Origin of "The opera ain't over 'til the fat lady sings"

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_243b.html

There was a TV show… was it “St. Elsewhere”? In the series finale, a rotund female opera singer in full Wagnerian breastplate was being treated for severe laryngitis, and didn’t burst forth into song until the final moments of the show.

Nice use of the phrase.

2

:confused:
Can’t they find the original in the San Antonio News-Express archives?

3

[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_243b.html

There was a TV show… was it “St. Elsewhere”? In the series finale, a rotund female opera singer in full Wagnerian breastplate was being treated for severe laryngitis, and didn’t burst forth into song until the final moments of the show.

Nice use of the phrase.
[/QUOTE]

It definitely wasn’t St. Elsewhere. That one’s famous for Tommy Westphall.

4

There was a singing fat lady in the last episode of Cop Rock.

5

[QUOTE=Mathochist]
It definitely wasn’t St. Elsewhere. That one’s famous for Tommy Westphall.
[/QUOTE]

I remember Tommy, of course. =Shudder= I recall that this was in the last scene or two actually showing the inside of the hospital.

6

[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
I remember Tommy, of course. =Shudder= I recall that this was in the last scene or two actually showing the inside of the hospital.
[/QUOTE]

Wasn’t that the Howie Mandel character’s signal that it was actually time to leave…