Just like the title says: What’s the worst theme song for a TV show in your opinion?
I just finished the first season of Weeds last night and the theme song for the show (“Little boxes”) is possibly the worst I have ever heard for a relatively recent TV show.
The one (imo) that exceeds it in sheer awfulness is the theme song for the 60’s cartoon The Incredible Hulk, the one that starts with “Doc Bruce Banner… belted by Gamma Rays… turned into the Hulk…”
That piece of shit gave me the worst earworm I ever had in my life - two fuggin weeks of it. I was in tears at times. Completely, utterly sucked. Thinking about it makes me want to hear “Little Boxes” again.
I thought the opening song for the original Smothers Brothers show (the sit-com they had prior to their controversial variety show) was pretty awful. I can’t find it on YouTube, though.
Maybe you already knew this, but “Little Boxes” was a famous song from the 1960s satirizing conformity. Whether it was good or bad is a matter of opinion, but it was famous and not just something thrown together for this show.
Personally, the ones I can’t stand are the Alan Thicke-type themes from the 80s with “meaningful” lyrics. In particular the ones from Family Ties, Facts of Life and of course Growing Pains.
You wonder how the TV business went from the greatness of the “Sanford and Son” and “Barney Miller” themes to the dreck of the 1980s in such a short time.
Maybe not the worst, but among the most annoying is “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?” which follows Jeopardy! in these parts – immediately – no break. If we can’t mute or switch channels in a microsecond, I start screaming!
“Little Boxes” was the perfect theme song for Weeds. It set the scene, and was, of course, a classic long before the show came out. I also liked the fact they played the Mavina Reynolds version (in the first season – they had others record it the second year).
I think that John Prine is a great singer-songwriter, and his song “Illegal Smile” a great song by any measure. But why it was used for The Texas Wheelers cannot be explained. I can’t fathom the reason why a TV show about a shiftless father and his responsible kids living in Texas and making ends meet would have a song talking about marijuana use (actually, it would have been a nice fit for Weeds)
The theme for the original Star Trek is OK, but if that’s because the lyrics were never sung.
They were never meant to be. The story I heard is that Roddenberry wrote them for the sole reason of getting a co-authorship credit and a share of the royalties for the theme music.
I believe Glen A. Larson was notorious for claiming co-authorship credits for the music written for his shows without even doing that much.
You gotta respect Standing Tall.
Personally, I’ve always felt that the use of “We used to be friends” for Veronica Mars’ intro was all wrong. The song was too heavy for a short intro, which made the cut really awkward, and the tie the lyrics had with the story was too obvious.
Yeah, I knew that. The theme was hypocritical back then, too - it’s not like there’s a wide variety of folk fashions out there. I love it when a member of one group with similar traits looks at another group with different traits and says “They’re all the same!” :rolleyes:
