TV has many great moments, involving laughter, tears, sound and fury and one of the areas that best epitomizes this is the TV dance sequence. What are your favorite TV dance sequences? Two of mine:

*From My Name is Earl, when Earl Hickey break-danced at Joy and Crab Man's wedding, it was hilarious.

*From this week's Dancing With the Stars, Drew Lachey and Cheryl Burke's freestyle routine to "Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy" was energetic, fun and just plain sexy.

Chat about your favorite TV-related dance moments from any show right here. No phone votes necessary.

Heh. The first thing I thought of when I saw this was Carlton in Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Angel's Spaz!Dance in season 1 (which I subconsiously imititate whenever I want to goof around). I can't listen to It's Not Unusual without "going Carlton". And don't even get me started on the Carlton and Will dance in Las Vegas.

I also remember this musical-ish episode of Polular which was just faboulous and outragous with the crazy dancing.

You can't talk about dancing on TV without mentioning the infamous "Routine" from Friends, when Ross and Monica make giant fools of themselves at Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve. Funniest. Dance. Ever.

Second place: Robert and Amy's first dance at their wedding on Everybody Loves Raymond: doing the robot to "A Little Less Conversation". Can't hear that song without picturing the Barones getting their funk on.

I'm immediately reminded of "Malcolm in the Middle" in which Lois was taking ballroom dancing or some such mess, and at one session looked stunning and too graceful for her own good on the floor (only to later watch the tape playback with the family and realize how clumsy she really looked, thereby killing a grander-than most delusion).

This list would not be complete without Elaine's, "dry heave set to music," from Seinfeld. I also enjoyed the Time Warp routine from The Drew Carey Show.

Robert and Amy's wedding dance to "Satisfy Me" by Elvis. So spontanious, untraditional and whimsical; you could tell those two were really happy together and wanted to enjoy this moment on their own terms. Made me really happy for those characters.

I loved "The Routine" from Friends. Drew Carey kind of overdid it with the production numbers but the Rocky Horror and Five O'Clock World ones were great. And from Dancing with the Stars, Jerry and Anna dancing to "Celebration" decked out in polyester and 'fros - AWESOME.

That dance was the very first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the thread title! That was hilarious.

I loved in Frasier the dance Niles and Daphne do in the episode ‘Moon Dance’ to convince Maris' snooty friends that they were together. When Jane Leeves kicked her leg up onto David Hyde Pierce's shoulder, I was seriously impressed.

I also have to mention Torvill & Dean leading the various celebrities and their partners in a group ice dance to 'Viva Las Vegas’ the other week on Dancing With Ice (UK) a couple of weeks back. I've never ice-skated in my life, but it just looked like so much fun to do. John Barrowman's dances on that show were all great too IMO, but I'm still fuming about him going out, so I won't say anymore.

And on the last series of Strictly Come Dancing, I adored Zoe Ball and Ian Waite's dance to ‘America' from West Side Story after they'd just missed out on going through to the final two. Even though Ian slipped at one point, I loved its energy. And it looked all the better compared to the travesty of Colin Jackson and Erin Boag's muppet dance that followed it.

I immediately thought of the (six-minute long!) dance sequence from the Moonlighting episode "Big Man on Mulberry Street." That's the episode where Maddie finds out David used to be married and she has a dream about his life in NY - hence, the dance sequence. Bruce Willis looks a little silly, but Sandahl Bergman is great, and it ends with Maddie and David kissing, so no complaints. Plus, it was such a creative way to show Maddie's musings about what his wife was like.

I loved The Routine on Friends. I love it when the Gellar sibs act so stupid and sibling like. It reminded me of something dumb that me and my sisters would have done as kids.

Stepping is like dancing, no? On A Different World, they had this stepping competition and it was awesome. Man I need to see that ep again.

Scrubs. Turk. "Poison."

That is all.

Kyle & Max's first date on Living Single. They did a variety of dances, including tango and salsa.

I have a problem with the whole serial-rapist theme in X-Files episode "The Postmodern Prometheus", but I thought it was plain adorable when Mulder and Scully danced at the Cher concert at the end. They looked really cute and all happy and giddy. I think that might just be my favourite TV dance sequence.

I also loved all that weird dancing on Twin Peaks, like when the dwarf would dance around, or the Leland/Maddie dance scene... *shudder*! It wasn't pretty, but it was brilliantly eerie!

Another eerie dance sequence was the one in Dynasty's season 4 when Joan Collins square danced for a really, really long time in some sleazy bar in order to convince this retarded old cowboy to sell her his oil wells. Hilarious! And it seemed to go on forever! It was only topped by her singing "See what the boys in the backroom will have" to said cowboy, but that's for another thread.

For some reason, Steve's "Urkel Dance" from Family Matters cracked me up at the time. I also loved the Dancing Baby and Ally McBeal dancing to "Hooked on a Feeling". And I don't care how many times I see the Seinfeld ep, "The Little Kicks" (and I've seen it a lot), I always crack up at Elaine's "dancing".

