# Was this song the theme to The Rockford Files? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, music\ **Created:** [March 22, 2024, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220 "2024-03-22T20:04:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220/1 "2024-03-22T20:04:14Z")
Was Billy Preston’s Space Race the theme to The Rockford Files? And since this one question does not seem worthy enough for its own thread, a coupla bonus questions. Please add and/or answer questions if you like. I’m sure John Williams has written more theme songs than Lost In Space. Anything after Star Wars? How many versions of Little Boxes did Weeds use? I stopped watching after the mom got too ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220/2 "2024-03-22T20:09:43Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Was Billy Preston’s Space Race the theme to The Rockford Files? “Rockford” was written by that prolific TV theme duo, [Post](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Post) & [Carpenter.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Carpenter) [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9ScJz0fLRmw/hqdefault.jpg "Mike Post - The Rockford Files") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ScJz0fLRmw) ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220/3 "2024-03-22T20:22:26Z")
Ah! You can see my confusion. [Space Race from Billy Preston.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn5Sov5sdc4) Board not letting me embed vid for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220/4 "2024-03-22T20:32:51Z")
Here you go: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/yn5Sov5sdc4/maxresdefault.jpg "Space Race") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn5Sov5sdc4) ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220/5 "2024-03-22T20:44:40Z")
Thanks! I kept getting errors for some dumb reason. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220/6 "2024-03-22T21:07:44Z")
Huh. Definitely some similarity. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2024, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220/7 "2024-03-22T21:41:58Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > I’m sure John Williams has written more theme songs than Lost In Space. Anything after Star Wars? > **[List of compositions by John Williams | Television](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_John_Williams#Television)** > > 1.For NBC (United States): > NBC News – "The Mission" > NBC Nightly News > The Today Show > Meet the Press > NBC Sunday Night Football | > 2.NBC News – "The Mission" > NBC Nightly News > The Today Show > Meet the Press | > 3.NBC Nightly News | > 4.The Today Show | > 5.Meet the Press | > 6.NBC Sunday Night Football Post-1977, he did themes for PBS’s _Evening at Pops_ NBC’s _Amazing Stories_ PBS’s _Great Performances_ Disney+'s _Obi-Wan Kenobi_ He also did themes for _NBC Nightly News_, _The Today Show_, _Meet the Press_, and _NBC Sunday Night Football_, although the wiki doesn’t say what years he did those. ---
**Author:** ![Kimble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimble/32/19185_2.png) [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220/8 "2024-03-23T00:35:31Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > He also did themes for _NBC Nightly News_, _The Today Show_, _Meet the Press_, and _NBC Sunday Night Football_, although the wiki doesn’t say what years he did those [1985](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mission_(theme_music)) for the first three; [2006](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC_Sunday_Night_Football#Theme_music) for the latter. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220/9 "2024-03-23T14:19:07Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Thanks! I kept getting errors for some dumb reason. It’s well documented now that you need to do some special tricks to post a previewable vid. This started abut a year ago. Annoying, but vids are easy enough to do once you know the trick. Here’s about the most coherent explanation of what’s happening and how to outsmart it so your vids post correctly: > [@Have links to YouTube been disabled?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-links-to-youtube-been-disabled/981958/170): > > I’ve seen a few links to this thread from other threads, but the information is a bit scattershot, so I think it’s worth summarizing. The bug occurs because Discourse now sees a YouTube preview–that is, the inline video as compared to a bare link–as a “media item”. We don’t allow media items on this site for cost reasons, but in this case it’s a bug because the video is hosted elsewhere. And this is new behavior. Discourse takes a few seconds to convert a bare link into a preview. That is t… ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220/10 "2024-03-23T15:44:56Z")
I didn’t realize I’d trick the board all the other times I posted vids. Weird board. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220/11 "2024-03-23T15:48:38Z")
Hey, another sort of musical question: Did Captain and Tennille divorce so that they could continue medical treatment without facing financial doom? I heard that on some radio show or other but I don’t know if that’s true or Hollywood sensationalism. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220/12 "2024-03-23T15:53:27Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > PBS’s _Evening at Pops_ It may also be worth noting that _Evening at Pops_ is a series featuring performances by the Boston Pops; Williams wrote that theme for the TV series in 1981, a year after he had become the Boston Pops’ musical director, succeeding the legendary Arthur Fiedler. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2024, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220/13 "2024-03-28T14:35:48Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Hey, another sort of musical question: Did Captain and Tennille divorce so that they could continue medical treatment without facing financial doom? I heard that on some radio show or other but I don’t know if that’s true or Hollywood sensationalism. Toni Tenielle filed for divorce in 2015, citing a lack of affection from Daryl Dragon. The divorce was final in 2016, and they remained friends, with Toni even going to support him through health challenges he was facing. She was at his side when he died in 2019. So, no, their divorce was apparently not motivated by concern over healthcare costs. Interestingly though, she reported that they got married on the advice from their tax accountant. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2024, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-this-song-the-theme-to-the-rockford-files/999220/14 "2024-03-29T00:14:46Z")
I’m getting divorced right now. From a tax perspective I’d be far better off married. However that is the only possible upside to us staying married. So we’re not.