Breaking into Song: Television Musicals from Glee to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

If there is one chapter that I feel epitomizes the work, it is, oddly, the chapter on Cop Rock. Viewing this failed experiment from 1990 gave me new insight into television history and production values, even though that is my primary area of study. Indeed, the chapter sits alongside other things I’ve written that have at least problematized the idea of TV’s suggested “golden ages” that featured innovative or culturally significant programs are limited to certain time periods. There are oases and precedents that build to these shifts that haven’t always been properly examined. While Cop Rock was—and is—considered a bit of a joke, it was part of a larger trend in the 1990s when the broadcast spectrum was beginning to expand alongside what kind of programs might be viable. The year 1990 encompasses both Twin Peaks and Cop Rock, both of which were unexpected and innovative in ways that changed the landscape of television more broadly.