Do cartoons count as sitcoms?
“a hundred and four days of summer vacation…”
Psych has one. It’s original and written by the creator Steve Franks, and its lyrics include “I know you know that I’m not telling the truth.”
Dads misses it pretty close: the opening theme is a guy wistfully recalling how he had lots of how-many-stars-up-in-the-sky questions back when Daddy took him to the zoo – but the gag is that it’s a show where now-grown men (a) have no problem holding down jobs and owning their homes, but (b) have their hands full dealing with their freeloading fathers, who give plenty of useless advice and mostly just get in the way.
Wow, nobody called me on calling Orange is the New Black a sitcom…
Disney more recently gave us Good Luck Charlie, where the gimmick is that episodes typically end with the Cool Big Sis recapping everything in a video-diary entry for her baby sister, who’ll need this advice in years to come, especially given her oddball parents.
So of course the opening theme is that Big Sis singing about her jokey dad and the importance of hanging in there, baby – because I’ve been there; I survived; so just take my advice, even as toast gets burnt and misplaced stuff turns up on the roof.
As a Brit, the one that springs to my mind is Only Fools and Horses…
Stick a pony* in me pocket,
I’ll fetch the suitcase from the van.
Cos if you want the best 'uns,
But you don’t ask questions,
Then brother, I’m your man.
Cos where it all comes from is a mystery,
It’s like the changin’ of the seasons,
And the tides of the sea.
But here’s the one that’s drivin’ me beserk,
Why do only fools and horses work?
==============================================
*Pony = £25.00 cash.
Family Guy and American Dad both have orginal intro songs too. It’s a very Seth McFarlane-y move.
Well, it’s an homage to Archie Bunker/All in the Family.
Mary?
I meant it as it’s a very Seth Macfarlane-y thing to do homages, and to emulate bygone pop-culture icons such as having intro songs - Not that Seth MacFarlane started the trend of intro songs.
You know, I’m fifty nine years old, and I like that show.
Also an homage to another famous sitcom with “Family” in the title: