Today my friend told me that every season Babylon 5 changes its theme song.
Now I’m curious which other shows have changed their songs at least once!
I can think of Roseanne and Boy Meets World.
What else is there?
The Cafe Society?
As a child, I remember being able to date whatever episode of the Cosby Show you were watching by the theme song and dance number.
Doug made subtle changes to its theme song one year, and most of my friends wouldn’t believe me when I told them the song was different. But if you listen to the song from say, the first season, and now, the differences are pretty obvious.
Ed on NBC had a popular song (sorry I don’t remember what it was called) as its theme in its first season, but apparently didn’t have the rights for more than that, and got a new theme in the second season. I liked the first one better.
And I’ve been dying to tell someone about this: I was watching the re-runs of the first season of The West Wing on Bravo, and noticed that the theme of the pilot and first four or five episodes was different than that of all subsequent episodes, right up to the present. I listened carefully and realized that it’s the same theme, even exactly the same orchestration, but the early version was performed on synthesizer, the later one by real instruments.
I’m guessing that when they started out they didn’t want to spend too much, in case the show tanked, but after the first several episodes did okay, someone decided to spring for real violins and trumpets. It was worth the bucks. The first version is weak and wimpy.
Hardcastle and McCormick Changed its theme song and then went back to the original. Wow that show is 20 years old.
Keeping up this cultural posting, Gilligan’s Island has 2 different theme songs. The most notable change was from “and the rest” to “the professor and Mary Ann”. (The vocal arrangements are different too).
Hawaii Five-O had a slightly different variation of its theme song from one season to another.
“Lost in Space” switched to its classic theme song after its first season.
“I Dream of Jeannie” had a great live-action opening sequence and theme song the first year, then went to a “blah” animated opening with new music.
“The Drew Carey Show” theme song changed each year for a while, then started repeating the old songs?
You can hear the original version of the Partridge Family theme here, and read the revised lyrics at this site.
In his rendition of the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme, Sonny Curtis originally sang “You might just make it after all” before changing the line to the more optimistic “You’re gonna make it after all”.
In Living Color
Well, I know that “Starsky and Hutch” changed themw songs midway through the run of the series.
And the “Baretta” theme was an instrumental in the first season- they didn’t add vocals by Sammy Davis Jr. until the next season.
Off to Cafe Society.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
I have 5 different remixes of the Wonder Woman theme. My fave is the french 2000 remix. And yes the original show changed some lyrics and style when it went from WW2 to modern day
<i>Remington Steele</i>'s first season led off with a smoky Mancini piece and a narration from Stephanie Zimbalist as Laura Holt. From the second season onward, the narration was dropped, the Mancini theme was relegated to the closing credits and a more attention-getting opening theme was adopted.
Alrighty, something I can contribute.
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Mystery Science Theater 3000 had no less than <b>6</b> theme song (or love theme, as they called it) changes.
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<b>KTMA</b>: This was when it was still on local TV.
<b>Joel</b> had his own theme from episode 101 to 512, when he departed the show.
<b>Mike</b> had his own theme from 513 until the end of Season 6 (624)
Then <b>TV’s Frank</b> left the show and the theme was retoolled again for the final season on <b>Comedy Central</b>, 701 - 706.
The <b>Sci-Fi Channel</b> then picked up MST3K, and a new theme was in place for the 8th and 9th seasons, from 801 until 913.
That’s when they updated the theme again to reflect the new setting of the show. The <b>Season 10</b> theme would run from 1001 until the last episode, 1013.
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I hope this bit of useless information helps someone. As for me? I liked the Season 7 and 10 themes a lot…but there’s just something about Joel’s theme. “But his bosses didn’t like him, so they shot him into space!” Full lyrics to all six theme songs are provided by the Satellite News: http://mst3kinfo.com/mstfaq/lyrics.html
RevRaven, HTML doesn’t work on the boards. 
I know, I know…I’m Captain Obvious…
“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” changed it’s theme song, slightly, in it’s later seasons.
Basically, they added more “synths.” Everything else about the theme was the same.
Murphy Brown changed its theme music fairly often.
I never watched it much, but I think the arrangement of the theme for “Seinfeld” changed just about every episode, to match his stand-up bits in the beginning.
Enterprise’s third season just began yesterday, and the instrumental track on the theme song was noticably different. The vocals were the same, though.
All in the Family re-recorded its theme song when viewers had trouble understanding one of the lines to “Those were the Days”. To me, the line sounded like an Italian greeting to a woman:
“Giarola, Sarah Grey!”
But the line really was:
“Gee our old La Salle ran great”.
On the re-recording they ee-nun-see-ate more clearly.
I was going to mention the Gilligan’s Island change from … “and the rest” to 'The Professor and Mary Ann**, but wolf_meister beat me to it. It always bothered me that “and the rest” consisted of only two people. I’ll bet Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells were pissed off about it too. It strikes me as lazy songwriting. Like the way the opening announcement for 60 Minutes always endes with “…all that, and more, on 60 Minutes”, when “more” was just Andy Rooney. They finally changed the opening to admit that.
The sitcom It’s About Time changed the theme, and the whole opening, when they changed the premise about halfway through the season.
Heck, any show that was around for a long time probably changed the theme or the opening at least once. Twilight Zone had several different openings and at least two themes. Get Smart re-recorded its theme after it jumped networks. The Cosby Show changed themes and openings several times.