Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesSmash is really having a moment…years after it was canceled.
The NBC musical drama starring Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty lasted two seasons on the network before signing off in 2013. But at the 2015 Oscars, Jennifer Hudson, who also appeared on the drama about the making of a Broadway show, brought the series back in a big way: She sang "I Can't Let Go," an original song from the second season, during the "In Memoriam" segment of the awards ceremony.
We can't let go either.
The connection: Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, producers behind this year's Oscars telecast, also produced Smash. The song was written by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman for the show's second season. On the show, Jeremy Jordan's character, Jimmy Collins, penned the song with his writing partner Kyle Bishop (Andy Mientus).
"I hope Jimmy Collins is getting his royalties for this J Hud Oscars song!! @andymientus and u are in the wings @KRYSTAR0DRIGUEZ @Anthologist," Jordan tweeted.
"JIMMY AND KYLE! You're A HIT!" Joshua Safran, Smash's season two showrunner, tweeted.
"(It's also really strange that they did this)," he added. "Next year, ‘I'm Not Sorry' [another Smash song from season two] should play everyone off after their award speeches."
Smash has also been making headlines thanks to a one-night only reunion musical extravaganza planned for this June. The cast will assemble to sing the songs from Bombshell, the fictional musical about Marilyn Monroe that was at the center of the canceled series. Shaiman and Wittman wrote those songs too.
McPhee said the entire cast is getting back together for the big night, a fundraiser for The Actors Fund.
"It's so, cool. I'm going to be there—me and Megan—everyone—Debra, Anjelica," McPhee told Zap2It on set of her CBS drama Scorpion. "It's going to be so fun. That was such a great, really fun—another really special job."
For the 2016 ceremony, may we suggest a chorus of past winners singing "Don't Forget Me" from the Smash season one finale?