Oh, and Sesame Street.
“Sunny day …”
You woke up this morning
Got yourself a gun,
Mama always said you’d be
The Chosen One.
She said: You’re one in a million
You’ve got to burn to shine,
But you were born under a bad sign,
With a blue moon in your eyes
The Sopranos theme. I only started watching when I caught the credits by accident.
60 Minutes.
Great beat.
Both Gerry Anderson productions, music by the inimitable Barry Gray, who was also responsible for the classic Thunderbirds march … a damn good light music composer, IMHO.
So was Dudley Simpson, who did the theme tunes for The Tomorrow People and Blake’s Seven … both good ones.
I think the prize for “most memorable” TV theme, though, has to go to “Eye Level”, the insidious little earworm that introduced the Seventies detective series Van Der Valk … once heard, never forgotten …
It Takes a Thief - excellent stuff, courtesy of Dave Grusin.
Night Court
Barney Miller
St. Elsewhere
Third Watch (which is a Crystal Method track called Keep Hope Alive)
A few more UK ones:
Blockbusters had a great theme too, but it’s not on anymore.
Challenge Anneka
Enterprise - Yeuch! Awful.
My favorites:
Hawaii 5-O
The Prisoner
UFO
Mission Impossible
Go-Go Gophers
Jonny Quest
Rawhide!
Room 222
I Spy!
Car 54 Where are you?
Spiderman (1960’s cartoon)
Space Ghost (in fact, dang near all the 1960’s Hanna-Barberra super-hero cartoons had cool themes)
Monty Python’s Flying Circus (has anyone noticed that the greatest British comedy show ever has a theme that’s an American piece of music?)
Chorlton and the Wheelies
Jamie and the Magic Torch
Thomas the Tank Engine
Alias the Jester
DangerMouse
Doctor Who (esp Fifth Doctor era)
The Tomorrow People (the original series, naturally)
Thunderbirds (and Joe 90 too)
Monkey (magic)
Tales of Beatrix Potter
Grange Hill
Robin’s Nest
The Banana Splits
Sigmund the Sea Monster
Battlestar Galactica
Call me crazy, but I think MASH has a very haunting, sad and lovely theme song. I mean, for a theme song.
Other than that, I’ll have to go with…
Scrubs
He-Man
Party of Five
Malcolm in the Middle “You’re not the boss of me, now”
HR Puffenstuff
Seconds to:
60’s Spider-Man “Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can”
Hawaii Five-0
Go Go Gophers!
Barney Miller
The Banana Splits
Several TV themes charted, I think Hawaii Five-0, Hill Street Blues, Barney Miller, and Friends all did. Any others?
I’m with Tengu on this one:
I’ve always had a soft spot for the theme from Greatest American Hero* an example of how to use a catchy Pop ditty in the right place.
What? No SWAT? That theme ruled the world (and I get the sense might have been about 75% of the reason the movie was made!).
Here’s one for the Canadian Content…back near the dawn of time there was a show with a great catchy ditty, The Forest Rangers. Of course it helped alot being like, 10 years old.
Homicide
Star Trek, TOS (Roddenberry’s lyrics are pretty lousy, though)
Action (even a dog can shake hands)
Carnivale
Sopranos (yes, they took the WTC shot out of s4)
Sex and the City and Six Feet Under (both of which I stopped watching in frustration, but great themes)
Monk (Randy Newman!!)
Hill Street Blues
Barney Miller
Blackadder, with a special nod to the s3 and s4 ones
I’m all with you man!
Most of mine have been mentioned. I’ll second:
Hawaii 5-0 and Mission: Impossible, which are both classic, as well as Peter Gunn.
Several that I have not seen:
Law and Order (why has no one mentioned this? It’s current, and it’s great!)
A classic: T.H.E. Cat. It was on one season, and I can see why no one remembers it, but it was fantastic. I think Dave Grusin did it, but it was tremendous. Tremendous bass crash, then an amazing clarinet, jazzy theme.
The Name of the Game. Dominic Frontiere, I think.
Search. I also think Dominic Frontiere, but I’m not sure on that one. Hugh O’Brian, Tony Franciosa, Doug McClure, and Burgess Meridith to tie it all together. God, I was in heaven. Geek heaven.
I’m shocked no one mentioned my favorites…
Angel. Sexiest violin ever (in a US TV theme).
[url=http://www.vidiot.com/EFC/]Earth: Final Conflict.
I’m also a big fan of talky themes, like later seasons of Babylon 5 and Farscape.
For all the fans of “Walking on Air” (the Greatest American Hero theme), make sure you catch the full-length extended version. Much better than the 30-second snippet most folks are familiar with.
I like the theme music from “The Waltons”, but the repeated episodes currently in play (TBS?) seem to have it going very fast.
Hawaii Five-O has still got to be the #1 best TV Theme of all time, hands down.
Of more recent vintage, I really liked the Firefly theme. Sigh …
Sorry to nitpick, but I think that’s a cello. I tried google but failed miserably.
And am I the only one that who now has the Hawaii- 5 0 theme stuck in her head?