One that springs to mind is the theme song to Quantum Leap. I mean, yeah it’s a mostly light hearted show, but I just don’t think a breezy 80’s light jazz piece fits with this genre. I mean, yeah I know that Mike Post is a god of writing TV themes, and I LOVE his work overall, but this seems so generic.
I find the disco-ish theme to the cartoon Count Duckula kind of jarring. (No offense intended to people for whom it is a cherished childhood memory.)
Which version are your talking about? There was a different arrangement the last season and I think the original version fit better.
The 70s flop “The Texas Wheelers,” about a group of kids living on their own a la “Party of Five” and what happens when that ne’er-do-well father showed up again used John Prine’s “Illegal Smile,” a song usually interpreted as being about smoking pot (Prime denied it, but come on).
Prine had the right sound for the show, but the song choice was strange.
The theme to Taxi was kinda slow and downbeat for a comedy.
This theme music sounds like a 70s action adventure show. But it was used for the show Angels, about first-year nurses.
Ok, this is an old one. The 60’s British series, “Dangerman”, was shown in the US as “Secret Agent” with the popular song “Secret Agent Man” as its theme music. Problem is the song’s repeated lyric, “They’re giving you a number and taking away your name”. The shows central character always had a name – John Drake, no number. The number with no name thing would come in Patrick McGoohan’s next series “The Prisoner”.
The opening theme song for season 1 of Patriot doesn’t really mesh with the imagery or the show, but maybe it still works? The track’s title, Train Song, fits, however.
The opening for season 2 doesn’t really match the show either, except, again, in the title. (Sure Shot/The Beastie Boys)
The song was probably referring to 007, (too early for 86 and 99) but it was amazingly prescient.
And while the Prisoner was officially not a sequel to Danger Man (since if it was McGoohan would have to pay the creator of Daner Man gobs of money) there are plenty of connections, including Drake saying “be seeing you” and Drake being screwed over by his superiors.
I’d call it “whimiscal,” rather than downbeat.
Actually, it was never meant to be the series’ theme at all. Another tune was:
If you don’t know, “Angela” was a recurring character in the show. The first time we saw her, she was a bitter, morbidly obese woman whom Alex befriended.
When I was in Brazil, for whatever reason, they broadcast Magnum P.I., Hill Street Blues and Simon and Simon but mixed up the theme songs between the three. It was just plain weird for me.
Oh, and Hill Street was called Chumo Grosso (or something like that, it’s been a verrrry long time), which roughly translates to “Heavy Lead” (as far as I ever learned)
And the dubbing of the voices on all the shows really blew my mind.
Some syndicated episodes of Married … With Children had (still have) an alternate opening theme that really sucks. From IMDb:
Due to music licensing issues, the opening theme song “Love and Marriage” sung by Frank Sinatra is omitted from episodes released by Sony in North America beginning with the third season onward. A generic instrumental piece of music replaces it. In 2013, Mill Creek Entertainment acquired the DVD rights from Sony and beginning with season three, “Love and Marriage” has been restored to the opening and closing.
Three’s Company originally had another version of its theme. Thank God they changed it after the series was bought!
Using dummy lyrics is pretty common for songs as they’re being written. I don’t think that was meant to be the final, it was temporary, ready enough to show to Execs.
Regardless, it sounds really bad.
There was an interesting British series called Star Cops; it was a combination of near-future science-fiction police detectives. The theme was by Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues.
True, Johnny River’s hit song probably referred to the, then, new Bond world. As such, though, it was not really pertinent to the world of Dangerman. Lew Grade, the producer of Dangerman, gave McGoohan the greenlight to do The Prisoner as long he agreed to stretch the new series from the intended 6 episodes to 16 and that he make a couple more Dangerman episodes in color. McGoohan always maintained that The Prisoner was not a sequel and Number 6 was not intended to be John Drake. Given the way McGoohan wrapped up The Prisoner, with the much loved/hated finale’ I have long believed the show was more about the creator himself. In the end, he, himself was Number 1.
Not to mention that the first episode of Danger Man was filmed at the Hotel Portmeirion.
It sounds like a fake “original title song” to me.
Gary Shandlings Show
This one.
