It was actually a Sunbeam Tiger, which was the higher performance version of the Alpine with a fat Ford V8 rather than a 1600 Hillman engine. Beautiful cars.
My mistake, yes, it was a Tiger. Or at least, it was supposed to be seen as one on the show. But according to Wikipedia, it was an Alpine under the skin because the smaller engine gave them more room to mount gadgets.
Before the Gonzo trumpet gags, the first season of the Muppets had a completely different opening sequence and the variable gag was Gonzo gonging the letter O in “Show”.
The DVDs and syndicated episodes have all been replaced with the newer opening.
Not a particularly early example, but a good one; the second series of Blackadder had themed credits at the start, and different annoying themed lyrics sung by the annoying minstrel during the closing credits.
More than that.
I’ve started re-watching Frasier from the beginning. Something I noticed watching episodes back to back is the music at the beginning changes from episode to episode. There’s about 25 different ones. I don’t recall noticing that first time around.
I’d guess that in between the different animations, the different music, and the different colour letters, no two openings are the same… probably.
Probably not the oldest, but every Garfield and Friends had Garfield saying a different thing at the end of the opening credits.
Not exactly the same as a new gag for each episode, but didn’t All in the Family feature Archie and Edith singing the theme live in front of the studio audience before each episode?
They didn’t perform it live for every episode, but they did record multiple versions as the series progressed.
How about SOAP ?? Loved that show.
It may not have changed every episode, but first they all posed for the portrait, then ceiling comes down, later added more family members, even later added them fighting each other when the picture snapped and then added the ceiling come down crashing on them when they fought.
One Opening.
Bonus: My favorite scene: Bob & Chuck Mindreading
The opening of the first season of Space 1999 also did “This Episode…” smash cuts highlighting exciting scenes coming up. Different production company from MI, but maybe Bain and Landau liked that kind of intro.
Also Thunderbirds
Just changes from one season to the next. In the earliest NBC episodes, you see him round a corner in his car; in the later ones, you see him in a longer-range shot drive up to it; in the last season, which was on CBS (and the theme song and credits changed), it starts with shots of DC landmarks.
In the opening to The Critic, Jay would wake up to a different news story on the radio and the very same opening ended with a short film parody to which Jay Sherman would announce “It Stinks!”.
Not the earliest, by a long shot, but the thread got the theme song stuck in my head, so I can only hope to do the same to some of you fine folks. 