SUITABLE FOR FRAMING, the one with Ross Martin and Don Ameche, has the killer just walk in and shoot the guy in the opening seconds — after “PETER FALK as COLUMBO” has appeared on the screen, but before the one-minute mark and additional opening credits; the murderer then starts rummaging around in Make It Look Like A Burglary fashion, all without a word (and he then rushes off to pose for an alibi, knowing a red-herring gunshot will soon ring out at his uncle’s place).
Buffy the Vampire Slayer typically had a vampire or two getting “dusted” during the opening credits.
The various versions of the Highlander series titles have Duncan beheading a few opponents. Sometimes you see him swing the sword. One clip shows the opponent falling to his knees. Sometimes you see the lightening that follows a beheading.
Technically, the opening to The Flash shows Barry’s mom getting killed.
as far as I know, the only one I’ve seen has been the aforementioned Police Squad. As the credits announced who the episode’s guest star was you’d watch them get bumped off. Just meant to be one of the show’s signature “running jokes,” like how each episode starred “Rex Hamilton as Abraham Lincoln.” Who was also only in the credits but ironically didn’t get bumped off.
edited to add- for those not familiar, here’s an example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYdUZfHGP04
Does Speed Racer even show someone definitively dying? It shows a big explosion, but that means nothing in a cartoon.
I mean, the opening of “The A-Team” shows a couple of jeep crashes that would probably be fatal in real life (but not in the A-Team universe).
How about this: Battlestar Galactica. More explosions than you can shake a stick at, including an entire planet.
Huh. The domed spaceship at 0:53 is from the sf/ecology movie Silent Running.
The opening credits sequence to Too Many Cooks features a number of gruesome murders.
Does a one-time instance count? The Simpsons Halloween special “Treehouse of Horror IX” has Homer, Bart, etc. die during the usual opening credits.