** Twin Peaks ** - creepy and bizarre. Just like David Lynch! 
** Ally McBeal ** - great, upbeat tune
I can’t believe no one has mentioned the theme from “Hill Street Blues” my all time favorite…Though I have to agree with Ricepad about Peter Gunn and Have Gun Will Travel
Have gun will travel reads the card of a man
A knight without armor in a savage land
Let’s not forget “Sugarfoot”, “Cheyenne” or “Mighty Mouse”
Believe it or not/
George isn’t at home/
please leave a message/
at the beep/
I must be out/
or I’d pick up the phone/
where could I beee?
Believe it or not/
I’m not HOOOOME!
BEEEP
–Tim
I liked the theme to Bob Newhart’s sitcom in the 80’s, Newhart. I believe it was written by Henry Mancini, and was just a simple, natural-sounding tune.
Okay:
Daria
MST3K
The Waltons
The Partridge Family-“Hello, World here’s a song that we’re singin’, c’mon get happy!”
The Golden Girls
One Day at a Time
Fame
Bewitched
Laverne and Shirley
The Cosby Show
The Patty Duke Show-“Yes they’re cousins, identical cousins…”
Green Acres
Scooby Doo Where Are YOu
The Wonder Years (of course it is a regular song…but still)
Sesame Street
Paddington Bear
And how could anyone NEGLECT to mention DALLAS? I mean, COME ON!!!
http://members.tripod.com/~clockj/webdoc3.htm
http://themes.editthispage.com
I gotta put forward Count Basie’s theme for “M Squad.” (You hear it parodied in the “Police Squad/Naked Gun” releases.)
You know Guinastasia, the more of your posts I read, the more I like you.
DEFINITELY Dallas.
Others:
Underdog
Superchicken
George of the Jungle
No, I don’t just watch cartoons:
Get Smart
Twin Peaks
Bonanza (I remember a bunch of friends and I were playing poker and/or drinking. One of us started to make up lyrics to Bonanza. I don’t know if the guy knew the real lyrics–hell, I didn’t know there WERE real lyrics until very recently. Anyway, it was really bawdy stuff about Little Joe and Hoss, etc. Hilarious!)
Some ones that I’m surprised haven’t yet been mentioned:
Married with Children
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
The Young and the Restless
I, Claudius
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (Much as I like the Twilight Zone’s them, I like this one even better)
Van der Valk
Okay ya bunch of ingrates…
Malcolm in the Middle
“You ain’t the boss of me…”
In terms of applicability to the OP, I’d have to vote for “Chico and the Man”. In both sound and content it fit in well with the show.
Now, for my own personal faves (in no order)
[ul]
[li]Bab 5 (3rd season)[/li][li]Crusade (Evan Chen rules)[/li][li]Freakazoid[/li][li]Garry Shandling Show[/li][li]Hong Kong Phooey[/li][li]Banana Splits (4 bananas, 3 bananas, 2 bananas, 1)[/li][li]Dr. Who (geek mandatory)[/li][li]Pee-Wee’s Playhouse (Look Clocky, I’m typing with one hand huh-huh)[/li][/ul]
pcubed
============================================
Stooge-Zen: What is the sound of one hand slapping?
My favorites would have to be Dallas and The Rockford Files, although I also like “Suicide is Painless” and Newhart. Apparently I like instrumentals.
Now I’m remembering watching TV with my dad when I was little.
What? No one’s mentioned Ren and Stimpy yet?
It doesnt have lyrics but I love the theme to the Dick Van Dyke Show
All of these are great, and thanks especially for the Underdog lyrics and .mp3. The big U was also the biggest, baddest giant balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade when I was a kid. It flew well as long as there was no wind whatsoever and it wasn’t buffeted by the cross-currents between blocks on Central Park West or Broadway. Then the front-heavy unbalanced monster would try to do a headstand in the street, with the balloon captain shrieking orders as spectators scattered from Underdog’s giant outstretched fingertips. :eek: It was the coolest thing I ever saw as a child.
Ahem.
