Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

TV Themes: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly


  • Reply
  • Start Topic

Recommended Posts

One of the nice things about Netflix is that they're bringing back full opening sequences. Degrassi: The Next Generation had a great one-take-style (is there a term for something that mimics the one-take but wasn't filmed on one take?) opening that gave each character a moment that summaried the character but the last few seasons saw it cut down to a short version.

 

The new series, Next Class has brought back the "Whatever it takes" song with a social media themed montage of the characters that nicely express who they are.

 

https://youtu.be/6qDHoKxhoeU

  • Love 2

Scrolled through the thread very briefly. Of those mentioned, the themes for BtVS/AtS, The Sopranos, and True Blood were fantastic. I'm surprised that there was no mention for Mad Men's theme. So iconic! And perfectly matched with the general themes of the show and Don Draper's downslide in these tiny intricate ways (for example, there's an animation of a glass of booze being "poured into" as Don falls).

 

I've come to a certain peace about Downton Abbey. The theme meshes with the show in that it does exactly what it needs to do- nothing groundbreaking or brilliant but so stately and pretty! By contrast, Orange is the New Black's theme is just haunting and vibrant and exciting even if its jarring. I love the faces of real inmates and Regina Spektor's genuine SONG as opposed to jingle. 

 

For boring, I don't care for House of Cards's theme. So much time wasted for just fast-movement shots of DC and an average tune? It's annoying. Sex and the City's theme is VERY annoying. It's also a lot of time wasted for a non-funny gag that just gets repeated every ep with every credit. Plus since Carrie's my least favorite of the girls and I love the show far more for Charlotte/Samantha/Miranda, it bugs me that the credits are just an ode to Sarah Jessica Parker. 

Here's a gem I JUST found. The rarely to never heard "long" version of the WKRP theme.

And here's the long (again rarely heard in the wild) version of The Facts of Life.

And who even KNEW Magnum P.I. had a longer version? I didn't.

And the extended (about twice as long) version of The Andy Griffith Show theme. I think this "swings" a lot more than the TV version.

If YouTube didn't exist, this stuff would be totally lost forever, I think.

  • Love 3

Kromm - we have a running joke at our house about how bad the music on British TV shows is.  If they achieve Average, it's worth celebrating.

 

Law & Order: UK's theme was so bad, I had to mute it every single time.  I do seem to remember liking the theme for Footballers' Wives, but can't remember what it sounded like.

  • Love 1

Law & Order: UK's theme was so bad, I had to mute it every single time.  I do seem to remember liking the theme for Footballers' Wives, but can't remember what it sounded like.

Yeah, this really IS putrid.

 

 

What's worse is that they definitely would have had the rights to the US theme and as the US franchise did with each spinoff, rather than simply reuse it could have simply done a new arrangement. Instead they totally ditched that iconic (and effective) theme song and went with this piece of shit. It's somehow both simultaneously generic, and yet also has some truly horrible riffs added in that are unique to it. 

  • Love 2

I know Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has been mentioned in this thread, but I don't think THIS was shown--the extra-long version of the theme song that was ONLY used in the Pilot (quite logically, because it's almost 2 minutes long and you can't take that time out of every episode).

 

 

I wonder if even Smith remembers these extra verses!


Also, talk about oddities found online. Here's a version dubbed in Spanish. I mean I think it actually aired this way.

https://youtu.be/84ejUn4iH1E

Edited by Kromm
  • Love 2

I loved how the theme for Outlander was changed to reflect the setting.  This season halfway through the theme the singer switched from English to French, then on the back half of the season the theme (again in English) featured drums that gave it a military sound.

Spoiler

I can only imagine next season will be a reggae version.  LOL

  • Love 1
On 6/27/2016 at 7:35 PM, ParadoxLost said:

Every show I watched as a pre teen that I wasn't supposed to had a variation of this instrumental.  

Agreed on the music. Although the realities of the shows was very different, since Midnight Caller as I recall was pretty good, but short lived, and Silk Stalkings was utter rubbish, but long lived. 

"Short-lived" is a relative matter, I guess. Midnight Caller lasted 3 seasons (61 episodes). Admittedly Silk Stalkings seemed to run forever (8 seasons, 176 episodes). I'm glad to see/hear the Midnight Caller theme again, and sorry it seems semi-forgotten. (Not aired in syndication, never mentioned among classic series of that era, no DVD release.)

