The Lost Episodes is a 1996 posthumous album by Frank Zappa which compiles (with the exception of "I Don't Want to Get Drafted" and "Any Way the Wind Blows") previously unreleased material.

The album is also notable for its five tracks which feature Captain Beefheart (known in early recordings by his birth name, Don Vliet, and later Don Van Vliet): "Lost in a Whirlpool", a blues parody from around 1958–59 in which Beefheart sings of being flushed down the toilet; "Tiger Roach", a rhythm and blues track from around three years later; "I'm a Band Leader" from 1969, a spoken word piece written by Zappa and read by Beefheart; "Alley Cat", a blues number in which Zappa plays guitar with two members of Beefheart's Magic Band, and "The Grand Wazoo", a spoken word piece recorded in 1969, to which Zappa added a Synclavier track in 1992 [1].

Dan Glaister, writing in The Guardian, judged the first to be "a passable Bessie Smith cover", adding, "while "Alley Cat" could be a missing track from Clear Spot."

The final track is the original version of Sharleena from the aborted 2nd Hot Rats LP recordings in 1970; featuring Sugarcane Harris on lead vocal.

[4] Zappa's music was matched with animation by filmmaker Ed Seeman and the advertisement won a Clio Award for "Best Use of Sound".