Television's Greatest Opening Credits

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Music, titles, everything - you get three choices:

1) Pre-70's
2) 1970-1990
3) 1990-today

― andy ---, Friday, 6 January 2006 18:58 (twenty years ago)

1) Twilight Zone
2) Three's Company (Larry in the bumper car!!)
3) X-files? I dunno.

― andy ---, Friday, 6 January 2006 19:00 (twenty years ago)

2) The Muppet Show.

― luna (luna.c), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:00 (twenty years ago)

1) Bewitched
2) Battle Of The Planets
3) Father Ted

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:02 (twenty years ago)

1) Twilight Zone
2) Rockford Files
3) Justice League Unlimited, because on the older Justice League cartoon, the theme was quasi classical, strings etc. but on JL Unlimited, it's like heavy metal (for kids) guitar WROWROR, ergo Unlimited and IN! YOUR! FACE!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:03 (twenty years ago)

1) That Girl

― laurence kansas (lawrence kansas), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:05 (twenty years ago)

1) Batman
2) ?
3) Carnivale (or maybe The Kingdom, hmmm.)

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:15 (twenty years ago)

1) The Prisoner
2) Misfits of Science
3) Outer Limits

― detoxyDancer (sexyDancer), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:17 (twenty years ago)

Wait!
1) Wild Wild West
3) Tapes from the Crypt

― andy ---, Friday, 6 January 2006 19:18 (twenty years ago)

Does Days of Our Lives still use that ancient hourglass? That was pretty cool.

― andy ---, Friday, 6 January 2006 19:19 (twenty years ago)

1. THE AVENGERS - Flowers, champagne, silhouettes, a bowler-clad hero and a slinky, kinky heroine and masses of sexual tension between them.

2. THE PROFESSIONALS - Many is a time when I feel like jumping into a Ford Capri and driving through a huge plate glass window.

3. THE SIMPSONS - In every episode, the Simpson clan rush on to the sofa and each introduction is different and inventive.

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:20 (twenty years ago)

Square Pegs
21 Jump Street
In Living Color
Great Space Coaster

― kingfish pibb Xtra (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:20 (twenty years ago)

1) The Monkees
2) Sanford & Son
3) Law & Order

― 'Twan (miccio), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:23 (twenty years ago)

new zoo review

― andy ---, Friday, 6 January 2006 19:24 (twenty years ago)

1) The Saint
2) Police Squad
2) Doctor Who
2) Sanford and Son (music only)
3) Twin Peaks

― Stephen X (Stephen X), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:26 (twenty years ago)

1. Speed Racer
2. The Jeffersons
3. The revamped Monday Night Football credits in all its incarnations (truly I don't think any other television program has shown such dedication to being as utterly crass and annoying as humanly possible, and it got worse every year; this season's opening credits combined that mind-boggling song, sub-Girls-Gone-Wild types humping footballs and cars, and b-list celebrities like Ray Romano beating up other b-list celebs, all done over a background that can only be described as pimping for Ford trucks. I admire that kind of dedication to being truly deplorable and inscrutable)

― Allyzay must fight Zolton herself. (allyzay), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:26 (twenty years ago)

Monday Night Football just switched networks, didn't it?

― andy ---, Friday, 6 January 2006 19:32 (twenty years ago)

God, those Monday Night Football credits are like their own separate species of television; sometimes I feel as if I've wandered over into a Sabado Gigante outtakes special by mistake.

― Stephen X (Stephen X), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:34 (twenty years ago)

So far this thread has proved that the 1970s-1990s were the best ever for tv. I'd like to add 2) Charlie's Angels.

― Je4nn3 ƒur¥ (Je4nne Fury), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:36 (twenty years ago)

Land of the Lost
Muppet Show
Twin Peaks
Miami Vice
Pee Wee's Playhouse

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:38 (twenty years ago)

Some would say the 80's signalled the sad decline of television, actually (after the mythical "golden age," whatever that was). xpost

― andy j. blige, Friday, 6 January 2006 19:42 (twenty years ago)

I used to rap the opening credits of Living Single for my roommates in college. I actually really liked that show.

― Je4nn3 ƒur¥ (Je4nne Fury), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:43 (twenty years ago)

1. Doctor Who
2. Knight Rider
3. Cops (1989, but it hasn't been bested)

― Brian Miller (Brian Miller), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:44 (twenty years ago)

I would submit that the 1970s-1990s were at least the best ever for TV-theme basslines.

Sanford and Son
Barney Miller
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids

Also, for tv-theme horn sections.

