or, “Have y’all seen the anime series Paranoia Agent?”
I can’t get either the music or the images out of my head. It amazes me how it manages to be simultaneously uplifting and creepy, people laughing in front of scenes of destruction and devastation set to what sounds like Japanese yodeling. And the image of a man with arms outstretched at the top of a tower, laughing while a huge mushroom cloud looms in the background – that’s a picture that’s not going away anytime soon. (I got the soundtrack, and the rest of the music is pretty damn cool as well. I haven’t actually seen an entire episode of the show yet, though, since I’m waiting to watch it from the beginning.)
It’s taken over Cowboy Bebop’s opening as the best ever.
Honorable mentions go to: Lost in Space: neat theme song, plus cheesy animation of the family doing a space walk while connected by tethers to each other and a flying saucer. Can’t beat that for 60’s sci-fi.
UFO: Okay, this is the only way you could beat “Lost in Space” for 60’s sci-fi.
3-2-1 Contact: Yeah, I said it. All I remember about the visuals was that it was very Epcot Center, and there was somebody petting a cat and striking a match. But I can still remember every word of the theme song, after all these years.
That’s all I’ve got at the moment; I’m sure others will occur to me later.
Six Feet Under, too. Kind of photographically choreographed. Took on a extra resonance, too, after Nate, uh, buried that person in the place that he buried that person. Thomas Newman’s gamelan-like theme makes me feel high, and the tricksy things they did with apparent time really reinforces that feeling. Whoah.
It’s probably mostly the kickass music, which any arse can cut good video to, but I rarely skip past the openings for either The Sopranos or Third Watch. They really pump you up.
I really like the opening for Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom, too. Cheap, but effective.
I always like the opening to Scrubs (about 5 sec. long, plays “I’m no superman” and shows a montage of the characters hanging up an x-ray), it’s quick, tells you what show your watching and then gets on with it. I don’t need to sit through a 30 sec theme song every time I want to watch my favorite show.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force currently has my all-time fave opening sequence.
From the bit at Dr. Weird’s place on the south Jersey shore all the way thru the theme song, it keeps me laughing and I NEVER seem to get that killer Schooly-D rap outta my head!
One vote here for It Takes a Thief, with the classic playboy-type montage (skiiers on the slopes, spinning roulette wheel, etc.), awesome Dave Grusin theme tune and that pause partway through the sequence where Robert Wagner says, “Let me get this straight - you want me to steal?”
I second Scrubs, short, no-nonsense and lets you get on with the show. Also:
House, because I love the song (Teardrop) and the accompanying graphics
Battlestar Galactica - new series, old intro: the contrast between the eerie mellow music that underscored the pictures of bombs exploding followed by the “hup” and the drums with the blips of the episode to come…really psyched you up for the episode to come. Alas, they’ve changed the opening because spoiler-phobic wusses complained the blips gave away too much of the episode.
Other nominations (Going to be a lot of animated shows. I watch a lot of animated shows. >_>):
Witch Hunter Robin (Also has a beautiful ED)
.Hack//Sign
Delta State
Duck Dodgers
Hmm…all animated. >_>
Two related close calls that don’t make it:
Robotech and Macross
Robotech has a great theme tune, and most of the visuals (especially the part taken from the Macross OP) look great, but the Very 80s credits, and some of the visual aspects culled from Southern Cross and MOSPAEDA look just plain awful.
Macross has an incredible visual part to the OP, but the song…>_<
I really like the opening of Firefly - the western music theme really works well with the show. burn the land, boil the sea, you can’t take the sky from me . . .
The Texas Wheelers, mostly for the theme song – John Prine’s “Illegal Smile.” You can’t imagine how bizarre it was to hear a song extolling marijuana on prime time TV in 1974.
Hmm… for me Season 5 gets it with the dialogue from the previous 4 years of the show. Sort of a “Babylon 5 In a Nutshell”
Other than that, I like Season 4 for it’s driving military score and then Season 3 for “It failed.” and the little victorious ditty that plays when they show the White Star in the intro.
Cowboy Bebop (the coolest)
Arrested Development (very short, narration sets up the premise for the show, images show all the leads, and employs some neat music)
Scrubs (short, sweet, and effective)
The Shield (even shorter and sweeter, a 5-second burst of angsty rock with a Latin flavor and the image of the cracked police badge, telling you “this is a different kind of cop show”)
And an honorary favorite…
Sabotage (starring Sir Stewart Wallace as himself, Nathan Wind as Cochese, and the guys who play Bobby the Rookie, The Chief, and Fred Kelly as Bunny)
Seriously, we had one of these not too long ago.