Television Theme Songs

[Paolino]

Okay, so I've been saying this for a few years now... tv show theme songs are gone. I don't even know why it's so important, but at any given moment, you can hum a theme from a tv show anytime between the 50's through the early 2000's, and everyone knows what it you're talking about. Most smile and join in.

TV shows now don't have theme songs (at least most of them). They have a title screen at most. Some don't even do that and scroll credits during the beginning of the episode.

Am I the only one who misses theme songs? The reason I bring it up is because again the discussion surfaced tonight when my cell went off ringing to the theme of The Office, and people chimed in humming it.

[trinacriabob]

Just today, a co-worker said to me "haven't you seen that on TV?" I then stated that I only watch about 20 hours of TV A YEAR.

What made you think of this ... just curious ... because the MSN home page reported that the man who came up with "The Addams Family" jingle passed away within the last week or so. Sad, because he was evidently very talented.

Others that are catchy, but equally stupid, are:

- Three's Company

- Gilligan's Island

- The Beverly Hillbillies

- Green Acres

- Good Times/The Jeffersons (I think one of these said " movin' on up, to the East Side")

I'm sorry, but I never gave this much thought, but now thinking about these songs and their lyrics makes me :rotflmao:

Edited November 5, 2009 by trinacriabob

[FAPTurbo]

I suppose "Won't get Fooled Again" by The Who kinda counts because it's the 'theme' for CSI: Miami, and is segued into after David Caruso makes a corny one-liner.

[Paolino]

What made you think of this ... just curious

The reason I bring it up is because again the discussion surfaced tonight when my cell went off ringing to the theme of The Office, and people chimed in humming it.

[trinacriabob]

Ok, I was wondering if there was anything else other than that, such as the "Addams Family" dude.

[Justin Bimmer]

I complain about this all the time. It's just one less expense for a show. Also, shows don't have any music period now. No more composing music for the show.

CHiPs used to have some of the best composed music. Alan Silvestri did the music on CHiPs. In fact, it launched him into the big time.

Also Mike Post did great themes too like Hill Street Blues.

Don't even get me started on SCORE productions music for Game Shows.

A theme song used to be what you identified a show with. Now you identify the show by who is screwing who or who killed who.

The only show I can think of that has a legit theme is Law and Order.

[trinacriabob]

Also Mike Post did great themes too like Hill Street Blues.

Excellent, as I recall. Some of the fully instrumental ones, like this one, are great.

Of the fully instrumental ones, the best one, IMO, has to be from "Twin Peaks" by someone named Angelo Badalamenti (edit-just checked the spelling) (didn't follow the show, but I've heard this song while channel surfing in the car and landing on jazz stations).

Edited November 5, 2009 by trinacriabob

[Justin Bimmer]

Off the top of my head, some of my favorite all time themes:

CHiPs

Hill Street Blues

Magnum P.I.

Law and Order

The Sopranos

Rockford Files

Cheers

Monday Night Football

NYPD Blue

Gee, I guess I like Cop Shows.

[SAmadei]

Hmmm... some favorite TV themes...

The A-team

Munsters

Addams Family

Dukes of Hazzard

Gilligan's Island

Sanford and Son

SuperJail

Sure there are some more...

[FAPTurbo]

I've been spoiled in the soundtrack department by Miami Vice. Jan Hammer's fantastic work captured the 'Miami' setting perfectly, and the liberal use of popular music to set the scene and mood has been often imitated, but never duplicated.

The Sopranos soundtrack was also awesome.

[NEXTEL CUP]

I think you guys have found the missing link on what makes a TV show go from good to great. The last truely great sitcom was FRIENDS and it had a great theme song. The song was by the Remembrandts and it was played on Radio and was a top 20 radio hit. My favorite show now HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER has a theme song but I would classify the song as a NEO-SEINFIELD .

[Drew Dowdell]

Some recent good ones:

Boston Legal

West Wing

Law and Order

The CSIs

Six Feet Under

Weeds

House

[trinacriabob]

Sanford and Son

Oh yeah...an instrumental one, but pretty good...and set the mood for what was to come.

Without AUNT ESTHER, "Sanford and Son" would have had lost a lot of its kick.

I'm sure we've all had an AUNT ESTHER somewhere try to hand us a religious pamphlet or two....