(edited)
On 6/16/2014 at 3:00 PM, GHScorpiosRule said:

And here's Justice League

 

 

 

 

 

And the The X-Men!

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZAhqEiq4cA

 

I've never quite figured out who the short bald headed dude was, or the guy, who looks like Warpath, but shouldn't be because he shouldn't be on Magneto's side.

 

Found a new copy of the X Men one.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IzSGvXc_PM

 

Man I love that theme! :)

 

On 12/14/2015 at 10:40 PM, stonehaven said:

I've always been partial to "Unsolved Mysteries":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vufUyWlupFA

One of my favorites!

 

Found another copy.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnOeIFx3ML8

 

 

I love the Quantum Leap theme.

 

 

 

Really like Beyond Belief's theme as well:

 

 

Another version:

 

 

And I love the Twilight Zone theme!

 

 

Loved the theme from Night Court.

 

Edited by AntiBeeSpray
  • Love 1

Someone way back in the thread asked about the Crime Story theme. Apparently, there is a full-length version that Del Shannon recorded for the show as well as the usual short version. As is likely known, Del Shannon re-recorded his song, "Runaway", from 1961 for the series in 1986 and changed some lyrics. Here is that full-length version. (There was even debate in the comments about this being Del Shannon or not. It is, but 25 years after the original, so voice changes, people!)

 

  • Love 3
On 3/28/2014 at 8:12 PM, annzeepark914 said:

"Who can turn the world on with a smile?" (can't remember the rest of the lyrics but that show, especially the early years' episodes, is one of my favorite re-runs).

Here is an extended version (a verse & some choruses left out of the TV version); it’s from a self-titled album by Sonny Curtis, who sang the song. There’s also a “countrified” version of this version (which I’m not linking to, as “overkill”).

Here is the version they used during at least the first season. The refrain is “You might just make it after all”.

Here is the version from at least the second season through the end of the series. The refrain has been changed to “You’re gonna make it after all”.

  • Love 2
On 3/29/2014 at 8:20 PM, Wilowy said:

You say Mike Post and I think of S.W.A.T.! :)

Didn't he do the Rockford Files, too? And Starsky and Hutch? 

The Rockford Files, yes. Starsky and Hutch, no. There were 3 different versions of that theme in 4 seasons. The first season theme was by composer Lalo Schifrin. The second & fourth season theme was a song called Gotcha by  Tom Scott. The third season theme was by Mark Snow.

On 5/10/2014 at 3:19 PM, BizBuzz said:

Wow, totally enjoying the travel back in time.

 

Here is one that I can still sing and love.  Loved the show:

 

 

Gloria Estefan sings the theme on the Netflix reboot, which is about an Hispanic family. You can download it at the usual online legal music download stores.

On 5/10/2014 at 3:32 PM, Kromm said:

Heh.  It's catchy, I'll admit that.  My only criticism of it ever was that it always struck me as kind of buttoned up (what if we were being disparaging we might refer to as "kind of white", although clearly that's not always the actual cause of that).  It's not the song itself, I bet, just that singer and her peppy delivery (which in my opinion leaches the soul a bit from songs).

 

To me it's very similar in delivery to the equally catchy, but equally over-peppy "Laverne & Shirley" theme.

 

 

 

But the main goal of a TV theme song is to be memorable, and both "This is It" and "Doing It Our Way" were.  They may not be emotively all that deep, but do they have to be?

I think/am pretty sure the theme from One Day At a Time actually had the same name as the show. It wasn’t called “This Is It”.

Mike Post did most, if not all, themes for Stephen J. Cannell shows. Although I can't recall (I was a teeny tot when it aired) if The Rockford Files was one of Cannell's shows...

But Post did so many themes: All of the Law & Order themes (at least in the US), Silk Stalkings (yeah, the quasi-porn theme was one of his!), Hunter (which was not a strict Cannell property as it was created by someone named Frank Lupo, but Cannell produced it!), as well as for other shows like The A-Team, Quantum Leap, and St. Elsewhere. If I tried to list everything he composed, I'd be typing 'til I'm about 80...

