I loved the original Scooby-Doo theme song. And they came out with a new one for some reason. Hated it.
The Muppet Show opening number basically stayed the same throughout the show, but in Season 5 they finally added the bridge (“Why do we always come here?”), which made it the iconic version.
(The bridge had always been there in the instrumental version of the song at the end of teh show)
The Muppet Show opening number basically stayed the same throughout the show, but in Season 5 they finally added the bridge (“Why do we always come here?”), which made it the iconic version.
(The bridge had always been there in the instrumental version of the song at the end of teh show)
Season One used “Comedy Tonight” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum as its theme, IIRC.
The best version of That Girl’s theme was in seasons 2 and 3. It actually sounded like something from a Broadway musical. The final version in seasons 4 and 5, where the whole feel of the show changed along with Don and Ann’s hair, was more like something a junior high school band would play.
In the mid-60s, the original Match Game and Hollywood Squares, both of which were then on NBC’s daytime schedule, changed their themes in the middle of their runs. If I recall correctly, Match Game’s original theme was “Alley Cat,” played while the panelists strolled onto the stage and took their seats. Steve Allen wrote lyrics for the Hollywood Squares theme, which he titled “That Silly Song,” just before it was changed. He performed it once in an episode of his syndicated daytime talk show where Peter Marshall was a guest.
I never had strong feelings about either change, though I couldn’t help wondering why they bothered when the originals were so good.
I remember a short-lived sketch show titled Comedy Tonight in the late '60s or early '70s. Damned if I can remember the name of the main star, but he was a popular stand-up comedian at the time.
I’d be shocked if they didn’t use the same song.
I just rewatched the entire series on Disney+ and I don’t remember that. Maybe they re-edited it later.
Yeah, my creaky memory could be making that up and I’m not sure how to check it, but that’s my story.
Cagney & Lacey changed themes (and Cagneys) in the second season. I much prefer the second.
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Starsky And Hutch had a different theme every season. S1, 2 and 3 each had completely different tunes. S4 had a different arrangement of the S2 theme. My favourite is the second.
The show also went from B&W to color when it was shown in the US.
Funny story: When I was co-host of a radio quiz show in the '90s, a British girl phoned in to answer the question of what TV series had Patrick McGoohan as John Drake? The DJ, who knew only of Secret Agent, refused to accept her answer of Danger Man until I told him they were one and the same show, just in different markets.
I liked the first theme-- and the first Cagney. Apparently the part had actually been written for Sharon Gless, who was then unavailable when the first season was being pulled together. She became available for the second season, though, so they let Meg Foster go.
I’ve always liked Meg Foster.
The theme from the second season on was written to sound very generic-- if you just heard it, you wouldn’t think, “Hey! a cop show!” like you would with Dragnet, or Law & Order.
Eventually, it became iconically (if I can use that for music) Cagney & Lacey, and so, very “cop show.” But it wasn’t at first.
Battlestar Galactica (2004 reboot) for some reason used a certain version in the US than the rest of the world in the first season, and then in subsequent seasons it switched to the (much superior) international version.
Peaky Blinders used Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand” for most episodes, but following an episode with a particularly traumatic character death, they played a haunted-up version with a female vocalist (can’t remember who). Couldn’t say one was better than another, but the change was apropos for the story.
Weeds used “Little Boxes” as the opening theme and they mixed it up with different versions and vocalists all the time. Which was good, because that song gets really old after the 5th hearing or so.
Correction: According to Wikipedia, the lyrics were introduced in the fifth season.
Turns out his name was Robert Klein. Here he is on another show of the period, starting around the 40 second mark.
I liked when the kids took over singing the theme song to my favorite show when I was 7 or 8, The Brady Bunch, and ‘they’ changed to ‘we’. “That’s the way we all became the Brady bunch”.
Not exactly the theme song (that stayed the same throughout the series), but the series Justified played a version of Darrell Scott’s “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” at the end of the last episode of each season. As per Wikipedia:
In 2010, Brad Paisley’s cover of the song was the closing song during the final scene of the final episode of the first season. The song was again used in the final episode of the second season.[8] The fourth season’s final episode used a version by Dave Alvin,[9] and the fifth season’s final episode used a version by the Ruby Friedman Orchestra.[10] The final episode of the series featured the original composition by Darrell Scott himself.[11]
Yeah, I didn’t care for that version of the Scooby theme song either. There were a LOT of versions of Scooby-Doo themes over the years. My personal favorite was the What’s New Scooby-Doo theme. It rocked in a late 90’s kinda way.
TIL, Brooke Shields’s Suddenly Susan had (at least?) three different theme songs: a rocking version of “Ode to Joy,” a Shawn Colvin tune and a funky little number with the cast dancing to it (Brooke has the moves!). Upon first hearing of the funky little tune, I like that one best.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend changed the theme song multiple times–I think every season–reflecting the main character’s character journey. It was a delight to hear each new theme.
In earlier seasons, that bridge was there, but with different lyrics, used to introduce the episode’s guest (“To introduce our guest star, that’s what I’m here to do…”).