The Five Craziest Musician Cameos on Sitcoms
Tom Jones joining Carlton for a round of “It’s Not Unusual” on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? That made all the sense in the world — along with a funky cover of Prince’s “Kiss,” Jones was reinventing himself for a new generation of fans after a long period in which he didn’t sniff Billboard’s Hot 100. But why would the world’s hottest music acts — in their primes! — want to otherwise cameo on sitcoms? It’s happened more than you’d think, though.
Here are five of the wildest examples…
Taylor Swift
Maybe Taylor Swift wasn’t TAYLOR SWIFT yet, but she was on the verge of releasing the iconic 1989 when she popped in for a cameo on New Girl. Swift was a fan, showing up on set with a head full of quotes from the show. Her part was small but memorable. “She had, like, a little monologue and delivered it perfectly,” Jake Johnson told Entertainment Weekly. “(Showrunner Liz Merriweather) gave her alternative jokes and lines, she delivered them all perfectly. It was frustrating!”
Merriweather agreed: “She kind of came and nailed it.”
Stevie Wonder
Maybe it wasn’t at the artistic height of his career, but Wonder was riding high on #1 hits “I Just Called to Say I Love You” and “Part-Time Lover” when he jammed with the Huxtables. It wasn’t just Wonder who made a splash either — his keyboard, capable of sampling Theo, Rudy and Vanessa, was a mid-‘80s technological miracle.
Questlove says the episode helped shape modern hip hop. “That, to me, was a very key moment,” he told Democracy Now. “That episode came on in 1985, so fast-forward 10 years later to producers that are just starting out, that will eventually become part of the new renaissance — like Just Blaze, J Dilla, 9th Wonder, these cats. A lot of their stories that I’ve heard were that they became interested in sampling culture having seen that Stevie Wonder episode.”
The Doobie Brothers
The Doobies were a year away from sweeping the Grammys when they took it to the streets on What’s Happening!!, a two-part episode about the evils of bootlegging concerts. Get that tape recorder out of your trenchcoat, Rerun — you should know better! (The episode also inspired one of the sitcom’s all-time classic lines, with Raj asking one of the band members, “Which Doobie you be?”)
“While TV sitcoms like that might have been taboo for any self-respecting rock band in the ’70s, being on the show did, crazily enough, endear the band to a whole new generation of fans,” wrote Michael McDonald in his memoir, What a Fool Believes.
Anthrax
Talk about taboo — why the heck would a self-respecting thrash band like Anthrax show up on Married… With Children? At least they broke a lot of the furniture while they were there. The episode was based on a real MTV contest in which viewer Lori Gutman won an Anthrax concert at her home. Chaos ensued when the band spray-painted a Jeep that Gutman had won while taking a two-man saw to the frame of the family home.
Gutman’s family was “pretty much up for anything,” guitarist Scott Ian said in an MTV Uncensored documentary. “I think we probably literally could have burned their house down — they wouldn’t have cared.”
The band has blurry memories of filming the episode, thanks to getting shit-faced with Ed (Al Bundy) O’Neill.
Prince
What was it about New Girl that brought impossible-to-book musical celebrities out of the woodwork?
“I had no idea why Prince had agreed to guest-star on New Girl,” confessed aforementioned showrunner Meriweather to Vulture. “I was told he loved the show, that it was one of the few shows he watched. How could that be true? We weren’t cool enough for Prince — we did an entire episode about someone leaving a wet towel in the bathroom.”
Prince even brought his own touches to the show, such as illuminating his face in a dark closet with a lighter instead of a flashlight. “Is this funnier?” he asked.
Hey, it’s Prince. You tell him it’s funnier.