The most unwarranted kick-ass theme song to an unworthy show.

Cafe Society
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Hubby was watching a mini Lost In Space marathon on cable. What a stupid, not exciting, totally not-worth-the-time-spent-watching excuse for sci-fi. But damn if it didn’t have TWO kick-ass theme songs!
Season One theme. How could you not expect fast-paced action after hearing that? But all you get after watching is an overwhelming urge to torture Jonathan Harris to death.

Later seasons showcase even more iconic music that prepares one for space cowboy shoot outs. Only to deliver scary space vegetables.

Have you heard the movie theme song? Again, kicks ass. I’ve never seen the movie but I have downloaded the song onto my ipod.

What other entertainments did not live up to their theme songs.

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Good one, PSXer. Also includes the total waste of Robert Kulp.

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Damn it, PSXer won the thread already. That’s exactly what I was going to submit.

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I can’t listen to that theme without thinking, “Believe it or not, George is not home!!”

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Hawaii 5-0 the original (I’m not familiar with the current remake) had a kick ass theme song that should be the state song. Yet the show itself was awful, awful, awful.

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The Peter Gunn Theme is the canonical answer.

Here’s the original:

Here’s the Art of Noise version (music kicks in at 1:34):

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If you like Peter Gunn, you’ll probably like Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse, which ripped it off but still works.

The Texas Wheelers, for reasons that can never be adequately explained, used this as their theme:

And, of course, there’s Dragnet

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I can’t really remember enough about the show to say if it was unworthy or not—I don’t think it was that remarkable—but the theme to Peter Benchley’s Amazon was pretty decent.

(Yes, apparently the only version of the theme online is the bootleg one with the Russian CAPCOM reading the text. Yeah, that’s a good sign in the show’s favor, right?.)

Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda wasn’t that bad, but the (first season) theme song itself was better.

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“In the year 2525,
There are women with the will to survi-i-ive!
Fighting for a brand new day!
Nothing’s gonna stand in their wa-a-ay!”

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Octonauts

A cutesy semi-educational show about undersea life starring fuzzy animals and strange vegetable-animal hybrids, with a proper action theme tune.

There are also dance remixesout.

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The award for the best theme song to slowly paced word game goes to Blockbusters.

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Airwolf?

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I think John Williams was behind the Lost In Space themes.

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Another current CS thread discusses how “Torchwood Is Crap.” Fair enough (although I’d make exception for the ‘Children of Man’ mini-series), but the theme music was cool.

Never thought much of the show Maude, but the theme song was right on!

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I used to tune into Ellery Queen just for the theme song. And to watch the black cat knocking over the chess pieces.

The show which starred Jim Hutton was forgettable.

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Well I’ve just watched this. The show must’ve been far more forgettable than I remembered, because I was dead certain there was a cat walking around on a chessboard, but there isn’t. There’s a chessboard but no cat.

I mean, WTF brain? You’re making me look bad.

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MacGruber! Making life saving inventions out of household materials!
MacGruber! Getting in and out of ultra sticky situations!
MacGruber! The guy’s a friggin’ genius!
MacGruber!

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When I was young, the whole family would turn to S.W.A.T just to listen to the theme song, then change the channel.