Here are a few I haven’t seen mentioned:
Perry Mason - when they play the whole thing.
All in the Family
The Flintstones
The Pink Panther
Scooby Doo
Mary Tyler Moore
I would nominate Hawaii 5-0 and Mission Impossible for the best TV theme songs of all time.
You can also tell I don’t watch much in the way of contemporary shows :rolleyes:
When did TV theme songs become less of a priority for TV producers?
I know there is a trend to get the TV show titles out of the way ASAP due to people’s short attention spans and to squeeze a few more seconds of advertisements in.
But curious when we go from good, memorable compositions (even for TV shows that were not good), to generic, quick theme openings.
I used to watch The Fall Guy with my grandparents, mainly because I loved the theme song. (Heather Thomas doesn’t really do anything for me :p) I haven’t heard that song in years and I could still sing along.
Some of my other favorites have already been mentioned- Greatest American Hero and The Big Bang Theory.
One I didn’t see - American Bandstand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYsej0ykSXI
Hard to believe, but in Solow and Justman’s book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story they talk about how Lalo Schifrin’s work on ***Mission ***was snubbed at (IIRC) the Emmys in 1967 (along with the music of TOS). If I’m not mistaken, **no **music awards were given out that year because the powers that were didn’t like any of the submissions.
What I miss is when songs were actually written, fully orchestrated, FOR the show, and the music got you in the right frame of mind to watch it. it really set a tone. Now it seems it is just easier to use a mediocre snippet from the latest pop tart’s mashup sampled piece of unoriginal garbage, or to pull a lukewarm remake of a 70s classic…just seems so much less special and leaves me cold.
And someone mentioned the Golden Girls…and I gotta nitpick about that one…it’s one of those lukewarm remakes of a 70s classic, like mentioned above, not really a theme song.
And to call myself out for my pick of All in the Family, that opening song wasn’t specifically written for the show either, it was just an obscure old song nobody was familiar with anymore, so it can’t really be a theme song either, despite the originality of Jean Stapleton, BUT the out-going music was original (co-written by Carroll O’Connor), and just as much associated with the show as the opening.
Yes, that really IS hard to fathom. We don’t know what we have until it is gone.
And I forgot to mention The Andy Griffith Show. Talk about setting the tone for exactly what you were about to see, lol! Perfect!
Speaking of Lalo-- on my playlist is Theme from Mannix.
Not Lalo but still very cool, Theme from Lost in Space.
Just looked it up. Lost in Space is John Williams. Of course.
Almost forgot one as it was a sports show instead of evening entertainment shows…
The theme to CBS Sports Saturday, which was clipped from the ELO song Fire On High.
Seinfeld. Although opening the show with a bit of his standup was defensible, it set a bad precedent.
Anyone who was there will tell you this was the greatest of all time. The most exciting thing to hear in a theme…
For sure the blating horns distinguish this theme from others but for all around best lyrics for '60s superheros, nobody beats Spidey. Although, the best superhero cartoon theme song line has got to be When Captain America throws his mighty shield/ All those who chose to oppose his shield must yieeeeeeld!
[Moderator note]
drad dog, please don’t just post a YouTube link and say “this is the greatest”. It’s much more useful to give readers some idea of what your link is (in this case, the Adam West Batman).
Hey Hey We’re The Monkees wasn’t bad, but For Pete’s Sake (used as the closing credits theme for the second season) was a better song.
OK “It was the Adam West Batman”
And here is the Diana Rigg Avengers:
You are on my wavelength. I heard those cartoons when I was so small. I have them all on mp3 now.
here’s the Road Runner theme. Tot me one of the greatest.
