Phantom-inspired TV Show Episodes and Stuff...

Alright, so this thread will be for posting information and stuff about TV episodes, commercials, etc. that are inspired by Phantom or have a Phantom character cameo, or whatever.

To get things started...

Show: Friday the 13th: The Series
Episode: Symphony in B#
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkK-3Gi6fuI
Summary: At the local concert hall, people are mysteriously being murdered, stabbed through the heart by a masked musician. In the meantime, a young male audience member falls head-over-heels for a pretty blonde violinist who plays there. However, things become strange when it seems that there may be a link between the violin player and the killings.

Overall, pretty standard 1990's SciFi Channel type television fodder. Unremarkable acting, even worse violin playing pantomime. However, the Erik figure does have a full-face deformity, as well as scarred hands, wears a formal tails tuxedo and lurks about in the concert hall with his base of operations in a candle-lit lair. Plot is kinda 'meh', but still worth a watch, especially if you liked shows like 'Forever Knight'.

~Madame~

I've seen Phantom mentioned twice in The Simpsons and once in Family Guy. It was pretty funny, my mum and I was watching it and I got all excited and was like "Haha, look at that" (It was only showing a poster for Phantom of The Opera in the background but I spotted it, actually half a mask to be exact). My mum didn't see it so she didn't get it at all.

Watching "Seinfeld" as we speak, and I was amused to see that The Majestic appears in an episode.

Background is that George and his fiancé have a friend of hers visiting. He is the wig master of "Joseph and the amazing....". Kramer pleads him to get to try on the dreamcoat from he show, and steps by the theatre. Of course you have to be a Phantom nerd to appreciate the irony of The Majestic being one of the few Broadway theatres with an ever-running musical. Amusing that they picked THAT theatre of all...

Wishbone had really cute episode of Phantom, with Wishbone as most adorable Raoul ever - and no, I´m no Raoul hater - and lovely 19th century Paris. Too bad there was too much modern-day stuff with boring kids.

Night Court had an awesome episode, "A Guy Called Phantom". Love it. My sister is a Night Court fan, she showed me the episode and it was hilarious. He even abducts his co-worker.

ML6 wrote:Night Court had an awesome episode, "A Guy Called Phantom". Love it. My sister is a Night Court fan, she showed me the episode and it was hilarious. He even abducts his co-worker.

Used to watch that show a lot. Ironically the character that Dan(the Phantom) kidnaps is a regular series character named Christine.

MasqPhan wrote:

ML6 wrote:Night Court had an awesome episode, "A Guy Called Phantom". Love it. My sister is a Night Court fan, she showed me the episode and it was hilarious. He even abducts his co-worker.

Used to watch that show a lot. Ironically the character that Dan(the Phantom) kidnaps is a regular series character named Christine.

Oh yeah! I forgot that her name was Christine. Seriously. My sister loves that show. I'm trying to think of other things that allude to Phantom. Another would be Are You Afraid of the Dark 'The Last Waltz' and Goosebumps 'Phantom of the Auditorium'.

There was a Babylon 5 episode that to me was kind of Phantom inspired. Ironically it starred Anthony Crivello as the mysterious bad guy. There is this unknown villain lurking in the shadows who knows his way through the maze of passageways. He kills a few people and leaves hand written notes behind. He also carries around a ballerina music box with him throughout the show. Never figured that one out.
At one point in the episode he even wears a mask of sorts. Haven't watched it in at least a year so I know I'm forgetting a few details.

One of my favorites has to be the Animaniacs short "Dot's Entertainment", which lampoons ALW and his work and so naturally has several PotO references. (The song "Don't Shout at Us, Mr. Webby" has only become more relevant in the wake of LND, I find.)

The Night Court episode came out when I was just starting to get into the whole Phantom thing, so that's a nice piece of nostalgia. John Laroquette was clearly having the time of his life hamming it up in that one.

~LCD

In several episodes of "The Nanny", Maxwell Sheffield makes several references to Andrew LLoyd Webber in general. In one episode, Fran is trying to console him saying she liked one of his productions better than "Cats". He asks in response "Really? What about The Phantom of the Opera?"

And she doesn't respond.

ML6 wrote:

MasqPhan wrote:

ML6 wrote:Night Court had an awesome episode, "A Guy Called Phantom". Love it. My sister is a Night Court fan, she showed me the episode and it was hilarious. He even abducts his co-worker.

Used to watch that show a lot. Ironically the character that Dan(the Phantom) kidnaps is a regular series character named Christine.