ETA: Oh, I forgot another one of my more recent favorites. The ep of Everybody Loves Raymond where Robert and Judy go dancing in a club and everyone, including Robert, starts doing the Electric Slide. Love that scene.

I too absolutely loved the PMP dance sequence, too, Nofret. Whenever I hear "Walking in Memphis," I think of that scene. I heard an interview with Cher once--she said that Chris Carter had approached her to do the song and at the time, her career (as such, YMMV) was in the pits and she didn't want to do any TV. She said she regretted not doing it herself ever since.

For dance scenes, I still think one of the sexiest, hottest dances was the one between Jack and Irina last season on "Alias." It was really more of a fancydress sway that moved to a standing makeout session but it was superhot. And not at all diminished by the fact that he shot her in the head at the end. Nope, not at all.

Does any dance sequence between Bugs Bunny (in or out of drag) and Elmer Fudd count?

Also from ELR, the episode where Ray and Debra spend a snowy, electricity-less night at Frank and Marie's. Eventually they all demonstrate their dance moves; with Ray it's an awkward arms-out lean thing, and with Robert it's a bizarre freeform spazzout that Amy joins in on.

From the second series finale of Red Dwarf, Cat's classic dream of him, Lister, and Rimmer performing Tongue Tied.

I liked that one, too. At the time, that is. "Everybody...do the Urkel Dance!"

You mean this? Oh man, that was a thing of greatness. On the oft chance that I ever hear that song on the radio, I always think of them.

Another of my favorite dancing moments: Delia and Rickie on My So-Called Life dancing to Haddaway's "What is Love" at the World Happiness Dance. They were having such a good time when everyone else wasn't.

Well I always liked FatMonica dancing. She had such...gusto.


NoFret, you and I share much Dynasty love. I remember that sequence so well and even in my formative, Dynasty-obsessed little mind, I couldn't help wondering what the frilly heck was going on. I bet Joanie C wanted to have her fifteen minutes. Bless.

LOL! Gosh, it was too hilarious for words.

And I loved The Routine from Friends too.

"Poison" is here, for anyone who missed it.

Christopher Walken in the "Weapon of Choice" video is good stuff too.

changed link for Poison to a longer clip

I missed a lot of Drew Carey episodes, but one that I saw really caught me by surprise: they did "Brotherhood of Man" from How To Succeed in Business, and it was a move-for-move, shot-for-shot match of how it is performed in the movie, down to the Bob Fosse choreography. I wonder how many of the show's regular viewers noticed (or cared about) that.

In 1997 Gregory Hines had a sitcom named after him that lasted one season. I didn't see every single episode, but they seemed to be making sure he was used only as an actor, with no hint that he was possibly the world's greatest tapdancer. Until one show late in the run, in which (if I recall correctly) he was tormented by nightmares of hordes of tapdancers converging on him. When whatever his anxiety was was finally resolved, he finally cut loose in the big dance solo we'd been secretly waiting for the whole season, and it was sweet to see.

Schillinger and Beecher disco dancing in "the box" during the "Variety" episode of Oz. Complete with a dip at the end.

Oh, and the fact that Beecher rips his shirt off midway through doesn't hurt the visual one tiny bit.

Desdemona from Kids from Fame. Oh God, who am I kidding? Anything from Kids from Fame. Sigh. Don't judge me. It was the 80's. I was young, impressionable...British. We didn't have that kind of spontaneous-dancing-in-the-street-jumping-on-taxi-cabs thing over here.

During the Dirty Dancing craze, Mama's Family had an episode where Thelma Harper got down and dirty with an old man named Ramon Montenegro during a dance contest. Some really useless trivia: Ken Berry (Vint) did the choreography for this episode.

Does anyone remember when Dorothy, Blanche and Rose were in a charity dance marathon on The Golden Girls? It looked like they had a man in drag doing Rose's cartwheels and splits.

Let's not forget Stephanie's disasterous dance to Motownphilly on Full House! She was fun whenever she danced on that show.

Thank you for the Poison clip. I missed that episode. That looked awesome. He had the exact dance steps!

Oh, man, am I the only one who was doing this on the playground the Monday after that aired (come on, I was 6!)?

No mention of the Saved By the Bell crew and their production of Swan Lake?

I remember that sequence and I loved it. I loved most of the dancing and singing on that show and watched it every week. And I'm not even British and yet, I don't ever remember seeing hordes of kids dancing in the streets in real life. ;)

The dance that Michael Ian Black, David Wain, and David Showalter performed in the first episode of Stella on Comedy Central was genius.

Anytime Peta Wilson and Roy Dupuis danced on La Femme Nikita.

I nominate two from Gilmore Girls.

