yeah, the musical numbers are Family Guy's only redeeming quality in my mind. They're so spot on. It seems like more time and thought goes into crafting a song n' dance routine than goes into the entire remainder of the episode, right?

This has got to be the seven brides dance you're thinking of, right? That was one of the candidates for my scientific survey of the greatest dance routine ever filmed. But it couldn't compete with Hellzapoppin'.

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Yes, it's one of the best dance scenes ever, especially when coupled with the brawl afterwards. Using the springy planks as they do is genius.

Edited at 2008-03-05 11:27 pm (UTC)

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My favorite part of Shipoopi is the two little kids doing the dance near the end. I've always always ALWAYS been fascinated by them. Dang.

Also, Tommy Djilas was so dreamy.

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I know! I love when those two kids are promenading around and first you go "Damn the kids got skillz!" and then you go "Damn they're just so happy to be there!"

Such a fun number.

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Dude, I love Shipoopi!

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Don't get me wrong, I can sing you the musical backwards and forward because I love it. So I'm obviously not trying to step or suggest that there may be any ulterior motive for fixating on the marvel that is Shipoopi. But I was thinking, sometimes when I'm obsessing about something (like, say, a romantic prospect) I get this one song that reminds me of them in my head over and over and over and it drives me crazy. So to put far too fine a point on it, in light of the song lyrics, I must ask: You can has girl, iz hard to get?

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My twin brother was obsessed with The Music Man when we were small, so I saw that movie dozens of times, and yet I do not remember that number. Why is that?

Anyway, as for "Family Guy," I think it would be a far better show if it were just Brian and Stewie "buddy comedy" type adventures (which it sometimes is) and left out the rest of the family in its entirety.

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I am musical-ly challenged and don't have a lot of showtunes in my brain to get stuck on repeat, but I had to look this up yesterday to figure out what was going on. I watched about two minutes because I had to get out the door, and that was enough to have it burned into my brain all day long. (and then I watched it again, along with the Family Guy version, to make the impression last.) So now even little Caroline is walking around the house saying shipoopi, which is probably very close to being a toddler/pre-schooler's most fun word ever.

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Sadly, my first exposure to the song is also the one that sticks in my mind: The clip of Monica Lewinsky in high school dancing to it that was shown on "The Daily Show" ten years ago, during the impeachment hearings.

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"is that a thong? SHIPOOPI!"

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also, i'm just *so* pleased to have found something to give competition to the songs that lodge themselves in my neurons every time i watch even a little tiny part of Paint Your Wagon ! YAYS!

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On a related note, tonight's Simpsons episode was the parody of "My Fair Lady" and I thought of you. ;-)

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I love that episode. The entire episode was cripplingly stupid, right up until then, and the longer the sequence went on, the funnier it got. I kept saying, "I can't believe they're doing the whole thing!"

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Those links cheered me up immensely.

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My Music Man-related earworm is this wind band version of "76 Trombones" arranged by Leroy Anderson, in which he turned it into a massive mash-up with parts of "The Washington Post March", Bagley's "National Emblem March", and, at one point, the entire piccolo solo from "The Stars and Stripes Forever!" played as accompaniment for the main melody. Sam's band played it a while back. Once you hear it you cannot unhear it ever.

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Yeah, sometimes I have no idea how "Family Guy" is so popular with Millennials who have no idea what all its references are about. I find them, and occasionally Brian, Stewie and Adam West, the only good thing about the show, but more than enough to entertain. Still, if I were born in 1987 and had no idea who Voltron was or had never seen MUSIC MAN or had never heard of Bing Crosby, as most of them weren't ... what the hell would I enjoy about that show? The plots?

Ever see the episode of "Lateline" (Al Franken's short-lived sitcom) where they erroneously report that Buddy Hackett has died and a serious newscast gets interrupted by a big showing of "Shipoopi"?

Noah

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"Family Guy" would be great if they dumped all of the main characters and just said, "Here's a whole bunch of short parodies about things in popular culture. We used to try to weave them into the fabric of this other show, but they were easily the best thing about it, so we've just decided to skip trying to connect them with any plot. Not that we ever tried that hard, anyway."

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