Okay, now that we've covered the best bands on television, it's time to put our focus on those bands that, while maybe not "real," still had us tapping our feet, shaking our hips, and waving our hands in the air, almost, dare I say, as if we didn't care. Below are five that spring to mind, but I'm sure you guys can come up with a ton of others. Let's strike up the band, shall we?
Dr. Teeth and the The Electric Mayhem: Okay, let me see if I got this right. Floyd Pepper was the bass player, Janice was the guitarist, Zoot played saxophone, Animal played drums, and Dr. Teeth sang and played piano. I think that was the lineup of this insane band that "played" the opening and closing music on The Muppet Show, not to mention all their great performances during the show. I wonder how many current drummers got into it because of Animal? I'll bet quite a few.
The Nairobi Trio: Obviously, The Ernie Kovacs Show was before my time, but if you can catch clips of it on television or anywhere else, I encourage you to watch because he created some of the funniest moments to ever appear on the small screen (and he was a big influence on the look and feel of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, too). "The Nairobi Trio" was a band consisting of three men in monkey suits who played like mechanical toys, twisting and jerking as they played their instruments and occasionally bonking one another on the head. It's physical comedy, so I can't really do it justice here, and besides, that's what YouTube is for.
The Monkees: The Monkees are kind of iffy, because they were all real musicians, but only occasionally played their own instruments. Putting that aside, however, they were also gifted comedians and their show was incredibly funny. Their movie, Head, however, wasn't all that funny. At least, it wasn't "Ha ha" funny, but call me weird, I liked it anyway.
Cyanide: This band appeared only once, on The Simpsons episode "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge" as the band for Otto's ill-fated wedding to the young nanny who drives Marge to the insane asylum. They're a loving tribute to Poison, and they need a ride home.
Josie and the Pussycats: I'm not sure of the veracity of this claim, but according to Wikipedia, the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Josie and the Pussycats featured the first black female cartoon character. Well, she was probably the first black female cartoon character dressed as a cat, I'll give them that. The show was essentially Scooby-Doo with an all-girl band in place of the Scooby gang, but whatever, chicks rocking out is always cool, even if they are just cartoons.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
6-14-2006 @ 7:27AM
Peter said...
What about Ted's band on Scrubs? Or Kevin's on the Office? Or Dingos Ate Your Baby?
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6-14-2006 @ 7:30AM
reb said...
The Partridge Family will always be my favorite made up band. The music holds up beautifully, even today-- they're a bunch of well crafted pop songs. Plus, I'd leave today, if someone told me I could ride around the country in a school bus painted like a Mondrian painting and play gigs wearing crushed velvet and have adventures.
And for obscure, my favorite band is Pete Wrigley's The Blowholes, from the Adventures of Pete and Pete. They're in an episode called A Hard Day's Pete, which may be my favorite half hour of television ever. Little Pete never cared for music until he heard a garage band play his favorite song on the way to school. When he tries to find them again, all evidence of the band is gone, so he learns to play guitar and forms a band to help him find the song. The Blowholes feature Marshall Crenshaw on guitar and Syd Straw on bass. The end of the episode brings tears to my eyes every single time I see it.
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6-14-2006 @ 8:09AM
Mike said...
What about "The Archies"? Although I'm not a great fan, the cartoon group did have a string of hits in the "Bubble Gum Rock" era. They certainly had more of an impact than "Josie and the Pussycats".
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6-14-2006 @ 8:30AM
TAW said...
2 words-- Groovy Ghoulies!!
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6-14-2006 @ 8:43AM
BartmanDK said...
#1 Ted's band on scrubs is actuly a real band called The Blanks!! :D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blanks
http://www.theblankswebsite.com/
But what about DriveSHAFT? i think from what i have heard on Lost that they are pretty cool...
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6-14-2006 @ 8:58AM
Michael said...
Is it true or just one of those urban legends that the Monkees hoped Head would be a huge success so they could put on the next poster--From the people who gave you Head.
And the Monkees may not have been brought together for their musical ability to start with, but they did actually, by their third album, form into a real band...
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6-14-2006 @ 9:08AM
Tony said...
What about Zach's band on Saved By The Bell? :)
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6-14-2006 @ 9:09AM
Jordan Running said...
I have a soft spot for Hot Sundae, from the Very Special Episode of Saved by the Bell in which Jessie gets addicted to sleeping pills. The video is priceless:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VZoYEVAOsgw
There was also Zack Attack, from an episode featuring a dream sequence (dreams with hair like that count as nightmares) and a cameo by Casey Kasem:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0O7Nc6aUOhg
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6-14-2006 @ 9:53AM
Tammy said...
What? no mention of the Banana Splits!
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6-14-2006 @ 10:04AM
stephen said...
jem and the holograms
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6-14-2006 @ 10:16AM
Eric J said...
If you thing "Head" is weird, track down "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee" a special they did after their show went off the air. IIRC it features Frank Zappa as Satan.
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6-14-2006 @ 10:48AM
Preston said...
I would have liked it if those fake bands on TV would have performed live with their music instead of some background music playing. Especially The Partridge Family. David Cassidy was the only real performer on there--I'll say that those other people like Danny Bonaduce never played instruments or drums at all.
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6-14-2006 @ 11:15AM
reb said...
Preston, I'd take issue with you saying that David Cassidy was the only real performer on the Partridge Family. Shirley Jones was (and is) a well known singer (she played the female lead in the film version of Oklahoma), and she did some vocals on the records.
And for the Partridge Family not playing their own instruments, if you can cast a show with musically competent children under the age of 10 (alright-- perhaps Tracy wasn't all that competent, but Chris and Danny both were), more power to you. The fact that the kids weren't actually playing their instruments never bothers me a bit.
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6-14-2006 @ 11:33AM
Lampbane said...
First off, Jordan Running, they weren't sleeping pills, they were caffeine pills.
And hey, no mention of "Scab" from Home Movies? The "Rock Opera of Franz Kafka" rocks my socks any day.
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6-14-2006 @ 11:48AM
Emily said...
How could anyone overlook Jabber Jaw and the Neptunes?
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6-14-2006 @ 11:57AM
aspasm said...
One of my all time favourite fake TV bands was Zit Remedy from Degrassi Jr. High and Degrassi High. I also really loved the hospital air band on Scrubs. Their rendition of "More than a Feeling" and Turk's AWESOME rendition of "Poison" make me laugh hysterically every time I see them.
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6-14-2006 @ 12:53PM
Ryan said...
How about the bands from Emmit Otters Jugband Christmas?
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6-14-2006 @ 1:09PM
SwampYankee said...
I liked the Beets, from the Nick series Doug
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6-14-2006 @ 1:16PM
Mike K said...
One of my favorites was "Mystik Spiral" from Daria.
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6-14-2006 @ 2:58PM
emmitt said...
What about that puppet cowboy group that performed on the Barbara Mandrel show. From what I recall they were pretty good.
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