The first was the whole dance marathon episode. Great period costumes and hairstyles. High energy music from the 40's, starting with Benny Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing". So much fun to watch.


The other was a "friends to lovers" dance between Luke and Lorelai. It was set during his sister's wedding reception. They started out slightly awkward and unsure, an arm's length apart. But as the music played, we see them grow more comfortable with being together. They end up dancing closely, wrapped in each other's arms.


For pure comedy, I recommend Wings. There was an episode where Roy and Antonio were going to make money on a cruise (I think) dancing with rich, elderly women. The only problem was Antonio didn't know how to dance. So Roy becomes his dance instructor.

The results were comedy gold.

I loved Grace and Jack dancing to Britney Spears' 'Oops I Did It Again' in the Will & Grace episode 'New Will City', it looked so fun! I like when the different pairings apart from Will and Grace bond in the show.

And Jack acting as J-Lo's backing dancer at Karen's wedding cracked me up, especially when he accidentally kicked her in her famous butt.

Karen's solo dancing in the 80s flashback episodes was hilarious too.

Actually, there have been quite a few in Will & Grace.

I loved Butters' tapdancing on South Park.

Thank you for that. That was hysterical! I didn't know Sugar Hill Gang did that song, though.

Most recently, Burke and Cristina dancing it up on Grey's Anatomy has got to be one of my favorites. It was so cute!

Also, Lynette dancing on the bar in Desperate Housewives. Loved it!

Crystal ball into the future: Tony Awards, this coming spring, presented from a candidate for Best Revival of a Musical, Harry Connick Jr. and company in "Hernando's Hideaway" from The Pajama Game. I saw it 2 weeks ago (still previewing), I've been going to musicals for a long time, and that was one of the best pieces of stage choreography... ever. When it airs on TV, it will take its place in TV history too.

I agree. Both were awesome.

Not sure if anything from DWTS counts here, since the whole show is devoted to dancing, but I especially liked when the professional did the homge to the classic Patrick Swayze Dirty Dancing sequence. They looked like they were having fun. And then Begeron quoted the Nobody puts Baby in corner! line when it was finished. Heh-heh

"I'll Never Tell" from Buffy's Once More With Feeling episode, the musical episode for those non-Buffy fans here. "Look at me! I'm dancing crazy!"

Taxi - I think it was the episode where all the cabbies were talking about their dreams, and Elaine started doing a number, can't remember the song, but by the end, all the cabbies were the chorus line.

That was "Lullaby of Broadway," friendperidot -- I liked it too.

I second the love for the Motown Philly episode of Full House. That was one of the best of that whole series.

Also, how about the episode of The Cosby Show when Cliff gets into the tap dance showdown with Harold "Sandman" Sims?

Hee! You and me both.

Patrick Swayze and Chris Farley doing a Chippendale routine on SNL.

The dance contest hosted by Casey Kasem on Saved by the Bell. I can't find any clips from the actual contest, but here's one of Slater from the same episode. And also, Hot Sundae

There was an episode of "Are You Being Served" where the members of the staff take ballroom dance lessons. Mr. Lucas dancing with Mrs. Slocum is one of the funniest things I have ever seen! Another dance sequence that I love is from "Dancing with the Stars" the Rhumba that Giselle and Johnathon did. She is just so stunning and then all of the sudden she just drops down into this full split and it's AWESOME!

Willow and Tara dancing for the first time at the Bronze, from Buffy.

They literally swept each other off their feet, about six inches above the floor.

Awesome! Killed, what was it, eight people with his poorly laced shoe? Only Butters.

Of course, that whole episode was full of great dancing. People were getting F'ed in the A all over the place.

dcalley, I'll Never Tell was one of the first things that came to my mind.

And I can't believe nobody has mentioned Angel's "I don't dance" dance from season one. Funniest thing ever, and not just on TV.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned David Brent's horrific dance from The Office (UK), which has to be one of the funniest and most horrifying moments in television history.

Michael Scott did an almost as classic dance in the American version's booze-cruise episode. I was amazed that he was able to come anywhere near the level of the original.

Pooki mentioned some Will and Grace dancing a couple of pages ago, but my favorite moment from W&G was the episode with Kevin Bacon. Kevin thought Will was stalking him when it was really Jack and so he took Will back to his apartment to question him or something. Then Kevin clapped and "Footloose" came on and Will just launched right into it even though he claimed to not like Kevin that much and not remember much of the dance either. Kevin and Will dancing together was absolutely hilarious and one of the few W&G episodes that I really liked.

I also adore the cuteness of the Cosby kids dancing for their grandparents' anniversary. I think they did the whole dance and song-miming a couple of times, but the very first one was my favorite. Rudy scrunching up her face and lip-synching, "Baaaaa-byyyy" was the cutest thing ever.

I also enjoyed Micahel Scott's attempt to dance and possibly breakdance during the Booze Cruise episode of The Office.