  • Love 4
On 5/10/2014 at 3:39 PM, Wilowy said:

While we're still in the era, I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up the confusing (what the hell were all those instruments?) but awesome Sanford & Son theme! It has been a part of my pop-culture psyche my entire life, and to this day if I see a beater truck tooling down the road I'll sing the first few bars, sometimes even out loud. :D

 

 

 

@BizBuzz, One Day At A Time theme always also reminded me of The Facts of Life theme. Similar bouncy-ness and I can still sing both of them! 

 

 

@Kromm I had the 45 of the Laverne and Shirley Theme, also Happy Days of course, which was just Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley and the Comets.

 

“Rock Around the Clock” was only the theme song for the first season of Happy Days. From season 2, they used this song

  • Love 1
On 5/10/2014 at 5:37 PM, Kromm said:

Now let's enter the land of the unofficial.  We name checked Sammy for the Beretta theme song Version 2.  And Chico and the Man both here and in the other non-music credits thread.

 

Here's a kind of edit/mashup consisting of Sammy's recording OF the Jose Feliciano Chico song, pasted over the Season 2 version of the Chico credits, joined to bits of Sammy's actual guest appearance on Chico and the Man.  It's a bit awkward (it doesn't really fit), but its fun to see once.

 

 

 

Also of interest (and this one is real and not anything remixed or fan made) call this "The Time The Theme Song was Actually Inside The Show". Only in the 70s did they do wacky crap like this.

 

 

Since we’ve mentioned both Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Chico and the Man, I just thought I’d throw out there, in case someone might not be aware, that if Freddie Prinze hadn’t killed himself while Chico and the Man was still on NBC’s program schedule, & if he had been alive for any part, or all, of the last 16 years, he would’ve been related to Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) by marriage during that period (the last 16 years).

She married his namesake son, Freddie Prinze Jr., in 2002, after meeting him when they were in the same movie a few years before. Also, Freddie Sr. would’ve been a grandpa for the last almost 9 years. Sarah & Freddie Jr. have a daughter, Charlotte Grace, & a son, Rocky James. Both of their birthdays are next month (September). Charlotte will be 9 & Rocky will be 6.

  • Love 1
On 5/11/2014 at 2:29 PM, Charlie Baker said:

Love so many of these old and new, and I'm old timer enough to have been around for the original runs of most of these shows.  Not Peter Gunn (GREAT theme)--which I've caught on ME TV reruns in the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning.  Some of them are pretty standard PI procedural stuff, but some have a nice film noir feel to them. And they are really efficiently done--half hour including commercials.

 

The WKRP closer really rocks out--and the lyrics are actually gibberish, right?

 

 

 

A recent one no one has brought up has really impressed me--it fits the show well and hasn't worn out its welcome over the first season.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRPpCqXYoos

The show’s Wikipedia page says yes, the end theme was, basically, gibberish. But it was also comprehensible gibberish. The guy that wrote it didn’t have any real lyrics by the time he had to turn the song in, so he made up a story about a bartender in gibberish, but gibberish that was also still understandable/made some kinda sense when you heard it. Hugh Wilson, the Creator & Executive Producer, decided to leave the song as it appeared in the show, because he knew the ending theme would probably be covered up by announcer voiceovers for the next program & probably other upcoming programs, & he decided the ending theme of comprehensible gibberish was also a salute to all the rock songs with lyrics many people can’t understand that are played on the radio anyway.

  • Love 2
On 5/12/2014 at 8:44 PM, AimingforYoko said:

Since we're doing old themes, here's one that I'm sure most people only know from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill:

 

Quincy Jones, natch.

And here is an extended version of the theme (which I think is really cool), from Quincy Jones’ album Smackwater Jack. If anyone wants to know, I’m almost positive you can download it from Amazon & iTunes.

The Raymond Burr version of the show was 1 of my favorite TV shows back in the day (I suppose because his character was a wheelchair user, as am I) & as I’ve said before in another thread (or maybe multiple threads), through my involvement with The March of Dimes when I was an elementary school kid through a preteen, I got to meet a couple of the cast members (not Raymond Burr, though) & do some local MOD TV fundraisers with them, in the TN/VA/WV area, back in the mid-1970s; 1 of them was even a good friend of mine & my family’s for at least 7 years after we first met & worked together.