Edited November 5, 2009 by trinacriabob

[trinacriabob]

The edit feature timed out on me. Here is Aunt Esther, one of the funniest people in sitcom history:

[Paolino]

Some of my favorite theme songs include

I Love Lucy

All In the Family

Unsolved Mysteries

Growing Pains (although that was an actual song)

Golden Girls (again, a cover of an actual song)

[Camino LS6]

Hadn't thought about this before.

Not exactly the same thing, but I think Jerry Bruckheimer's (sp?) use of contemporary music in his various series has been brilliant. He seems to tailor songs to each episode.

[Robert Hall]

One of my favorite older shows for use of contemporary music was 'Miami Vice'..loved that show when I was in high school and living in S. Florida. Not sure if Michael Mann was the first to do that, but he really elevated the use of music in a TV show..fit the MTV era perfectly.

My favorite theme song and opening credits in recent TV history in 'The Sopranos'... the show also used music effectively in each episode. Another recent one I liked was 'The Wire'...I like how they had different remixes and covers of the same song each season.

I watch very little network or even cable TV these days. Other than Top Gear, some news on MSNBC and a couple shows, I mostly watch DVDs when I watch TV.

Edited November 5, 2009 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[The O.C.]

Just today, a co-worker said to me "haven't you seen that on TV?" I then stated that I only watch about 20 hours of TV A YEAR.

What made you think of this ... just curious ... because the MSN home page reported that the man who came up with "The Addams Family" jingle passed away within the last week or so. Sad, because he was evidently very talented.

Others that are catchy, but equally stupid, are:

- Three's Company

- Gilligan's Island

- The Beverly Hillbillies

- Green Acres

- Good Times/The Jeffersons (I think one of these said " movin' on up, to the East Side")

I'm sorry, but I never gave this much thought, but now thinking about these songs and their lyrics makes me :rotflmao:

Click here for your enjoyment!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcggr_23WJU

[The O.C.]

Some of my favorite theme songs include

I Love Lucy

All In the Family

Unsolved Mysteries

Growing Pains (although that was an actual song)

Golden Girls (again, a cover of an actual song)

I LOVE the Golden Girls song!

I think the thing is.....we don't have the same quality of TV that we had in the 70's, 80's, and some of the 90's......

[The O.C.]

One of my favorites.......ok not really a song with words......but fun to listen to and watch all the same!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFD9dcqIC3Y...feature=related

Isn't she just GORGEOUS?

[SAmadei]

I LOVE the Golden Girls song!

With Bea Arthur in your signature, I would have expected you to me more of a 'Maude' type. ;-)

Actually, I like the Maude theme somewhat... but I like the extended version from Family Guy even better...

[The O.C.]

With Bea Arthur in your signature, I would have expected you to me more of a 'Maude' type. ;-)

Actually, I like the Maude theme somewhat... but I like the extended version from Family Guy even better...

I know I should probably rotate my sig more.....but I just LOVE Dorothy with the massive cucumber.....(not that there's anything phallic about it....)

[Justin Bimmer]

Bea Arthur was in Golden Girls

[Croc]

I've been spoiled in the soundtrack department by Miami Vice. Jan Hammer's fantastic work captured the 'Miami' setting perfectly, and the liberal use of popular music to set the scene and mood has been often imitated, but never duplicated.

The Sopranos soundtrack was also awesome.

This. Miami Vice was such a slickly-produced program...

Here's the thing about soundtracks and opening sequences: networks can fit in more commercials without them, or, increasingly due to DVR, that's another 40 seconds of footage for the show.

[BigPontiac]

I think the TV Show Psych does a pretty good job of using their theme song...lately they've even redone the opening and song depending on the episode.

[Paolino]

Some shows I remember from growing up:

la mujer bionica (Bionic Woman theme, inside joke between the Spanish teacher and myself)

Diff'rent Strokes Theme

Who's the Boss (started my Alyssa Milano obsession)

(actually, I didn't watch this until a few years ago)

And I won't admit to the last three big ones I watched

[Justin Bimmer]

CHiPs

Hill Street Blues

Rockford Files (If it were to be allotted the time for today's show intros) - Notice all the cool stuff is missing.

Cheers

NYPD Blue

New ones I'm adding to the list

MacGyver

[SAmadei]

Bea Arthur was in Golden Girls

That's why I made the comment... he obviously likes Bea Arthur shows, theme or not, and Maude has four times as much iconic Bea Arthur... for better or worse. ;-)

[trinacriabob]

Who's the Boss (started my Alyssa Milano obsession)

Other than this one, I can't comment on the others.

