I miss the convention in movies and TV shows in which the main characters visit a music hall or club, and we watch them watching an entire number. Maybe they exchange a few lines during a musical bridge, but mostly they’re just in character, sitting through a performance.

I have only fragmentary memories of H.R. Pufnstuf, the trippy late 60s/early 70s Saturday morning kid’s TV show. But I was just stunned when my social media feed turned up this video of Cass Elliott (from The Mamas and The Papas — “California Dreaming,” “Monday, Monday”) singing her folk-pop anthem “Different.”

Elliott plays a visiting witch who is more glamorous and popular than the regular comic antagonist “Witchiepoo,” whose schemes in this episode fail as usual, and who needs some cheering up.

This song gives the vibe of “On the Right Track” from Pippin, “Day by Day” from Godspell, or “Good Morning, Starshine” from Hair. It’s that good!

The rat-creature with the red armband really threw me, but I guess the costumer wanted to make it clear that we’re in the villain’s lair.

Now that I think about it, other 60s shows, like Batman and Get Smart, regularly used mockery to critique authoritarianism. Hogan’s Heroes and even the Sound of Music were built around outsmarting Nazis. Yet I was still surprised.

Wow… just the other day I wrote about how after I watched Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia,” my brain couldn’t process what I saw, I didn’t know enough about the genre, performer, or venue to place the lyrics in any context, and I just had no vocabulary to write about it.

But I had absolutely no trouble collecting my thoughts about this song.

At any rate, “Mama Cass” died too soon at 34… I’m glad I took a few moments to enjoy her talent.