If you haven’t yet caught an episode of ABC‘s The Neighbors, tonight may be your night. It follows a family who has moved to the suburbs and discovers that all of the other inhabitants of their beautiful new little neighborhood are all from another planet. They have all taken human form and sports star names, and tend to dress completely alike. Kind of Stepford-y but in an absurdist, snarky way.

Because it’s an ABC (whose parent company is Disney) show, and because all of the aliens tend to act in over-the-top ways since they aren’t yet totally familiar with our human, and particularly American, ways, they have been given a musical episode with music by Alan Menken.

Not familiar with the name? Ever heard of Disney‘s The Little Mermaid? Beauty and the Beast? Aladdin? Pocahontas? The Hunchback of Notre Dame? Hercules? Enchanted? Tangled? All composed by Alan Menken. I know, right?

If you haven’t seen The Neighbors before, you might want to see this trailer first, to get why “musical” and “Larry Bird and Jackie Joyner-Kersee” are such a perfect fit:

Trailer: The Neighbors
[youtube]http://youtu.be/B_iJy5auBko[/youtube]

And here’s a featurette about tonight’s episode:

Featurette: The Neighbors – On The Record
[youtube]http://youtu.be/hE034YQLHZQ[/youtube]

I am no fan of musical episodes because they tend to take themselves so seriously, and seem to be so self-absorbed and self-congratulatory. This one looks like it will take the exactly-right tone, a shining beacon to the absurdity of the musical episode. With a fantastic score.

The Neighbors, starring Jami Gertz, Lenny Venito, Simon Templeman, Toks Olagundoye, Clara Mamet, Tim Jo, Ian Patrick, Max Charles, and Isabella Cramp, airs Wednesdays at 8:30/7:30c on ABC.