This actually ties into another thread...when I hear the word COUGAR, I think of Judith Light, the "propietess" in that show. :rotflmao:

As for the other observations, most cops and robbers shows uniformly seem to have good theme music. As for Beatrice Arthur, if you liked her, I don't think you mind having your testicles under a guillotine. (And I'm just poking fun here). Seriously, tough statesque gravelly-voiced Northeastern women are funny in VERY SMALL doses...my Mom knew a lot of them who transplanted to "the Coast" and sooner than later I would be sparring with them, telling them to mind their own 'effin business. They all backed down because they know I wouldn't.

Edited November 6, 2009 by trinacriabob

[trinacriabob]

Actually, I like the Maude theme somewhat...

Hey, all I remember is something about "Lady Godiva was a freedom (garbled)...and then there's Maude," with that matron then opening her front door.

What I liked was the aerial shots of cityscapes in all those opening credit sequences...so a couple of questions to the Northeasterners, or those in-the-know on this:

1) is the bridge they show the G.W.? Over to NJ?

2) isn't the show supposedly set in Tuckahoe, NY, which would make it Westchester County?

3) and Archie and Edith, her cousins, lived in Queens, NY...but whereabouts in Queens, since I can name at least 25 communities in Queens?

It was also a blast to find houses from sitcoms...like the Brady Bunch house, the Beverly Hillbillies house, etc. and taking your out-of-town friends and relatives to see them.

[regfootball]

the 30 seconds they spent on the theme song every week, they can sell advertising for instead.

[Robert Hall]

Hmm..Allyssa Milano obsession...been there, done that...I remember as a kid having a thing for Eric Gray in 'Buck Rodgers in the 21st Century', the blonde on Facts of Life, Lauren Tewes (sp?)--the blonde on 'The Love Boat' (I swear my first GF in jr high looked like a younger version of her), the first female cop on 'ChiPs' (brunette), and a TV movie actress w/ the most incredible eyes--Lisa Eilbacher (anyone remember her from the late '70s-early '80s)? She was in 'Beverly Hills Cop'.

[trinacriabob]

I have a knee-jerk reaction to dislike/distrust most movie stars, probably from growing up in L.A. I loved the topography, geography, climate and recreational opportunities the Southland had to offer, but hated the constant "I know someone who knows someone in "the industry"."

But, backing up to who is attractive or not, the last TV persona who I could say that about is Melina Kanakarides (sp). Since I don't watch much TV, I was watching an episode of now-defunct "Providence" and learned who she was. Though she is Greek, she does not look very ethnic.

[Robert Hall]

I have a knee-jerk reaction to dislike/distrust most movie stars, probably from growing up in L.A. I loved the topography, geography, climate and recreational opportunities the Southland had to offer, but hated the constant "I know someone who knows someone in "the industry"."

But, backing up to who is attractive or not, the last TV persona who I could say that about is Melina Kanakarides (sp). Since I don't watch much TV, I was watching an episode of now-defunct "Providence" and learned who she was. Though she is Greek, she does not look very ethnic.

She's in CSI New York now and is from Akron Ohio! Another really striking Greek woman is in CSI Miami--Sofia Milos--Greek-Italian, was in a memorable episode of the Sopranos.

[Robert Hall]

It was also a blast to find houses from sitcoms...like the Brady Bunch house, the Beverly Hillbillies house, etc. and taking your out-of-town friends and relatives to see them.

Sounds like fun. My family's farm in Ohio was in a 1978 NBC TV miniseries, posting as a 19th century Amish house and barn.

[trinacriabob]

She's in CSI New York now and is from Akron Ohio!

Greek woman

Melina is proof that a Greek (Mediterranean) woman does not necessarily look like her brother minus the body hair.

[SAmadei]

1) is the bridge they show the G.W.? Over to NJ?

Yep... NOT the way to Westchester.

2) isn't the show supposedly set in Tuckahoe, NY, which would make it Westchester County?

Yep.

3) and Archie and Edith, her cousins, lived in Queens, NY...but whereabouts in Queens, since I can name at least 25 communities in Queens?

It was also a blast to find houses from sitcoms...like the Brady Bunch house, the Beverly Hillbillies house, etc. and taking your out-of-town friends and relatives to see them.

