# Who the Hell is Chris Gerolmo? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2005, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-chris-gerolmo/327512 "2005-10-23T07:39:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2005, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-chris-gerolmo/327512/1 "2005-10-23T07:39:54Z")
I’ve been watching _Over There_ since it debuted. There are a lot of good things about this show, and of course some not so good. The very worst thing about this show–in fact, the very worst thing on television, universally, that I’m aware of–is the theme song. First of all, it has the worst lyrics ever written by a moony seventh grader who thinks he’s a Poet but actually he’s maybe a little retarded: _The day is coming Drums are drumming If you know one say a prayer Mothers crying Father’s sighing War is in the air Trains filling up with boys Who have left behind their favorite toys They’re going over there …_ Now tell me these lyrics weren’t first written in a blue-lined spiral notebook between homework for Algebra I and Social Studies. Second, it’s sung in exactly the way that you’d expect such a lyric to be sung: “tortured” male whiteboy coffeehouse vocals over a clumsily strummed acoustic guitar. Until the big finish, when we get for a coda the kind of sustained electric guitar screech you’d hear coming out of the next door neighbor’s basement because they can’t get their loser pothead son to move out. Just an awful, bad, horrible song that makes it necessary for me to watch the end of every show with the sound muted, because the goddamn theme song plays over the goddamn epilogue of every episode. But the worst thing about this travesty of a theme song, is that it’s written and performed byChris Gerolmo, who is–I’m not making this up–the fucking EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CO-CREATOR OF THE SHOW! And if you read the credits of _Over There_, you discover that every other person on the pay roll is named Something Bochco. What gives? Is \*Over There \*just a bloated vanity project that just accidentally has some pretty decent scripts? ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-chris-gerolmo/327512/2 "2005-10-24T17:36:24Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > - > > Trains filling up with boys > Who have left behind their favorite toys > They’re going over there > …\* > > Now tell me these lyrics weren’t first written in a blue-lined spiral notebook between homework for Algebra I and Social Studies. I know nothing about Chris G., although i have been watching the show. I just wanted to add that every time I hear that passage quoted above, I want to shout “WRONG!” You see, the boys are NOT leaving behind their favorite toys. I’m as sure as can be that all those boys (and girls, maybe) in the all-volunteer military think of guns, Humvees, jet bombers, laser sights, infradreed goggles, tanks, granades, and so on as their favorite toys. I mean, it’s a good bet most boys would; I’d think that, as a generalization, boys who enlisted almost certainly do. And they are NOT leaving THOSE toys behind. So it makes no sense – or so little sense that it’s the equivalent of none at all. It loks like the “songwriter” was just tortured for a rhyme. And it’s not like boys:toys is original or underused as a rhyme scheme. :smack: Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-chris-gerolmo/327512/3 "2005-10-24T17:37:51Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > infrared goggles, tanks, grenades, Edit ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2005, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-chris-gerolmo/327512/4 "2005-10-24T18:58:30Z")
Is it worse than Joss Whedon’s theme song for Firefly? ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-chris-gerolmo/327512/5 "2005-10-25T02:52:22Z")
Without ever having heard the theme to Firefly, I can say unequivocally that YES, it’s worse. The theme to “Over There” never fails to end every episode on a down-note. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-chris-gerolmo/327512/6 "2005-10-25T03:07:38Z")
You will all be wanting his recently released CD [I’m Your Daddy](http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4058321) no doubt. Nice track titles. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2005, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-chris-gerolmo/327512/7 "2005-10-25T06:24:57Z")
> [@Push You Down](#): > > Is it worse than Joss Whedon’s theme song for Firefly? The theme for _Firefly is lameish; the theme for Over There_ is Big Daddy Monster Lamest of the Lame on the Grandest Possible Scale of Lame Lameness.