SWMBO is up front binge-watching Star Trek: Voyager. I’m kinda listening to it in the background and I realized that Voyager had so much promise…but it wound up with lousy scripts, bad acting, semi-adequate special effects, but a really good theme. They’re all about being lost and trying to get back home, and the theme music emphasizes that. Something about the horns, I guess.
Anyway…what shows/movies do you think were just plain not good, but had great theme songs? I’ve got a movie in mind, but I’ll wait to post it and see if someone else comes up with it.
Going way back, there was a 1960s western on CBS called Cimarron Strip. It didn’t stink, but apparently nobody but me watched it. The theme music was terrific, though; one of those rousing orchestral extravaganzas found in movies like The Magnificent Seven or The Big Country. Watching the aerial view of Stuart Whitman galloping along on his noble steed while that theme played during the opening credits was truly epic.
Airwolf was the first one that popped into my mind. I don’t think the theme song’s aged that well, but I loved it then. The show itself was pretty horrible even by the standards of the times. - YouTube
The other show that comes to mind for me is more a matter of the theme song being so over the top excellent; the show itself actually had a lot going for it, and a lot of people praise it, but it became unwatchable for me once the little kid showed up. And the dog. Oh noes! The ‘b’ story is they’re making a mess of the kitchen! Gahh. Tank! Cowboy Bebop (Full version) by AnimeMix - YouTube
The theme song to Makin’ It peaked at #5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1979. The song charted for 16 weeks total. The TV show was canceled after only 9 weeks.
There was a short-lived Jay Mohr comedy called “Action!”, which used as its theme song ‘Even a Dog can Shake Hands’ by Warren Zevon. Caveat: the show wasn’t bad, it just didn’t find an audience.
I hated the show Dallas, and I realize I am alone in this, albeit, I think it was a guilty pleasure for most people, but I used to tune in every week for the theme song. That theme song seriously rocked. My parents must have wondered what I was up to, but all I did was play the theme song, then switch to something else. This was before YouTube.
When we were in the fifth grade, my friend Edith cracked me up by singing the Pledge of Allegience to the Dallas theme song. To this day, 30 years later, the two are inextricably linked in my head.
There were two shows that I’d regularly switch when I was young, to just to watch the theme songs. This isn’t exactly a comment on the quality of these shows since, admittedly, I didn’t watch them. But I did know the type and that type didn’t appeal to baby me.
^ Mannix was a fairly decent show, Gail Fisher was a definite plus. I no need yer YouTube clip; that theme has been intaglioed on my brain since 1970-ish.
