It took me about three seasons before I had it memorized, only to discover the damn thing has three verses! (they’re not very good tho)
Justified. Never miss the show, always FF through the theme.
In addition to Friends, another one of my most hated is that of Little House on the Prairie (both the song, and the show). Another demerit: Two and a Half Men.
Did you know there were lyrics to the DVD theme?
DVD has always been one of my favorite shows; it was always well-written and genuinely funny, and I always liked the theme as well. The whole production had class, something today’s sitcoms sorely lack.
There are at least two show-length clips of Checkmate on YouTube (one with Jeffrey Hunter) that I decided were not worth linking to because there is too much story before you get to too little theme music, so I just meant that a short clip of the music was hard to find. But that swirly mess in the opening credits I always assumed was like Jackson Pollock art or oil-and-water designs. I never saw the show in color.
And I agree that Cabot was a lot like Victor Buono, another “hefty” bearded character actor of the period, in that seeing him as a lead character was a bit weird. Even Doug McClure, with his substantial The Virginian credits, was perhaps better known as a “hair model” for some hair tonic.
But Shelly Manne (and His Men) had a terrific jazz album based on Checkmate music that was fine.
I do understand what you mean. One of my top 3 shows as shows, but near the bottom for music!
Sing the lyrics of The Brady Bunch theme to the tune of The Ballad of the Green Berets; it improves them both.
I actually did. Van Dyke was on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me a few years ago and that’s when I first heard them. Singing the lyrics does make the theme song more bearable, but I still sometimes forget and let myself try to hum it.
I heard a guy on TV singing lyrics to the whistling Andy Griffith show song. I think it was called “The Old Fishing Hole”.
Weird Al Yankovic did The Brady Bunch to the tune of The Safety Dance.
Because my son has been watching this shit endlessly - Power Rangers.
All of them.
Was it Andy Griffith himself?
Also, the Bonanza theme had lyrics, too.
I wonder if those songs with unheard lyrics have them for the same reason as Star Trek. The lyrics writer gets half the royalties for all performances, even lyricless.
Bewitched also had lyrics. I’ll have to think about my response to the OP.
1970s Match Game.
Not just those things but it also sounds like Christian Rock. Star Trek is NOT a Christian show. It was just fundamentally a wrong choice. Or correct considering the series.
The show Suddenly Susan had a great theme the first season. A nice rock version of Ode to Joy on electric guitar. Then it changed to some sort of lesbian pop song Awful.
So did Hogan’s Heroes, Dick van Dyke, Leave It to Beaver, and many other shows:
These lyrics were used in the last two seasons, but I much prefer the earlier lush orchestral version:
He’s listed as the artist, yes.
More than one version:
There are also two vocal versions of the Hawaii Five-O theme, one by Sammy Davis and the other by Don Ho:
http://www.mjq.net/fiveo/5-0lyrics.txt
I’ve heard the Don Ho version, but can’t seem to find a recording of it. You can request it here:
One can’t argue with the Barney theme, but a terrible one not composed by brain sucking aliens from outer space is The Double Life of Henry Phyfe. To be fair, no worse than the show itself.
The theme from Batman on the other hand exactly illustrated what that show was all about. If you didn’t like the theme, and changed channels, you were just saving yourself from a show you wouldn’t have liked.