# TV Shows where the theme song doesn't really fit **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, music\ **Created:** [June 11, 2021, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040 "2021-06-11T12:57:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2021, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040/41 "2021-06-21T20:11:40Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > When McGoohan was on Columbo (playing a spy (and The Killer)) he said “Be seeing you” and wore a jacket that, if it wasn’t the same one, was very similar to the one in The Prisoner. > > I guess he did escape the Village at the end after all. McGoohan was on Colombo 6 times, and played the killer 4. I’ve seen him as the killer but didn’t remember that. So I saw the wrong one. But cool. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2021, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040/42 "2021-06-21T20:37:55Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > McGoohan was on Colombo 6 times, Six! I know I haven’t seen them all, then. Talk about your “repeat offenders!” You’d think with that many tries, he’d eventually get the best of Columbo. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2021, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040/43 "2021-06-21T21:32:33Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > [@Voyager](#): > > > > McGoohan was on Colombo 6 times, > > Six! I know I haven’t seen them all, then. Talk about your “repeat offenders!” I think it’s only four; it’s just that he directed two other episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2021, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040/44 "2021-06-22T00:43:42Z")
The pedestrian, insipid, anemic theme for _Hill Street Blues_ would’ve more appropriate for _Hopefully Whole Foods FINALLY Restocked the Kimchi_. Or _Arthur_. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2021, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040/45 "2021-06-22T01:50:01Z")
_Leave It to Beaver_ was a show about a kid who aged from 2nd to 8th grade.during the show’s run. They refreshed the theme song a couple of times, but the last season’s [hip, upbeat, light jazz arrangement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViD_uismST8) was a desperate attempt to be cooler than the show itself. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2021, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040/46 "2021-06-22T02:19:34Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I think it’s only four; it’s just that he directed two other episodes. He was the killer 4 times. My quick Google didn’t say what he did the other 2. I assumed he was another character, but he might have directed. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2021, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040/47 "2021-06-22T19:47:58Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > He was the killer 4 times. My quick Google didn’t say what he did the other 2. I assumed he was another character, but he might have directed. I had to look it up! By Dawn’s Early Light, Season 4, Killer, did not direct, Prisoner references: his charcter was in the 6th army, first infantry division. So he was both 6 and 1. Identity Crisis, Season 5, Killer, directed. Prisoner references: “be seeing you”, Village jacket, was a spy Agenda For Murder, Season 9, killer, directed. Prisoner references: none Ashes to Ashes, season 13. Killer, directed. Prisoner references: line of dialog “It’s your funeral” Murder with too Many Notes, Season 10, directed only; last Columbo episode for McGoohan Last Salute to the Commodore, Season 5, directed only, did not act because he was recently in Identlty Crisis, 3 episodes prior. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2021, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040/48 "2021-06-22T22:29:32Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > but the last season’s [hip, upbeat, light jazz arrangement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViD_uismST8) was a desperate attempt to be cooler than the show itself. This has happened a few times, and it always seems hopelessly cynical. “The young set is not watching Candid Camera, what can we do? Let’s do a rock ‘n’ roll version of the “Smile! You’re on Candid Camera” song; that should do it.” ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040/49 "2021-06-23T12:19:41Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > _Leave It to Beaver_ was a show about a kid who aged from 2nd to 8th grade.during the show’s run. They refreshed the theme song a couple of times, but the last season’s [hip, upbeat, light jazz arrangement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViD_uismST8) was a desperate attempt to be cooler than the show itself. Seems like a low enough hurdle to clear. I recently watched an episode of this show on Peacock. It hasn’t aged well. Cool, it was not. I think the best themes are instrumental, like Dallas, Mission Impossible, M_A_S\*H, etc. Those with lyrics sometimes seem dated in later years or have awkward nonsensical lines like Three’s Company’s “down in our rendezvous”- huh? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040/50 "2021-06-23T12:34:06Z")
If one knows the lyrics to TV series **MASH** ’s music only theme (the lyrics were sung only in the movie), it would seem jarring compared to the show’s message of persevering through the horrors of war. [Suicide is Painless](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i70_u7T8hq8) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040/51 "2021-06-23T12:46:04Z")
_ **Leave It to Beaver** _ never was “cool.” Not 60+ years ago, not ever. **NITPICK:** … down **at** our rendezvous. **Rendezvous** = A place where a particular group of people go or meet, by arrangement or habit. > **[rendezvous](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/rendezvous)** > > 1. an arrangement to meet someone, especially secretly, at a particular place… ---
**Author:** ![Quercus\_alba](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quercus_alba/32/4061_2.png) [@Quercus\_alba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus_alba)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2021, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040/52 "2021-06-26T03:59:20Z")
_Red Dwarf_ [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/zV0hwZwNQZc/hqdefault.jpg "Red Dwarf Theme Song") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV0hwZwNQZc) ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2021, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040/53 "2021-06-26T07:47:40Z")
The Red Dwarf theme starts out slow and grand; emphasizing the magnitude of space and the ship. Then it becomes an upbeat pop-rock track because after all; it’s a comedy. But there’s still a melancholy tinge to it, especially with the lyrics (though the lyrics were later dropped) which also fits because ultimately their situation is quite bleak. ETA: Ah, I see, perhaps you think it doesn’t fit because of the actual lyrics. It’s true that if it were a less popular show, people wouldn’t get into it enough to appreciate the irony of the lyrics. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-where-the-theme-song-doesnt-really-fit/944040.md?page=2)