pinafore: In the "Cape Feare" episode of The Simpsons, Bart stalls his would-be killer, Sideshow Bob, with a "final request" that Bob sing him the entire score of Pinafore. Similarly, the "HMS Yakko" episode of Animaniacs consists of pastiches of songs from H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance. A Pinky and the Brain song called Meticulous Analysis of History is set to the tune of "When I was a lad", while the "Lord Bravery" theme song in Freakazoid uses the tune from the chorus of "A British Tar". In Family Guy's episode 3.1, "The Thin White Line," Stewie imagines himself to be a sea captain and sings a pastiche of "My gallant crew" implying that he sleeps with his crew. In the film, Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, Stewie gives sex lessons by singing "I am the monarch of the sea" to illustrate rhythm. The scene is repeated in Family Guy episode 4.30, "Stu and Stewie's Excellent Adventure." A 1986 Mr. Belvedere episode, "The Play", concerns a production of H.M.S. Pinafore, and several of the songs are performed. The song "He is an Englishman" is referenced both in the title's name and throughout The West Wing episode "And It's Surely to Their Credit".

• Pirates: In addition to those already mentioned above, in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a poster from "The Pirates of Penzance" hangs on Matt Albie's (Matthew Perry) office wall. In Family Guy episode 4.11, "Peter's Got Woods," Brian Griffin sings "Sighing softly to the river," and in episode 10.16, "Killer Queen," Peter Griffin sings a rendition of the Major-General's Song. In a 1986 episode of the animated television adaptation of The Wind in the Willows entitled A Producer's Lot, several characters put on a production of Pirates. In the 1992 episode "The Understudy" of Clarissa Explains it All, the title character is chosen to understudy Mabel in a school production of Pirates and is unprepared when she must go on; a scene from The Mikado is also quoted.