ALL IN THE FAMILY, STAR TREK TOS, HILL STREET BLUES, TWIN PEAKS, BUFFY, ANGEL, MYSTERY’s Jeremy Brett (RIP) SHERLOCK HOLMES, ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE, MASTERPIECE THEATER (special mention also to its I, CLAUDIUS, PASSAGE TO INDIA and SHOULDER TO SHOULDER), MARRIED WITH CHILDREN, HONG KONG PHOOEY, DOCTOR DOOLITTLE (the cartoon with the jazzed-up ‘Talk to the Animals’) are all faves.
Recently, I like MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE, ACTION (Everybody’s tryin’ to be a friend of mine; even a dog can shake hands), and FREAKS AND GEEKS (Don’t give a damn 'bout my bad reputation…) The limited series last summer of NIGHTLINE IN PRIME TIME perhaps had the best of all: a nice little syncopated string theme by They Might Be Giants, who were in the show sometimes themselves, combined with a passage from “The Tempest” read by Dame Diana Rigg. Delightful.
OTOH, one of my favorite shows, the short-lived exercise in snarkiness called IT’S YOUR MOVE, had one of the silliest and most ill-matched theme songs to its content that I’ve ever seen, but the checkerboard motif was nice.
God, I’m rambling, must be the heat…
Carolyn
I can’t believe it took a page and a half to mention the BEST song on TV history.
Thank you Monster.
The Jefferson’s are a close second, but GOOD TIMES is the best song ever. Everything the Jefferson’s have and more soul.
My third? …gotta be “All in the Family.” Horrible singing, but that’s part of the charm.
Found a picture of the aforementioned Underdog balloon here:
http://www.multimedialibrary.com/FramesML/IM3/IM3Page19.html
Yes, yes, I have to learn the right way to post sites, sorry!
Oh yeah, I also love “Barney Miller” and “Newsradio”, although neither has lyrics or a particular connection to the fine shows they preface.
Carolyn
BTW, a thread just popped up in a Usenet group about “All in the Family”; I think it was alt.folklore.urban or afca itself. They got so tired of people writing in and asking what the words were (esp. the line “Gee, our old LaSalle ran great!”) that they re-shot the song a few years into the run. Look for Jean Stapleton articulating her T’s very, very carefully.
Carolyn
After school I always used to watch “Good Times” and “The Incredible Hulk”. Those songs definitely catch the spirit of the show. My father used to come home and say “All you ever watch are black people and green people!”
Does anyone remember the episode of The Simpsons (another great theme!) where Homer and Marge do a parody of the All in the Family song?
(Looking up lyrics…)
WHICH ONE WAS THAT???
Lisa’s Sax!
Homer: Oy, the way the Bee Gee’s played,
Marge: Movies John Travolta made,
Homer: Guessing how much Elvis weighed,
Homer & Marge: Those were the days!
Marge: And you knew where you were then,
Homer: Watching shows like “Gentle Ben”,
Homer & Marge: Mister, we could use a man like Sheriff Lobo again!
Homer: Disco Duck and Fleetwood Mac,
Marge: Coming out of my eight-track,
Homer & Marge: Michael Jackson still was black, those were the days!
– A little sing-song, ``Lisa’s Sax’’
How could I forget!
*Leeeeeeeet the time grow,
Let the love show,
Let the rain show’r,
Let the rose flow’r!
Love it conquers, love it binds,
Love it seeks, and, love it finds…
Come to each other from a diff’rent world,
Drawn to each other by the love inside of us,
Give to each other our diff’rent worlds(?)
Long as we can do it,
Life’ll let us breeze right throoooough iiiiiiit,
Leeeeeeeet the time grow,
Let the love show,
Let the rain show’r,
Let the rose flow’r!
Love it conquers, love it binds,
Love it seeks, and, love it fi-i-i-i-nds
Ahh, aah aah aah OOOOOOOOOOO!
Aah, ah ah ah aaaaaaaaaaaah,
Love it conquers, love it binds,
Love it seeks, and, love it fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinds!!*
Narile wrote:
Especially in the third season, when Franke used a variant of his “Requiem for the Battle of the Line” as the main title theme music. Whoo, what a killer!