A while ago, I had a discussion with a now-ex girlfriend about TV show themes. She lamented the days of the 60’s, when nearly every show’s theme gave you a basic recap of the premise, so you could jump right in.
That got me thinking about TV show theme songs in general, and how some truly great songs get such great exposure. And since Michelle Catalano’s not doing this sort of thing any more, someone has to pick up the slack.
I’ve arbitrarily split the songs into three categories:
1) Original, intrinsically good songs.
Music written for the show that could stand alone as good songs. This is where I’d put things like the original Battlestar Galactica theme (John Williams coulda wrote it), Sanford And Son (Quincy Jones), and Twin Peaks.
2) Original songs that enhance the show, and vice versa.
These are where my ex-girlfriend’s favorites fall. They really weren’t great songs, but catchy little earworms that you can never forget. The Brady Bunch Green Acres Gilligan’s Island, and The Beverly Hillbillies alll fall into this category, along with more recent pieces like The Greatest American Hero, Cheers, and Friends.
3) Finally, the best adapted song. Here’s where the producers just take an existing song and put it on the show. This leads to such oddball results as an Oscar winner singing an Emmy-winning song for “Married… With Children,” but also such instances as “Life Goes On”‘s remake of the Beatles hit and Dawson’s Creek’s “I Don’t Wanna Wait.”
So, what are some of your favorite TV theme shows?
In category 1 or 2 depending on your taste in music, I nominate “Hey, Hey We’re The Monkees!” by Tomma Boice & Jimmy Hart.
Also, the Alfred Hitchcock theme music and the whistler on the Andy Griffith Show.
Firefly theme…
Twilight Zone – Cool and Ethereal
Andy Griffith – Easygoing and easy to whistle
Bonanza – Great CW guitar theme
The Avengers – Picture Emma Peel while humming it
Rawhide – Giddeeyap! Whap!
Bob Newhart Show – Understated, like Bob
Magnum PI – Rocking Mike Post theme but Post went into James Horner territory by copying himself.
Cheers – Because Everybody knows this theme
The Simpsons – Danny Elfman’s parodic grandiosity
Seinfeld – Funky
Homicide, Life on the Streets – Ethereal techno
X-Files – Mysterious sounding, fit the show
Drew Carey – Triple themes, the original, the 60s “Five O’clock World” and the 90s “Cleveland Rocks”, and done by different artists each time in the last two seasons.
House – Great show, great theme.
Don’t know who did it, but
This is the theme to Garry’s show
the theme to Garry’s show
This is the music that you hear, while you watch the credits.
This is the theme to Garry’s show
the theme to Garry’s show
this is the theme to Garry Shandling’s Show.
Oh,
And Buffy, The Vampire Slayer by ‘Nerf Herder.’
Aaarrrggghhhh….Chris! How COULD I have forgotten THE SOPRANOS theme music?!?
Must be having to wait two frickin’ years for Season Six. March 2006, March, it’s on again in March, it’s here again in March. March.
I can’t now remember whattheheck I’ve watched on teevee since the conclusion of Season Five.
So, yeah, theme music from THE SOPRANOS. AND the soundtrack. Excellent use of music.
Babylon 5.
For each of its five seasons, B5 used a different variation of the single main theme, all composed by Christopher Franke of Tangerine Dream. Each was good, but I preferred the 3rd… though the extended version of the 1st season theme is a mighty fine standalone piece.
mmmmmm Emma Peel.
I’m not British, but I always liked the theme music to both Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the Benny Hill show. On the US side of the pond, I’d include Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, LA Law, Barney Miller and All in the Family.
M-I-C…See you soon!
K-E-Y…Why? Because we love you!
M-O-U-S-E!
Denny, you make some potentially valid points. However, I am self-employed so there is no “water cooler” to chat next to, and I don’t work with any idiots (other than maybe a few of my clients 🙂
Here is how I look at it: I have an hour to spend. If I spend the next hour either flipping channels or watching a rerun of Welcome Back Kotter, that is an hour totally wasted and gone. I have to ask myself, “Is there anything else I COULD be doing that would be more beneficial?” The answer is always “yes”.
So if that outlook prevents me from being knowledgeable when discussing the finer points of Star Trek or Magnum PI, or any of the other mind-numbing dreck that is broadcast these days, I think I am willing to chance it.
That 70s Show theme!
Also, I like the West Wing’s theme. Seems dignified to me.
Black Sheep Theme.
Nobody has mentioned Nelson Riddle’s “Theme from Route 66”, a piece that stands on it’s own.
Speed Racer (the original), and Catch that Pigdeon.
But YOU did, Rance, and good for you.
“Route 66” and also, “77 Sunset Strip” both had fabulous theme music but, unfortunately for some among us — same applies to “Timmie and Lassie” and “Bonanza” and “The Mickey Mouse Club” (original series, original voices) — they’re too young now to have known those great years of television. It really was wondrous for a while, wondrously creative.
Here’s one that most here won’t be old enough to remember in the original (I was barely old enough me-self but I do remember watching this with rapt attention to the utter mystification of my mother):
“Victory at Sea” — a military series from the Fifties, fabulous, stupendously grand theme music, which you can still hear if you buy the soundtrack (Amazon…).
For best adapted:
“We Used to be Friends” by the Dandy Warhols, played at the beginning of every episode of Veronica Mars.
