Cultural influence of Gilbert and Sullivan a 1966 episode. In the UK series "Lilies", in the 2007 episode "The Tallyman" both "When I Was a Lad" and "The Sun Whose Rays" are heard. An episode of "Car 54, Where Are You?" has parodies of several G&S songs. In 1988, episodes of Australian soap opera "Home and Away" featured a school production of "The Mikado". A second-season (1998) episode of the TV show "Millennium" titled "The Mikado" is based on the Zodiac case. Gilbert and Sullivan references often appear in "The West Wing". Some incidents include an episode-long argument over whether "He is an Englishman" is from
Gilbert and Sullivan of trade between England and Japan, Japanese imports, art and styles became fashionable in London, making the time ripe for an opera set in Japan. Gilbert said, "I cannot give you a good reason for our... piece being laid in Japan. It... afforded scope for picturesque treatment, scenery and costume, and I think that the idea of a chief magistrate, who is... judge and actual executioner in one, and yet would not hurt a worm, may perhaps please the public." Setting the opera in Japan, an exotic locale far away from Britain, allowed Gilbert and Sullivan to satirise British politics