All in the family was set in Corona, Queens. The house is at 89-70 Cooper Ave in Rego Park, Queens.

[trinacriabob]

Yep... NOT the way to Westchester.

Yep.

All in the family was set in Corona, Queens. The house is at 89-70 Cooper Ave in Rego Park, Queens.

Thank you! Corona, hmmm...

Of all the boroughs, Queens has the most kick-ass neighborhood names:

Fresh Pond, Ozone Park, Far Rockaway, Lefrak City, Flushing and not just Forest Hills, but Forest Hills Gardens - woohoo...I saw some other good ones...

Sometimes, I think my parents should have never moved on from the Tri-state area on to "the Coast" and, even though we knew a lot of characters, I think the N.E. is more densely packed with them...

Back to TV theme songs....

[regfootball]

Melina is proof that a Greek (Mediterranean) woman does not necessarily look like her brother minus the body hair.

Melina is hot.

CATHERINE BELL (JAG) is one HOT armenian, not greek but sorta kinda ethnic maybe

David Caruso is the best actor ever!

[regfootball]

Hmm..Allyssa Milano obsession...been there, done that...I remember as a kid having a thing for Eric Gray in 'Buck Rodgers in the 21st Century', the blonde on Facts of Life, Lauren Tewes (sp?)--the blonde on 'The Love Boat' (I swear my first GF in jr high looked like a younger version of her), the first female cop on 'ChiPs' (brunette), and a TV movie actress w/ the most incredible eyes--Lisa Eilbacher (anyone remember her from the late '70s-early '80s)? She was in 'Beverly Hills Cop'.

Alyssa is attractive, but her chest is purchased. it doesn't make her ugly, but i could even spend enough to make myself look semi fetching.

I guess i like it natural

[Robert Hall]

Melina is hot.

CATHERINE BELL (JAG) is one HOT armenian, not greek but sorta kinda ethnic maybe

+1 on Catherine Bell..I've read she's Iranian, born in the UK.

[regfootball]

well, whatever it is that she is, really really really stirs the motivation to the core. just gorgeous totally. regardless of heritage whatever. like Ross on friends, he's probably crack my top 5 on my laminated card. I'd be reduced to a stuttering puddle if she ever crossed my path in person.

She could be completely clothed in a simple elegant dress that is non revealing and i think i would just sit there inchoerent and speechless.

Edited November 6, 2009 by regfootball

[trinacriabob]

+1 ..I've read she's Iranian, born in the UK.

ok, Iranian and born in the UK.

If those are criteria to be hot, then Christiane Amanpour might be included?

I can't listen to her without losing it (laughing, that is)

I can tell it's starting to get late...

[Robert Hall]

ok, Iranian and born in the UK.

If those are criteria to be hot, then Christiane Amanpour might be included?

I can't listen to her without losing it (laughing, that is)

I can tell it's starting to get late...

Nah, just being accurate. For me, it's CB's eyes and face..great face and figure.

[Drew Dowdell]

The_West_Wing.mp3

Jeffersons_aka_Movin_On_Up.mp3

Unsolved_mysteries.mp3

Murder__She_Wrote.mp3

[trinacriabob]

Nah, just being accurate. For me, it's CB's eyes and face..great face and figure.

You just I'm just kidding. After posting, I "youtubed" Christiane Amanpour to listen to her affected speech...she's out there, that's for sure

[trinacriabob]

Click here for your enjoyment!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcggr_23WJU

Great. George Jefferson was a real douche, as I recall. He and Aunt Esther (Sanford and Son) would have really locked horns.

[Justin Bimmer]

David Caruso is the best actor ever!

Reg. . . please tell me you are joking.

The "acting" he does on CSI is no different than when he was on NYPD blue. Different characters, same exact acting.

[Drew Dowdell]

Reg. . . please tell me you are joking.

The "acting" he does on CSI is no different than when he was on NYPD blue. Different characters, same exact acting.

He's the melancholy version of William Shatner.

[trinacriabob]

Wow, I was looking into some of these.

"Twin Peaks" - whether you're 18 or 80 or anywhere in between, this is outstanding ... it transports you somewhere else.

"Maude" - besides the fact that the GW does NOT take you to Westchester County, what's with the 50s cars in the opening for a 70s sitcom? Funny.