All themes composed by Mike Post are great instrumentals:
Magnum P.I., Rockford Files, Law & Order (original version–this is one of the greatest), etc.
A TV theme I can never hear enough is “Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow”, the theme from Baretta, sung by Sammy Davis, Jr. …he sings, “Don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time.”
The Get Smart theme is great.
The Brady Bunch theme makes me vomit.
Smartguy:
“…discussing the finer points of Star Trek or Magnum PI, or any of the other mind-numbing dreck that is broadcast these days…”
Has it really been 20 years since you turned on the tube?
It’s not ALL bad these days, but most of the decent stuff is on cable.
Hey, if you’re too busy, I can relate to that. I can also relate to avoiding the bulk of idiotic prime time crap spewed by the networks. But your post smacked of the self-righteous, holier-than-thou, “too damned smart to stoop to TV” (or popular music or whatever) judgmentalism that self-proclaimed “smart” wannabes love to shout. Meanwhile, the truest intellectuals I know find the time, and the room in their crania, to laugh with the tube a few times each week.
Black Sheep Squadron/Baa Baa Black Sheep
All the greats have been mentioned, and my favorites almost always fall in category #2 (they don’t really do #2 anymore as far as TV themes go) but I’m going to go a bit farther back in my youth to the Sesame Street theme and Mr. Roger’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor.” Even if he kind of bored me as a kid, that song still sticks.
Then there is the whole cartoon genre that’s hardly been touched – the Flintstones, the Jetsons, the themes from the Looney Toons, Popeye, Scooby-Doo, and any other old Saturday morning cartoon from the 70s or 80s.
And how come no one has mentioned the theme from Good Times? Temporary layoffs! Easy credit ripoffs! 😉
I hadn’t thought of Victory at Sea, but I think that was originally a News Reel for Movie Theaters.
‘Cmon oldies. Waddabout BEETHOVEN’S FIFTH SYMPHONY from a time when a certain news program actually had some class and integrity…
Rob, I think Randy Newman did the Garry Shandling theme. Yet one more useless piece of information crowding my brain. Why do I remember that?
Suicide is Painless, the theme song for MASH. They actually sang the words in the movie sound. Not great musically but always stuck with me and really seemed to fit the show.
here’s one i’ve been listening to: on DVD: Petticoat Junction! “That’s Uncle Joe, he’s a-moving kinda slow, at the junction!”
I had Suicide Is Painless stuck in my head for a solid month, once. I was a weeping wreck by week 3. I think I brought it on by overloading myself with work.
As to theme songs I like…well, it seems JeremyB will have some company! 🙂 I thought I was the only geek who loved the Doctor Who theme song. Continuing in the British vein, Monty Python is always a hit (ironically enough, that theme is Souza’s “Liberty Bell”) and the theme to Are You Being Served was pretty groovy, too.
Closer to home, the theme from The X Files (the band is called “Brand X” and they do some other cool instrumentals as well) and…well, when I was a kidd…I sorta thought the theme from Knight Rider was kinda cool. It’d still be interesting if someone did a heavy-metal remix…
–TwoDragons
Have Gun, Will Travel starring Richard Boone as Paladin — His business card showed a chess piece (a knight) and read “Have Gun, Will Travel” and in smaller type “Wire Paladin, San Francisco” The show’s theme song went:
Have Gun Will Travel reads the card of a man.
A knight without armor in a savage land.
His fast gun for hire head’s the calling wind.
A soldier of fotune is the man called Paladin.
Paladin, Paladin
Where do you roam?
Paladin, Paladin,
Far, far from home.
Smothers Brothers Comedy hour Greatest instramental wrtten by the immortal Mason Williams. oops i just showed my age..
Awesome, so many of my favorites have already been mentioned. HOWEVER …
I hope I’m not the only one that remembers the theme for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. by Jerry Goldsmith?
Stewart Copeland’s theme to “The Equalizer” is one of my favourites.
C.S.I. – Queen!!!!!
How could it not be mentioned?
or “Those were the Days!” sung by the actors themselves.
Somebody open a window and let the nostalgia out. It’s getting stuffy in here!
How about something more current:
“It all started when we first met and strapped on our guitars.
We made music so great and cool that soon we were rock stars.
The biggest in Japan, with tons of screaming fans.
We’re out on tour around the world, so come and join the band! (ein, zwei, drei)
Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi Show! Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi Show!
On the Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi Show, anything is possible…”
Restating the theme of the show with a memorable tune. Isn’t that what it’s all about? It’s no surprise that it’s one of the Cartoon Networks’ top-rated shows.
“Just the good ol’ boys, never meaning no harm (if you watch the trailer, this is the part where Bo is shooting a flaming arrow), beats all you ever saw, been in trouble with the law (I wonder why!! speeding, moonshine in the trunk, shooting flaming arrows) since the day they was born.
Love the Dukes of Hazzard theme song.
P.S. Hi Daisy!
How about the Gerry Anderson shows– UFO, Space: 1999 (first season), Captain Scarlet, etc…
“Whooooooo are you? Who-Who! Who-Who!”
-CSI
Night Court had a great instrumental song, I like the Scrubs theme as well
1) Airwolf
2) Miami Vice (Jan Hammer theme)
3) S.W.A.T.
Ok, and Battlestar Galactica