History Main / BandEpisode

* ''Series/BigBangTheory'': In "The 2003 Approximation", Raj and Howard form the filk band Footprints on the Moon to bring some live music to the comic book shop. The episode depicts them writing their first song, getting feedback (mainly from Raj's girlfriend), nearly breaking up due to infighting, and getting back together before performing their first gig. Most listeners end up complaining that the song wasn't good for dancing. While Footprints on the Moon does appear four more times in the series, their first episode captures the arc of a typical band episode trope.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': The episode "[[Recap/PhineasAndFerbFlopStarz Flop Starz]]" is about the titular brothers making a band "Phineas and the Ferb-Tones" just because the idea of going through the life cycle of a band sounded fun. It's noted for the catchy song "Gitchy Gitchy Goo"

* ''WesternAnimation/Doug'' has an episode where Doug starts a band, playing the banjo. His friends decide to join one by one, culminating in most of the band being drums.

* One episode of ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' sees Sabrina, Valerie, and Harvey forming a music group to participate in a Battle of the Bands sponsored by the school. Unfortunately, they're not very good, so Sabrina whips up some magical "talent soda" that grants incredible musical ability. The inevitable AcquiredSituationalNarcissism arises, followed by the trio getting humiliated when the soda goes flat and loses its power. In TheStinger, Sabrina realizes one of the bottles is missing and wonders where it is...cue the guys of Music/TheBackstreetBoys finding and drinking it, which is [[BeenThereShapedHistory apparently how they became a success.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}} episode "Arthur & the Crunch Cereal Contest" Arthur forms a band to help him perform a new jingle for Crunch Cereal. After the group realizes that Arthur has nothing for them to play or work with they all decide to leave. Arthur later tries to come up with a song, but he soon hears one from D.W. and decides to use it and submit it.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In “[[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E22StevenAndTheStevens Steven and the Stevens]]”, Steven uses a [[TimeMachine time travel device]] to form a band with three duplicates of himself from the past to perform at the annual talent show (it makes sense in context). The original Steven proves to be so much of a control freak, leading to the other three Steven’s kicking him out of the band and replacing him with Amethyst. This leads to an all out brawl, involving more time travel and even more Steven duplicates, until the original decides to prevent himself from finding the time travel device in the first place. When he realizes how much chaos he caused, he has a HeelRealization and destroys the device, destroying all the duplicate Stevens ''and himself''. The surviving Steven (the one from just before all of this happens) goes on to perform at the talent show with the Crystal Gems instead, singing a song warning of the perils of time travel.

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* ''WesternAnimation/AngelaAnaconda'': In the episode "I Wanna Mold Your Band", Angela pitched the idea to her friends that they form a band to perform at the Mr Tasty Twirl's Ring My Bell contest, which everyone is opposed to because the last time she did (when they were babies), she wanted to name the band after her and decide on the first song. However, Angela convinces them to do it in various ways.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E14NewKidsOnTheBlecch" New Kids On The Blecch]] has Bart accepting an offer to form a boy band (called Party Posse) by a music producer called L.T Smash with Nelson, Ralph and Milhouse. They release a single which has Lisa concerned that the band is being used to send subliminal messages (which turns out to be true). They are eventually forcefully broken up when they are about to be satirised in [=MAD=] magazine.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': In “Steven and the Stevens”, Steven uses a time travel device to form a band with three duplicates of himself from the past to perform at the annual talent show (it makes sense in context). The original Steven proves to be so much of a control freak, leading to the other three Steven’s kicking him out of the band and replacing him with Amethyst. This leads to an all out brawl, involving more time travel and even more Steven duplicates, until the original decides to prevent himself from finding the time travel device in the first place. When he realizes how much chaos he caused, he has a HeelRealization and destroys the device, destroying all the duplicate Stevens ''and himself''. The surviving Steven (the one from just before all of this happens) goes on to perform at the talent show with the Crystal Gems instead, singing a song warning of the perils of time travel.

** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E14NewKidsOnTheBlecch New Kids On The Blecch]] has Bart accepting an offer to form a boy band (called Party Posse) by a music producer called L.T Smash with Nelson, Ralph and Milhouse. They release a single which has Lisa concerned that the band is being used to send subliminal messages (which turns out to be true). They are eventually forcefully broken up when they are about to be satirised in [=MAD=] magazine.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E1HomersBarbershopQuartet Homer's Barbershop Quartet]]" focuses on Homer's experience as a member of the Grammy winning barbershop quartet, The Be Sharps, with Barney, Apu, and Seymour. Initially riding on the success of their song "Baby on Board", the band experiences creative differences, most notably Barney dating a Japanese conceptual artist. After their second album ''Bigger than Jesus'' flops, they go their separate ways. They reunite at the end of the episode to perform a concert on the roof of Moe's tavern, with guest star Music/GeorgeHarrison snarkily commenting "it's been done".

