{"id":118578,"date":"2024-10-09T12:01:23","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T12:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/10\/09\/only-murders-showrunner-hopes-billy-joel-wont-be-too-surprised-at-his-unexpected-musical-cameo\/"},"modified":"2024-10-09T12:01:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T12:01:23","slug":"only-murders-showrunner-hopes-billy-joel-wont-be-too-surprised-at-his-unexpected-musical-cameo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/10\/09\/only-murders-showrunner-hopes-billy-joel-wont-be-too-surprised-at-his-unexpected-musical-cameo\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Only Murders’ showrunner hopes Billy Joel “won\u2019t be too surprised” at his unexpected musical cameo"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Steve Martin in Hulu’s ‘Only Murders In the Building’; Disney\/Patrick Harbron<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(SPOILERS)<\/strong><\/em> In episode seven\u00a0of Only Murders in the Building’s <\/em>fourth\u00a0season,\u00a0one of Billy Joel<\/strong>‘s most beloved songs pops up unexpectedly, and the series’ showrunner hopes the Piano Man will enjoy the joke.<\/p>\n

In the episode, Oliver, Mabel and Charles\u00a0\u2014 played by Martin Short<\/strong>, Selena Gomez<\/strong> and Steve Martin<\/strong>, respectively\u00a0\u2014 are afraid they’re being pursued by a killer, so they flee Manhattan for suburban Long Island, where Charles’ estranged sister Doreen, played by Melissa McCarthy<\/strong>, lives.<\/p>\n

Arriving at the house, they ring the doorbell, only to hear the melody of Billy’s “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” \u2014 specifically, the part of the song that goes “a bottle of red, a bottle of white” \u2014 and it becomes a running joke in the episode.<\/p>\n

“Scenes from an Italian Restaurant<\/strong><\/a>,” from The Stranger,<\/em> was never a single, but it’s a fan favorite that Billy frequently plays live. It was deliberately chosen by showrunner John Hoffman<\/strong>, who tells Vulture,<\/strong><\/em><\/a> “I lovingly poke at Long Island throughout the show, and I hope people enjoy the silliness of it … anyone from … Manhattan, as our trio is, feels that way about Long Island.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBilly Joel is universally beloved, in my experience, in Long Island, and it\u2019s sacrilegious to think otherwise,\u201d he adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hoffman says he considered using the melody of another line from the song<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u2014 “Brenda and Eddie were the popular steadies\/ and the king and the queen of the prom” \u2014 “but then I realized, ‘Oh no, this is too much.<\/em>‘”<\/p>\n

Hoffman tells Vulture<\/em> he hopes Billy “won\u2019t be too surprised” by the cameo and will get a kick out of it, adding, “I can only hope there is goodwill coming from the Billy Joel side of things.\u201d<\/p>\n