The Orville cast pitches musical episode and serenades each other in spirited NYCC panel

Although The Orville creator Seth MacFarlane was unable to attend the show's panel at New York Comic Con on Sunday, he may have wished he had. While the cast promoted the show's upcoming third season (which is making the move from Fox to Hulu), amid an energetic and enthusiastic discussion about doing sex scenes with robot characters and determining who the best kisser is from The Orville's crew (Bortus), an audience member asked if a musical epsiode is in The Orville's future.

The answer, from cast member Scott Grimes, was an unambiguous "Absolutely not."

He then followed this with: "But if we did ..."

Grimes then suggested that the crew of The Orville "could go to a planet where they speak in a musical way."

At this point, fellow cast member Penny Johnson Jerald exclaimed: "No. Way!"

Apparently Grimes had stolen and bastardized an idea she had suggested on the set, which is that the crew visits a planet in which one can only emote through song. Which is more how musicals work; the characters speak until their emotions can't be contained and they have to express themselves through musical numbers. If they sang constantly, technically that wouldn't be a musical, it would be an opera.

The cast wasn't done adding to the concept. 

"But. But. But! Puppets," added Peter Macon, which was met with uproarious laughter from the crowd. 

This brainstorm culminated with Grimes serenading fellow cast member Mark Jackson with the song "Goodbye" by Air Supply. 

Attendees of the panel absolutely loved it.

Sadly, it's unlikely this musical episode will ever happen, since later in the panel someone from the audience asked if the cast ever suggested ideas to MacFarlane, to which Jerald laughed loudly and sarcastically before definitively saying: "No."

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