** "[[Recap/SouthParkS4E8SomethingYouCanDoWithYourFinger Something You Can Do With Your Finger]]" has Cartman, in a bid to get $10 million, form a band called Fingerbang. They make it as far as one complement and an autograph before they decide that CelebrityIsOverrated and they break up.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E1HomersBarbershopQuartet Homer's Barbershop Quartet]]" focuses on Homer's experience as a member of the Grammy winning barbershop quartet, The Be Sharps, with Barney, Apu, and Seymour. Initially riding on the success of their song "Baby on Board", the band experiences creative differences, most notably Barney dating a Japanese conceptual artist. After their second album, titled "Bigger than Jesus" flops, they go their separate ways. They reunite at the end of the episode to perform a concert on the roof of Moe's tavern, with guest star George Harrison snarkily commenting "it's been done".

** The episode "Something You Can Do With Your Finger" has Cartman, in a bid to get $10 million, form a band called Fingerbang. They make it as far as one complement and an autograph before they decide that CelebrityIsOverrated and they break up.
** "Christian Rock Hard" has the four boys create a band called Moop, but they kick out Cartman because he wants to make Christian rock. Cartman forms his own Christian band, Faith +1, with Token and Butters, and competes with Moop to get to a platinum record. Cartman's band becomes much more successful as Moop gets caught up in a music piracy protest, but he gets a myrrh record, not a platinum record, and thus loses the bet on a technicality.
** The B-plot of "Band in China" has Stan make a new metal band, Crimson Dawn, to vent his frustrations with his annoying dad and Kyle being stuck in an ICE camp. Kenny, Butters, and Jimmy play as well. However, when they try to make a biopic about their band, it keeps getting censored to appeal to China. He [[CallBack briefly brings back Fingerbang]] to play it safer before abandoning the whole plan.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "Band Geeks", Squidward rallies the other citizens of Bikini Bottom to form their own band to upstage his arch-rival Squilliam. Despite many, many setbacks during practice, they ultimately succeed at achieving Squidward's dream. [[EarnYourHappyEnding And it is glorious]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The episode ''Homer's Barbershop Quartet'' focuses on Homer's experience as a member of the Grammy winning barbershop quartet, The Be Sharps, with Barney, Apu, and Seymour. Initially riding on the success of their song "Baby on Board", the band experiences creative differences, most notably Barney dating a Japanese conceptual artist. After their second album, titled "Bigger than Jesus" flops, they go their separate ways. They reunite at the end of the episode to perform a concert on the roof of Moe's tavern, with guest star George Harrison snarkily commenting "it's been done".

* ''WesternAnimation/CaspersScareSchool'': In the season 1 episode "Bands on the run", Casper and Jimmy try to form, a band for a talent show, but Casper inadvertently keeps scaring off any potential members. Eventually, Ra and Manta join them and they end up winning the contest.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': The episode "Flop Starz" is about the titular brothers making a band "Phineas and the Ferb-Tones" just because the idea of going through the life cycle of a band sounded fun. It's noted for the catchy song "Gitchy Gitchy Goo"

** In ''Don't Make Me Over'', the Griffins form a family musical group headlined by a post-extreme makeover Meg. Eventually the fame goes to her head and on the advice of Dr. Diddy, she becomes a solo act and a sex symbol, culminating in a scheduled performance on Saturday Night Live. After she loses her virginity to Jimmy Fallon on live TV, she ultimately decides to quit, but not before Peter beats Fallon up, albeit because he hates Fallon's acting.
** In ''Into Harmony's Way'', Peter and Quagmire form a folk duo called "Griffin and Quagmire". Though they experience initial success, Peter's antics irritate Quagmire to the point where he angrily quits during a live performance on Conan O'Brien's show. Peter ultimately returns to Quahog to apologize and reunite with his family before going to his tour bus and presumably blowing his brains out. with a gun.
** In ''The Boys in the Band'', Stewie and Brian form a children's folk duo called "Red Shirt, Blue Shirt". Soon after their initial success, Stewie's old flame Olivia butts in and takes over management of the band, ultimately replacing Stewie with herself. After Brian realizes how manipulative and destructive she is to their relationship, he quits, leaving her to run the duo with Vinny replacing Brian.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': In "Battle of the Bands", Anne, Sasha, and Marcy compete in the battle of the bands by forming their own band. Anne is lead singer and plays bass, Marcy plays drums, and Sasha plays electric guitar. However, Sasha gets rather bossy and dumps the band to form a solo act. However, she returns at the end of the episode.

* ''WesternAnimation/AngelaAnaconda'': In the episode "I Wanna Mold Your Band", Angela pitched the idea to her friends that they form a band to perform at the Mr Tasty Twirl's Ring My Bell contest, which everyone is opposed to because the last time she did (when they were babies), she wanted to name the band after her and decide on the first song. Angela convinces them to do it, however, in various ways.

* ''Series/UltramanEighty'': The episode "Operation Silent Tokyo" has Takeshi (80's human form, posing as a schoolteacher) starting a garage band with his class at his students' request. But this being ''Ultraman'', their band practice is interrupted by the monster Noiseler, who is attracted to noise and starts targeting Takeshi's band.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{SpongeBob SquarePants}}'': In "Band Geeks", Squidward rallies the other citizens of Bikini Bottom to form their own band to upstage his arch-rival Squilliam. Despite many, many setbacks during practice, they ultimately succeed at achieving Squidward's dream. [[EarnYourHappyEnding And it is glorious]].