No love for the Grohl?
Comedy Drama Hour-Long TV series Ed (Big City Lawyer hits job and marital problems so returns to his Small Home Town to run a bowling alley) swopped between theme tunes by (The mighty) Foo Fighters (at their most poppy with “Next Year”) and Clem Snide’s “Moment In The Sun”.
Apparently Foo Fighters were the favoured choice but there were “legal issues” which cropped up from time to time between seasons and with international sales and DVDs…
TCMF-2L
National Geographic TV specials. What a compelling fanfare (Elmer Bernstein!) with a fantastic buildup and that Bum Bum. I don’t know how many times it changed.
Since I can’t find the original 1960’s theme, this made me laugh.
Wanna see something really scary?
The Italian cartoon Winx has changed theme songs every year or two years since its inception. Each grouping of Enchantrix or Believix has its own theme, as well as the original theme from season 1 to season 2.
Source: have 4 year old daughter who watches them nonstop and it eats into my brain.
Its spinoff A Different World (Lisa Bonet’s character goes off to college) changed its theme music too. IIRC the lyrics stayed the same, but the arrangement changed from a very old-fashioned folk blues to a much more contemporary urban/R&B feel.
The first season, at least, didn’t have kids singing at all. The theme was sung by a dude.
Daniel Boone (NBC, 1964-1970) changed the orchestration and the singing of the theme for each of its six seasons.
Ironside (1967-1975) changed the orchestration of its Quincy Jones theme three times in its eight-season run.
In the first season of “Baretta,” "the theme music had no vocals.
Later, they added lyrics sung by Sammy Davis Jr. (Keep your eyyyyyyye on the sparrow…).
Can’t believe I missed this thread when it first appeared…
Here are two I can think of:
Eight is Enough - the theme switched from an instrumental to an entirely different song with lyrics sung by Grant Goodeve. Also, I think the earliest episodes (with Diana Hyland as Tom’s wife Joan, before Hyland died) had the instrumental in a slightly different key.
Doc - an old Barnard Hughes sitcom; at first, it was a vocal, then it switched to a (different) instrumental.
Caroline in the City - at first, its “theme song” was about 3-4 seconds long (just long enough to display the title), then it added longer opening credits.
New Girl - at first, Zooey Deschanel sings the theme (which she sang during the pilot), but after a few seasons, it was replaced with a shortened, instrumental version, made even shorter for the 2016-17 season.
That was my very first thought.
Ever?
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. had different orchestrations of the Jerry Goldsmith theme for each of its four seasons (Lalo Schifrin worked on the second season theme; I believe it was Gerald Fried for the third season, and maybe Richard Shores for the fourth).
The Wild Wild West had its theme re-orchestrated for its second season.
Get Smart’s theme was re-orchestrated (adding a prologue) for its final season (moving from NBC to CBS).
Perry Mason had its theme re-orchestrated for its third or fourth season.
Have Gun Will Travel had a vocal added to its end credits, starting in its second season.
Actually I think it changed from “How will you make it on your own” to “You’re gonna make it on your own”.
(or maybe “You might just make it…”?)
mmm
The last line went from “you just might make it after all” to “you’re gonna make it after all.” Peedin was talking about the difference in the first line from Season 1 to subsequent seasons. He got it right.
All the lines are different except for “Love is all around, no need to waste it. You can never tell, why don’t you take it.”
There were multiple versions of the Barney Miller theme.
Appropriately for a zombie thread, the recent summer show Braindead had a different opening song for every episode - it served as the “previously on” recap.
If you don’t mind being spoiled, you can hear them all here: Jonathan Coulton ♫ ALL Braindead Recap Songs ♪ SUPERCUT (spoilers) - YouTube
Gimme a Break had 2 versions, I am pretty sure.
You didn’t miss it!
You were here before, too!
I only point this out because I almost reposted about Castle.:smack: