Amazing Stories
The Incredible Hulk
The Get Smart opening title sequence is classic.
Medical Center – the opening that looked and sounded like it was from a cop show.
On the other hand, that’s what Sherwood Schwartz was trying for with the openings for *Gilligan’s Island *and the Brady Bunch.
Dexter is one of the best, but when you’re tired of it, you’re really tired of it.
Seconded.
The intro for Ghost Whisperer is amusingly trippy.
“She’s tearing herself in half! And that girl has a dress made of bees!”
Sorry, at work so no Youtube link.
I liked the dream sequence they did last season where Dex’s morning didn’t go quite so smoothly (he misses the mosquito, his shoelace breaks, etc).
The '70s version of Match Game is a classic that has never been equaled.
You just reminded me that the My Name is Earl creator’s new show Raising Hope has a great title sequence, giving you the premise of the show in the style of the Dick and Jane books.
Mad Men.
CHiPs
WKRP
Addams Family
There are so many.
I don’t like Dexter’s opening. It squicks me out for some reason, I try to skip up to the part where he’s locking the door and walking away.
I like the opening for Cougar Town this year, where they keep making fun of the way the name of the show doesn’t fit anymore and the rumors they were going to change it. Like one week it was “Still Cougar Town” another week it was “Modern Cougar Town” playing off being on after Modern Family. There’ve been others, but those are the ones I remember at the moment.
Love it or hate it (and easy to hate it when you leave the TV on for latenight background noise during a marathon) but The Nanny animation and retro-style themesong is one of the most memorable, which I think would make it one of the best.
The show didn’t last long, but Branded’s themesong and opening sequence of a soldier being stripped of his rank/buttons/insignia/his sword broken/etc., lived long after it. I know it’s been parodied in Married With Children and when I was a kid we used to sing various dirty schoolyard versions of it (“Stranded, stranded on the toilet bowl/what will you do when you’re stranded/and you don’t have a roll?”). I think other shows and movies have parodied it as well.
So many good ones, so I’ll stick to choosing one which hasn’t been mentioned yet.
Father Ted. Great music with the aerial shot over the water, then over the picturesque Irish landscape, and finally with the helicopter crashing into the main characters.
Weeds has clever openings. Every episode begins with the name and logo of the show appearing followed by the name of the creator (Jenji Cohan, IIRC), usually on an inanimate object that will somehow be relevant in the plot later. On the latest episode for instance the title was on the front of a corpse’s toe tag and the creator on the reverse side, and a part of the show took place in a morgue.
In the first two (or three?) seasons the show began with the song Little Boxes sung by a different singer next week. That was a clever concept that got old really quick, not least for the fact it’s one of the most annoying songs on the planet. I much prefer the new style.
In the early 90s there was a syndicated version of The Untouchables. The theme was so great that even though I probably haven’t seen the show in 18 years I still hum it from time to time.