While the idea of infusing a weekly TV series with a Broadway musical ethos isn't exactly a new one--think Randy Newman's ambitious Cop Rock--it became something of a turn-of the-century television mini-trend. But few have reached as far--or succeeded--like this November 2001 episode of Fox Network's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Penned by series creator-producer Joss Whedon and performed by Sarah Michelle Gellar and cast, it's a loving, loopy musical pastiche that takes potshots at everything from Andrew Lloyd Webber to alt-rock. Paralleling the show's lovable pop culture tweaking, the musical styles here (the episode's musical conceit is a curse visited upon Buffy's hometown of Sunnydale) range from a patent footlight chorus of demons being interrupted by Gellar's hard-rocking stake thrusts on Going Through the Motions to Spike the Vampire's goth-metal complaint Rest in Peace, with everything from parking tickets and mustard stain removal to climactic duels with the supernatural getting the Broadway send-up. Also includes strong orchestral score-suites from three other episodes, as well as Whedon and wife Kai Cole's demo for Something to Sing About. --Jerry McCulley