1 Buffy The Vampire Slayer
“Superstar” (2000)
Before you stake us for not picking “Once More, With Feeling” we should point out that Xena’s “The Bitter Suite” did the musical thang before Buffy, effectively starting a trend. And besides, “Superstar” is a brilliant episode which has so much fun you have to watch it over and over to appreciate just how clever it is. Taking a peripheral character – Danny Strong’s lovable loser, Jonathan – and suddenly making him the star of the show (with adjusted opening credits to match), “Superstar” throws the audience into a weird new world in which Jonathan is a superhero and nobody bats an eyelid until the end, when they figure out it’s all a spell. The fact the audience is aware of the shifted-universe jiggery-pokery and the characters aren’t is the masterstroke, as are the tiny details dotted around Sunnydale to show a world that’s fallen to the Cult of Jonathan. Later, the series would pull the same trick when it introduced Dawn.
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