I guess I watched a lot of TV when I was a kid. Give me the title of a '60s sitcom, and I’m more likely than not to be able to come up with the tune. Everybody remembers I Dream Of Jeannie (which I’ve recently found out is a samba) and Gilligan’s Island. For the longest time though, I had trouble remembering the theme to McHale’s Navy. When I finally remembered it, oh, so many years ago, it’s now the first theme that comes to my head when I think of theme songs. My Favorite Martian took a while to ‘stick’ as well.
Anyone else find classic TV theme songs popping into his head?
Took me a minute to recall the theme form My Favorite Martian (it was a march).
Westerns:
I know there was a TV western that used the “Magnificent Seven” theme, but I can’t remember which show. It wasn’t The Virginian (which I think was the best theme in this catagory).
Long before it was revealed on “Cheers,” I knew the lyrics to Bonanza. But I’d always assumed the lyrics to Wagon Train went: “wagon train, wagon train, wagon train, oh wagon train; wagon tra-in, wagon train, wagon traiin!” (sing it and you’ll see).
In the sub-catogory Westerns/Chuck Connors, kids could change tongue-clop along to the closing theme of The Rifleman, or change the wording to the theme song for Branded: “Stranded, sittin’ on the toilet bowl. What do you do when you’re stranded…and you ain’t got a roll? You must prove you’re a man… and wipe with your hand.”
For the 60’s: Star Trek, Bewitched, Addams Family & Get Smart.
I would recognize but cannot hum: My Three Sons, Munsters, Lost in Space & Andy Griffith.
Gilligan & I dream of Jeannie are definite. Gilligan is the only theme song I could sing from the 60’s.
Jim
The original Battlestar Galactica theme song. I fully recognize now that the 70’s series sucks ass on ice, but every time I hear the theme it still sends chills up my spine.
I could almost write the musical score to Hawaii 5-0 from memory.
Others that come to mind quickly are The Rockford Files, The Waltons, All In The Family, Sanford and Son, and for some reason I can’t fathom, Love, American Style.
Elmer Bernstein wrote the themes for** Johnny Staccato** and** Riverboat**. You might be remembering the theme from “Magnificent Seven” from the Marlboro commercials.
For a l-o-n-g time you could say “A horse is a horse” and around you people would follow up with “of course, of course.”
The 70’s: That’s a horse of a different Color.
Mary Tyler Moore I could sing, you would ask me to stop, but I could sing it.
MAS*H, I even remember the lyrics from the movie (Suicide is Painless…)
Know the lyrics: All In the Family, WKRP, Jeffersons, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Welcome Back Carter.
Hum the Tune: Barney Miller, Taxi, Alice, Maude, Bob Newhart, Columbo, Good Times.