re: Spinoff: What are your favorite/most perfect placement of songs in TV shows?

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”Oh Death" when Death is first introduced on the sidewalk.

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also outstanding.

It is certainly true that Miami Vice basically invented the idea of inserting popular music into television programs, but Supernatural perfected it.

There are so many amazing examples.

“The famous final scene“ by Bob Seger, played during the montage scene related to Kevin’s death.

“Renegade” in the shapeshifter/heist episode. The buildup in the intensity through that scene was amazing

“Cat’s in the Cradle” when Lucifer loses his son Jack. That song is so damn sad that it almost makes you feel “Sympathy for the Devil.“ (A song that, oddly enough, never appeared on the show).

As Northern Exposure was closing out its final episode: Our Town - Iris Dement.


Northern Exposure final scene.

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It is certainly true that Miami Vice basically invented the idea of inserting popular music into television programs, but Supernatural perfected it.

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Incorrect. Miami Vice invented it and perfected it. All others merely copied it.

Not necessarily my favorite, but might be a top contender was Family Ties - “At This Moment” by Billy Vera and the Beaters.

Backstory for the younglings:
I’m not much of a romantic but in the 80’s Michael J Fox starred in a show called Family Ties. Towards the end of the show’s run he falls in love with a girl and they kissed in the episode. Long convoluted romance crap episodes long etc. The kiss was the crescendo of that plot.

The song was written as a throw away song that wasn’t even that popular. But because of the show’s popularity, this song skyrocketed to fame for a while in the 80’s.

Was it the song that made the episode or was it the episode that made the song? Can’t hear the song without thinking about that stupid Family Ties episode.

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I respect your opinion, but disagree. Miami Vice was great. I watched it real-time as a kid. But it was ... limited ... in its music selection. For obvious reasons, the producers were constrained to using contemporaneous music. Their ability to match the perfect song to the scene was limited by the then-current music charts.

By contrast, Supernatural drew from many decades of outstanding music (though primarily about 20 years of the 70s and 80s). The producers were FAR more able to find the perfect song to convey the emotion of a given scene.

JMHO.

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Supernatural copied a formula that Miami Vice created. It may be good, idk, I've never watched the show, but it is imitation. Miami Vice wasn't "constrained" in their music choices, they deliberately chose contemporary pop music and artists. At the time, they spent the most money on music licensing by any show ever. Many of the hits on the show weren't hits until after the episodes aired. They also had artists writing new music for the show. You may like Supernatural more, but it didn't improve on something that Miami Vice invented and perfected decades before.

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But I have to admit that the a cappella version sung by the all-female cast in the high school musical “Fan Fiction“ episode really gets me. YouTube

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Damn it Hank you made me agree with you. That version in that context hits hard.

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Actually, I think that the first two (arguably three) seasons of Miami Vice were better television than the same seasons of Supernatural, though I also think that Supernatural was consistently-better through its entire run than was Miami Vice (which fell-off, sharply).

Hell, maybe I just like the music better.

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Miami Vice started going downhill after Michael Mann left at the end of season two. Season three is still very good, but four and five are wildly inconsistent.

The monte carlo scene in training day.

LINK

Downvote myself for posting a movie