Our friendship lasted until around the time I graduated from high school & he retired from acting (everybody from the Ironside lead cast, both original & replacement cast members, retired from acting, & Raymond Burr died, in 1993 after filming an Ironside reunion movie). I downloaded this extended version of the Ironside theme from iTunes after I learned that my old friend had passed away through a newspaper wire service obit (he died, after having a stroke a couple of weeks earlier, coincidentally on what would’ve been Elvis’ birthday, 9 years ago this year).

  • Love 2
On 8/19/2014 at 7:29 AM, GreekGeek said:

So many great ones mentioned already!

The 70's Match Game theme was OK, but I'll always love the original, a.k.a. "Swingin' Safari.": 

The Mary Tyler Moore Show theme is legendary, but how many remember the spinoff Phyllis? It had a theme song that seems like a companion to MTM's, plus a little bit of "Mame" thrown in, with a snarky twist in the final line: 

I wondered why poor Rhoda got nothing but "la la la's" in comparison.

Among dramas, I'm fond of the St. Elsewhere theme:

The Sopranos theme seemed a bit "modern" for the tradition-minded Tony, but I never tired of it. In contrast, I am getting tired of the Orange is the New Black theme, but can't be bothered figuring out how to fast forward on Netflix streaming.

Watching these old main title segments, it’s kind of interesting seeing actors who either may not be acting anymore or whose career trajectories went in perhaps a less noticeable direction after the cancellation of the show, &/or actors who’ve accomplished more since the end of the show than maybe they might’ve been expected to while they were appearing on the show—such as Denzel Washington & his 2 Oscars. Did anybody expect he’d go on to win 2 Oscars while he was portraying a doctor on that show?

  • Love 1
On 8/19/2014 at 8:05 AM, DkNNy79 said:

Buffy

Angel (love the haunting Irish tones)

Golden Girls (cheesy, but I still love it)

General Hospital (the saxophone version from the 90s - Dave Koz I believe)

Different Strokes

X-files

Growing Pains

 

From my childhood:

Fraggle Rock (I think its adorable)

Jem

Yes Dave Koz was the saxophone player on that version of the General Hospital theme. I think he actually wrote/co-wrote the song. The song also goes by the title Faces of the Heart & it originally appeared on Dave’s Lucky Man CD (I think, since the original release, it’s also been on at least 1 Greatest Hits type compilation of his work). Yes, I like Dave’s music, if you couldn’t tell by my post.

https://g.co/kgs/JP28ig

  • Love 1
On 6/20/2016 at 4:45 AM, Snowprince said:

Always liked this one. Watching the opening credits is like thumbing thru my senior yearbook.

 

 

I loved that show too. I also got to do a local March of Dimes Telethon with actor Michael Constantine, who played Seymour Kaufman the principal at the fictional Walt Whitman High School, & who was a very nice guy as I remember, somewhere in Michigan years ago (after Room 222 had been canceled & off the air for awhile). I wanna say the telethon was in Grand Rapids but I’m not positive—we’re talking it was as long ago as 46 years now when this happened (it was actually less than that, since Room 222 was off the air by then, but I can’t remember how much less), & pretty much the only people alive that long or longer who can remember at least that far back are the kind of people who have Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, like actress Marilu Henner but, sadly, not like me.

There’s something I’ve always wondered though: Does anybody know what kind of instrument makes that sorta “buzzing” noise (like those metallic party noisemakers—rectangular, I think—I pretty distinctly remember at least used to exist when I was a kid, that had a handle, & you held that & tried to make the part attached to the handle spin around & make noise) during the theme song? It’s the second instrument that comes in after the song starts & it comes & goes during the rest of the song.

I’ve heard it in other songs too, but I’ve never heard the name of the instrument, what (band/orchestra) section it belongs in, or how you actually play it. That far back, I’m not sure the noise was created by a synthesizer though.

Edited by BW Manilowe
To correct spelling and remove some inaccurate information before the post is up for too long.
  • Love 1
On 6/28/2016 at 10:13 AM, Neurochick said:

I used to love this show.  What ever happened to Karen Valentine?

