Television

Television was a frequent target in Zappa's music, even though he made use of the medium to promote his music. He made a few appearances in TV shows and made references to TV series in his lyrics.

Favorite TV shows

Category:Favorite TV shows

TV Presenters, actors and comedians

• Category: TV Presenters
• Category: Actors
• Category:Comedians

Appearances in TV shows as guest, performer or actor

• Steve Allen
• Zappa wrote Dear Jeepers and Letter From Jeepers for horror TV show host Bob Guy, who played his character Jeepers.
• Zappa wrote the composition The Big Squeeze for a tv commercial for cough drops: Luden's Cough Drop Commercial
• Zappa wrote Boy Wonder I Love You for actor Burt Ward, who played Robin the Wonder Boy on the TV series Batman.
• Saturday Night Live
• What's My Line?
• Make Me Laugh
• Johnny Carson
• Zappa played a cameo role as a hunchback in Faerie Tale Theatre.
• He played a drug dealer in the Miami Vice episode "Payback".
• Zappa was a presenter for the Financial News Network at the end of the 1980s, start of the 1990s.
• Frank Zappa's Wild Wild East
• Ren And Stimpy (as the voice of the Pope)
• Duckman (his music was used in the first season)

Documentaries and TV concerts

See Category:Videography

References to television in Zappa's music

• Ask Dr. Stupid is a reference to Ren And Stimpy
• Be In My Video, a parody of MTV.
• Billy The Mountain: Jerry Lewis' telethons are referenced
• Brown Shoes Don't Make It: "TV dinner by the pool" and "Life's a ball, TV tonight".
• Call Any Vegetable on Just Another Band From L.A.: the American comedic duo Bob & Ray are mentioned
• Conehead, a reference to a sketch on Saturday Night Live.
• Crew Slut: The line "add water, makes its own sauce" is a reference to a dog food commercial for Gravy Train. "So call before midnight tonight" is a typical line from tv commercials.
• Debra Kadabra: "Turn it to Channel 13!"
• Dental Hygiene Dilemma: "It's just as if Donovan appeared on my very own TV set with words of peace, love and eternal cosmic wisdom".
• Disco Boy: "She's gonna fall for your line and feed you a box full of chicken delight!" (reference to the fast food product "Chicken Delight", well known thanks to the TV jingles)
• I'm The Slime
• It Can't Happen Here: "Just cook your TV dinner and make it."/"Oh, we're gonna get a TV dinner and cook it up".
• Jewish Princess and Massaggio Galore reference the yell Hi-ho, Silver! Away!, a phrase from "The Lone Ranger".
• Mr. Green Genes and Son Of Mr. Green Genes are based on the character Mr. Green Jeans from the children's show "Captain Kangaroo".
• No Not Now, the Thing-Fish version of You Are What You Is (The Track) and The Untouchables: the line "Book 'em Dano" is a reference to "Hawaii Five-O".
• One-Adam-Twelve is referenced on the Thing-Fish version of You Are What You Is (The Track).
• Outrage At Valdez was written for a TV documentary about the Exxon Valdez scandal.
• Penguin In Bondage: "This song suggests to the suggestible listener that the ordinary procedure, uh, that I'm circumlocuting at this present time in order to get this text on television."
• Promiscuous: "C-Span showed him, all dressed up"
• Theme From "Bonanza"
• This Ain't CNN
• Trouble Every Day: A response to the TV news coverage of the Watts Riots.
• We're Turning Again: "We can laugh at (...) the color TV"
• What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are?: "Wall-mounted TV screens".
• You Didn't Try To Call Me (1966 - Los Angeles): "I was still watching television"
• The title of Lumpy Gravy was based on Loma Linda Gravy mix.
• The scene in Stink-Foot where the poodle brings the slippers was a parody of a 1974 TV commercial for Dr. Scholl's foot spray.
• The character Thingfish in Thing-Fish is based on the charer "Kingfish" from the TV show Amos & Andy.
• The theme from The Twilight Zone is quoted in Jesus Thinks You're A Jerk
• The theme from The Twilight Zone and The Untouchables are quoted in Rhymin' Man.
• The title of The Untouchables is a reference to the 1950s TV crime series. The song itself also references "Felix the Cat", by demanding that John Poindexter returns to that show. Admiral Poindexter was a character on this animated TV series.
• The title of Night School is a reference to a TV project that Zappa was unable to fulfill.
• The version of The Torture Never Stops on The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life features a musical quote from "The Addams Family" and "I Love Lucy".
• "Battlestar Galactica" is referenced at the end of the Sharleena version on You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 3.
• Robert Charlebois' "Petroleum": "I don't wanna die eatin' peanuts and watchin' t.v."

Conceptual Continuity

• Ike Willis' frequent yell of "Hi-ho, Silver! Away!" is a reference to The Lone Ranger.
• Dano is a character from Hawaii Five-O
• Ike Willis sometimes imitated Count Floyd's howl on stage, much to Zappa's amusement.
• TV's are mentioned in Hunchentoot
• During the 1980s Zappa wrote some satirical songs about TV evangelists, most notably Jimmy Swaggart.