Oh yeah! I forgot that her name was Christine. Seriously. My sister loves that show. I'm trying to think of other things that allude to Phantom. Another would be Are You Afraid of the Dark 'The Last Waltz' and Goosebumps 'Phantom of the Auditorium'.

When I was a kid, my family used to watch Night Court. I remember that episode. If I remember correctly, John Larroquette did a fairly good parody phantom. Kind of... comically melodramatically elegant. I had thought he might've been a good choice for one of the managers in the movie. He's currently featured in the Broadway revival of "How to Succeed..." with Daniel Radcliffe.

I could've sworn there was an episode of The Simpsons (probably a Halloween special?) in which one of Marge's gravelly-voiced sisters had a tattoo on her arm of Lon Chaney as the Phantom with a heart around it, and she looks at the tattoo and does this sort of purring thing!

And, I recently finished watching a Broadway-themed episode of "South Park" that featured a brief clip of the Phantom and Christine in the boat on the way to the lair. Not sure if I should spoil it, though I already did in the Broadway/US tour thread. There were a number of appearances by a South-Park-ified ALW too. (Although, after beating us over the head with LND, I don't think ALW really belongs in the "Musicals are all about subtext!" club any more. ) But it mostly featured Wicked and something Sunday in the Park with George-inspired in a twisted way. And Stephen Sondheim. So, yeah, some typically sick South Park stuff, but it was well worth sitting through some of the dumber parts to see a bunch of Broadway musicals get spoofed... including Les Mis and Spider-Man. (But there was a much better Les Mis spoof in a Thanksgiving episode of South Park a few years ago. The one where they have to do a Thanksgiving pageant/play, and they decide to do a musical adaptation of The Miracle Worker. I won't spoil any more of it. And, of course, "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut" is loaded with Les Mis references, and features Howard McGillin as the voice of Gregory, the blond prettyboy who just transferred from a ritzy private school... sometimes I think of that as sort of like Raoul's Revenge.)

I watched some of "High School Musical" (the first one) a while ago when it aired on TV, just out of morbid curiosity ( ) and there was a Phantom reference... one of the kids said that ever since his mom saw Phantom of the Opera, she keeps a picture of Michael Crawford on the refrigerator to help her stick to her diet.

Not TV... but there was a Phantom-y thing on A Prairie Home Companion a year or two ago... I wish I could remember when, and that I had looked up the transcript right after it aired. It wasn't too exciting in terms of actual Phantomy content, but Garrison Keillor is such a brilliant storyteller, and it was nice to be caught by surprise. It was one of those long convoluted stories... I forgot most of it, but there was a guy who ended up with a job sprinkling snow on theater productions, and he develops an obsession with a soprano. I'm not sure if I remember right, but he might've been scarred in a fire or something like that, which eventually led to the behind-the-scenes job, but maybe I'm just so used to the burn-or-acid plot device from movie adaptations of POTO that my memory has started automatically plugging it into any half-remembered Phantom reference... It was just one of those amusing, quick little tangents Garrison puts in, no actual mention of the word "Phantom," but the implication was obvious.

Alyssa wrote:In several episodes of "The Nanny", Maxwell Sheffield makes several references to Andrew LLoyd Webber in general. In one episode, Fran is trying to console him saying she liked one of his productions better than "Cats". He asks in response "Really? What about The Phantom of the Opera?"

And she doesn't respond.

Hahaha, I love their constant ALW references. Early in the episodes he even has a Phantom poster hanging in his office, to the left of the door. But as the point is that he's jealous of ALW, it probably didn't make sense to have such an obvious ALW product there. The poster didn't last too many episodes...

(Although, after beating us over the head with LND, I don't think ALW really belongs in the "Musicals are all about subtext!" club any more.)

Since no one's mentioned them in this thread yet, here's three:

An episode of The Real Ghostbusters called "A Fright at the Opera," while actually about the spirits of Valkyries haunting an opera house, contains references to and a cameo by the Phantom.

An Oswald the Rabbit cartoon called "Spooks" contains a direct parody of The Phantom of the Opera. This one I really enjoy!

The Batman: The Animated Series episode "Birds of a Feather" is not overtly Phantom-related, but it is about villain The Penguin, scorned for his freakish looks, falling in love with a beautiful socialite. He believes her love has redeemed him and that society can accept him, but when he finds out he's being used, he kidnaps her and carries her off to a confrontation in an opera house, complete with sewers, boats, and falling chandeliers.

They can all be found on youtube.