According to her Wikipedia page, she’s 71 now; she won a Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Emmy Award in 1970 for her role in Room 222 (co-star Michael Constantine, who played Walt Whitman High Principal Seymour Kaufman, won the Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Emmy Award the same year); Karen continued to act after the show ended, but she apparently stopped acting in 2004 (as did co-star Denise Nicholas, according to her Wikipedia page). 

Of the show’s 4 leads, Michael Constantine appears to be the only 1 still acting (at the age of 90-something!). Lloyd Haynes, the show’s lead, sadly died of lung cancer (Cancer SUCKS!) at the relatively young age of 52, leaving behind a then 4-year-old daughter, according to his Wikipedia page.

Here’s an obscure 1. It’s an extended version of “Hikky-Burr”, the theme song to the original The Bill Cosby Show, which ran on NBC for 52 episodes over 2 seasons, 1969-70 & 1970-71. It was written by Quincy Jones & Bill Cosby, & Cosby provides the “gibberish” vocals that appear over the music periodically. As you can see, it’s from the same Quincy Jones album as the Ironside theme that’s posted upthread.

In this series Cosby played Chet Kincaid, a physical education teacher at a Los Angeles high school who was also a bachelor. It was Cosby’s first TV show after I Spy, in which he co-starred with Robert Culp. It was also his first show as a lead without a co-star & the first time an African American had starred in his or her own self-titled comedy series.

  • Love 1

That was such a great show, much better to me than the later more famous ones.  It's out on DVD but I'm  not sure it ever went into syndication.  This was the show Jerry Seinfeld was talking about when he said that he was so awestruck as a kid watching Bill Cosby's show, not because it was such a groundbreaking African-American achievement, but because it was the first time he had ever seen  any one on television presented as a responsible adult who wore tennis shoes.

ETA: And of course it's so awful that I can't enjoy the show the way I used to, let alone recommend to anyone, because of the shit Cosby did.

Edited by ratgirlagogo
  • Love 3
3 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

That was such a great show, much better to me than the later more famous ones.  It's out on DVD but I'm  not sure it ever went into syndication.  This was the show Jerry Seinfeld was talking about when he said that he was so awestruck as a kid watching Bill Cosby's show, not because it was such a groundbreaking African-American achievement, but because it was the first time he had ever seen  any one on television presented as a responsible adult who wore tennis shoes.

ETA: And of course it's so awful that I can't enjoy the show the way I used to, let alone recommend to anyone, because of the shit Cosby did.

Not ragging on you, or Mr. Seinfeld. Just pointing out that since Cosby’s character here was a PE teacher, he kinda would’ve had to wear tennis (gym) shoes for at least the scenes that took place at school/while he was supposed to be teaching/working. It’s kinda hard to do PE-related activities in street shoes. It’s just sad that it turned out Cosby apparently didn’t turn out to be as responsible an adult as at least his TV characters were (& tried to teach the characters of their children to be—which was using the same values Bill & Camille Cosby instilled, or tried to, in their real life children as they grew up).

2 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

It did, though probably not widely or for long. I remember bumping into it unexpectedly once or twice, years after its cancellation.

When I was in junior high (75-76, 76-77, 77-78), in 1 of the English classes I took (I’m almost positive it was English, & not Drama), I remember doing something outta a book, or the teacher having a book, that was a collection of scripts from TV show episodes of that time (the ‘70’s in general, if not a specific year). As I remember it had scripts for episodes from both Room 222 & the original version of The Bill Cosby. I don’t remember the name; I’ll see if I can Google it at some point.

13 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

It did, though probably not widely or for long. I remember bumping into it unexpectedly once or twice, years after its cancellation.

A few years ago when I would watch Soul Train reruns on Magic Johnson's Aspire channel, they would advertise The Bill Cosby Show as part of the schedule.  I think I noticed it on the menu for several years, but it was quickly and permanently removed when Cosby's victims began to come forward.

So I just scanned this whole thread and can't believe this one isn't in here...thanks to watching the "Get Smart" marathon on the Decades channel this past weekend, the theme song to that show's been stuck in my head all day today :D. Such a cool instrumental piece, and I love the whole sequence with the doors, too:

 

Other cool theme songs-the opening to "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", which used to scare me when I was little:

 

And a more recent one-issues with the show aside, I always did like the opening theme to "Sleepy Hollow":

  • Love 5

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...