So this might flame out and rightly die a quick death, but I do like recycling ideas from elsewhere and also not doing work at work. Think of this as a bastard child of the Movie Game and the Bands That Should Have Had Movies topics from the show, with an element of the rock 'n roll street fight thread.
Chad & Jeremy were on Batman, The Doobie Brothers on What's Happening!!: arguably peaks in the careers of both bands. What other missed opportunities were out there for bands to have shown up as special guest stars on TV shows? Not just as a showing up and playing a song somewhere in an episode, but actually as part of the plot of an episode. Degree of difficulty consideration: these guest appearances had to have been possible. That is, the band had to be around in that form when this theoretical show would have aired.
I may have just confused myself. An (entirely too long and too specific) example:
Show: The Cosby Show (Season 2)
Band: Prince & The Revolution
To handle an increased workload, Cliff temporarily shares his downstairs office space with a fellow obstetrician, Dr. Matt Fink. Claire invites Dr. Fink upstairs to have dinner with the Huxtables. He agrees, but has to leave before dessert because he has a prior committment that evening, rehearsal for his second job as the keyboard player for Prince & The Revolution.
Denise and Theo are beside themselves, and Dr. Fink - with Cliff's permission - arranges for the family to come see the band rehearse later that week. The Huxtables, minus Claire but with Theo's best friend Cockroach, show up just in time to hear the band finish a run through of "Mountains" from their new album Parade.
Cliff is a bit worried when the enigmatic Prince displays a keen interest in Denise, but he is impressed with Prince's taste in art when he sees the cover of the band's previous album, Around The World In A Day, which reminds him of the Ellis Wilson painting Claire recently bought at an auction.
The Huxtables return home, where Rudy and Vansessa fight over the purple beret Rudy was given by the band. Theo and Cockroach are somewhat disappointed by the fact that they tried putting their best moves on Wendy & Lisa to no avail, causing Cliff to laugh knowingly.
Note: On the day of filming, Prince would have decided to refuse to deliver any of the lines written for him. After a five-hour closed door negotiating session with Cosby, they would come to an agreement whereby Prince would communicate by a series of coy eye movements and by whispering into the ear of Revolution guitarist Miko Weaver, who then relayed all of Prince's dialogue to the Huxtables.
(I guess we could do this a few ways, either someone could throw out a show/band match-up for others to come up with a plot, or just provide your own description of missed opportunities for bands/musicians to have been TV guest stars. Or this could be quietly and quickly forgotten. All valid approaches!)
