# Themes and openings that made ya watch the show **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 12, 2009, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/themes-and-openings-that-made-ya-watch-the-show/517262 "2009-11-12T02:15:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/themes-and-openings-that-made-ya-watch-the-show/517262/1 "2009-11-12T02:15:39Z")
There are some TV show theme songs that just stay with you. Almost everyone recognizes the original music or the original Star Trek and I’d dare say the NexGen too. To me, there were a lot o shows that I watched in my younger years that just had cool openings, and sometimes closings. Even i I recalled little of the shows I remembered the music. Though admittedly a lot of times the visuals had a hand in it too. I won’t ell you that these shows were the ultimate in good or bad, just that they are burned into memory because the opewning intro music and visuals (sometimes the closings) made me think “Wow! that was cool!” I’ll start with shows rom my childhood. [Captain Scarlet:](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXvfNJIOzxg&feature=related) The ending more than the closing, though I loved the show as a kid. Only my fellow old guy/geek too college roommate seems to remember the lyrics as I do. I was upset when the Lion King was raking in bucks at the theater. Not because it was pretty much a ripoff of Kimba the White Lion, but because I had sent my niece a video cassette (yeah this was slightly before DVDs became the main) of old Kimba cartoons for her kids. My niece was just old enough to remember Kimba and I wanted her kids to see the stuff we had watched at their age. But the video had some sugary sweet stupid theme music, not the original US theme I had known. Luckily when the series came available on DVD I sent them a copy so they can watch the episodes and hear the theme I think most people my age remember. While I’m at it, let me throw in the orighinal [Astro Boy theme](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmAaz3irJVQ)(B&W). With the new movie coming out I’m thinking a lot of youngsters have never seen this or the [japanese intro](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4HVYZhohGw). I could go on to mention Prince Planet and Gigantor etc, but I tend to remember a lot of old childhood shows like that. So I’ll move on to other shows that had theme openings that just rocked imho. While you can say the premise was stupid, the stories for the first few seasons were damned good, and [Space 19](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WZW4groJro)99 had a freaking cool kickass opening. And while it was a cartoon, so did [Star Blazers](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WZW4groJro)for the time that it was aored on US TV. Being a scifi junkie in my youth also made my pay attention to shows on PBS…While I really only watched about one episode of the [Tomorrow People](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xez4o1ujOPI)I thought the opening was pretty good. t wasn’t until the late 90s that I got into [Red Dwarf](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rzjee-Ugqc), and yes the ending theme has lyrics that are pretty good, but it was the intro to the irst series that got me to watch it on late night PBS. I’ll tell ya that while I was well into adulthood, I used to watch Wishbone after work because I [caught the opening one day and thought](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sY-v6dZtz0) “that looks like a cool show for kids.”. Another show I watched in the 90s was [Forever Knight.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPhIEG3JYtg) I only watched it at first because the opeining and theme music set the mood well enough that I was interested. It was a good show, it turned into one of my wife’s favorites. (it used to come on right after [Highlander](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzMM9kfU8-Q) which was one off mine so it did have the added bonus of giving us both something to watch together) And while I liked the series, I thought that the opening or Babylon 5 was “meh” until [the last season](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXbKKhEZVVk). For some reason I really liked the opening for its final season. But it still was not as good as [Farscape.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtM6Mhkb08&feature=related) There are a lot shows I may not have mentioned that I liked but I limited myself to shows that I initially only watched because o the opening or those that I remember rom ages past only because of the openings or theme music. Oh, I should have mentioned [Rocket Robin Hood](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkYaauQkSFc)and [The mighty Hercules](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PrLVgR6J84). or some reason the themes to those old shows always goes through my head. What shows had theme music, openigs and closings that you’ll always remember, good or bad? ---
**Author:** ![StoutHearted](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@StoutHearted](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StoutHearted)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/themes-and-openings-that-made-ya-watch-the-show/517262/2 "2009-11-12T02:40:45Z")
The **Mystery Science Theater 3000** theme is very catchy and added to my love of the show: “In the not too distant future…” **Good Times** was before my time, but I think I got into the reruns just because of the groovy theme song. Same with **Maude** , which had a hilarious sendup on [Family Guy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-GJ64tXzao). ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/themes-and-openings-that-made-ya-watch-the-show/517262/3 "2009-11-12T02:47:17Z")
[quote=“StoutHearted, post:2, topic:517262”] The **Mystery Science Theater 3000** theme is very catchy and added to my love of the show: “In the not too distant future…” [QUOTE] Yeah, I loved the ending theme music for MST3K. I think I might see if I can get it as a ringtone for phone. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/themes-and-openings-that-made-ya-watch-the-show/517262/4 "2009-11-12T02:51:30Z")
The Gary Shandling Show ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/themes-and-openings-that-made-ya-watch-the-show/517262/5 "2009-11-12T02:52:34Z")
I got pulled into watching _Tour of Duty_ episodes because I liked the Stones song it used as its theme. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/themes-and-openings-that-made-ya-watch-the-show/517262/6 "2009-11-12T13:52:53Z")
**Hawaii Five-O** of course. Really catchy music and opening visuals. I also liked the _closing_ montage on the show **That’s Hollywood**. It featured lots of nifty scenes, including some of the Death Star Trench sequence and the Death Star blowing up. This was just a year or so after the original _Star Wars_ came out, and long before it appeared on cable or video, so, short of going to watch the film again, it was the only way to see those scenes. It also helped that it showed Sophia Loren’s wet-shirt scene from _Boy on a Dolphin_. Rowrr. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/d4nc5GXC0Is/hqdefault.jpg "Sophia Loren - Boy On a Dolphin") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4nc5GXC0Is) ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/themes-and-openings-that-made-ya-watch-the-show/517262/7 "2009-11-12T14:36:15Z")
When I was a lad in the stone age before the Interwebs, before ESPN even, I settled in every Saturday to watch _This Week In Baseball_ and have Mel Allen catch me up on what was happening around the league. All it took was the first couple notes of that theme song to pull me right into the _TWIB_ mindset. (The closing theme was pretty cool, too.) ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/themes-and-openings-that-made-ya-watch-the-show/517262/8 "2009-11-12T15:22:59Z")
**Jolly Roger** you already named two Gerry Anderson shows but I think these are even better. I’ve only been able to view these (no sound here) hope the music is OK. [Stingray](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E06cNv55jTs) Anything can happen in the next half hour! [UFO](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XAIXP937Ac) [Thunderbirds](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RzCB3VRruE) To take some of us back (depending on ancientness and country of origin) [Roobarb](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMholtSVFns) And natch… [Clangers](http://www.clangers.co.uk/)