― Stephen X (Stephen X), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:45 (twenty years ago)

The opening credits for Raw & Nitro were great since you could always tell who was either on the outs for each company(for Raw), or who hadn't been removed yet even tho they had already quit(for Nitro). Hey look, it's Big Van Vader! etc

― kingfish pibb Xtra (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:46 (twenty years ago)

andy, yeah, it just switched to ESPN. Hopefully that means the credits will get even more outlandish in the future, since they are on the wild world of BASIC CABLE.

― Allyzay must fight Zolton herself. (allyzay), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:48 (twenty years ago)

M*A*S*H

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:48 (twenty years ago)

Muppet Show totally
Welcome Back Kotter (song plus city, always made me feel happy.)
Knight Rider (practically a clips show, and that music!) (xpost!)
Battlestar Galactica (new series, esp for how it goes from lalala space to intense-drums SPACE.)

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:51 (twenty years ago)

There was nothing better on a Friday night than a five-minute cold opening sequence, bathed in neon and moonlight, where Something Very Bad happened. As the smoke curled in silence from the gun barrel, the screen would go blank for just a second before being immediately followed by those synthesized drums of Jan Hammer's theme to "Miami Vice".

I liked the themes to "WKRP" and "Mary Tyler Moore" better, but when it came to complete packages in regard to opening credits, nothing beat "Hawaii 5-O".

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:51 (twenty years ago)

The problem with Hawaii 5-0 is that there is no way on earth that the tv show itself could live up to the promise of those opening credits.

― Allyzay must fight Zolton herself. (allyzay), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:52 (twenty years ago)

so otm, ally.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:53 (twenty years ago)

"Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time!"

Almsot every cop and detective show in the 70s has a kick ass opening sequence, especially stuff like The Rookies, Streets of San Francisco, Police Woman, SWAT, Starsky & Hutch, Barretta etc. The whole thing is an orgy of Hubert Laws flute, JB funk and raw ass wah wah guitar.

― earlnash, Friday, 6 January 2006 19:53 (twenty years ago)

1. Hawaii 5-0 (started 1968)
2. Rockford Files, anything by Norman Lear (right on, Maude!)
3. Lost. Ultra-minimalism, one word & one chord coming out of the darkness. I'm not sure it qualifies as "credits," though.

xpost. fuck, Plains beat me to 5-0.

― truck-patch pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:53 (twenty years ago)

Also, Wild Wild West

National Geographic theme

Spaced probably qualifies for minimalism, since it's only that quick title crawl, isn't it?

― kingfish pibb Xtra (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:56 (twenty years ago)

'70s: the bugaloos
'80: it's garry shandling's show
'90s: law and order

― miss michael learned (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:58 (twenty years ago)

tie for '90s: the nanny

― miss michael learned (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:58 (twenty years ago)

The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley.

Used Beethoven, didn't it?

Also, another for Pee Wee's Playhouse

― kingfish pibb Xtra (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:59 (twenty years ago)

Married...With Children

― Je4nn3 ƒur¥ (Je4nne Fury), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:01 (twenty years ago)

'60s: the twilight zone, the odd couple

― miss michael learned (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:01 (twenty years ago)

The Nanny's credits were great, OTM!

― Allyzay must fight Zolton herself. (allyzay), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:01 (twenty years ago)

2. Skippy
3. That 70s Show

― sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:01 (twenty years ago)

anything where a real song is the theme music shouldn't count.

― miss michael learned (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:03 (twenty years ago)

we've got the first season of the muppet show DVD at the house. it's brilliant, of course. but i was surprised and sorry to learn that at least for the first season, the old guys in the balcony singing "it's like some kind of torture to have to watch the show" isn't yet a part of the opening theme. maybe season 2?
and my friend summed up the experience of watching the show pretty well one night recently after we'd watched two episodes:
me: so you down for another one?
her: i dunno. it's pretty intense.

we may have been high.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:03 (twenty years ago)

what about Greatest American Hero, then?

xpost

― kingfish pibb Xtra (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:03 (twenty years ago)

was that a "real song" before the show was created?

― miss michael learned (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:05 (twenty years ago)

Just to be different from everyone else...

1) TIE: I-Spy, Dragnet
2) U.F.O.
3) Numb3rs (the first season one with the Talking Heads background music)

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:06 (twenty years ago)

anything where a real song is the theme music shouldn't count.
-- miss michael learned (theundergroundhom...) (webmail), Today 2:03 PM. (Jody Beth Rosen) (later)

fine. CHARLES IN CHARGE

― sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:07 (twenty years ago)

early '70s: the f.b.i.

― miss michael learned (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:07 (twenty years ago)

I've said this before, but the theme from Hawaii 5-O is one of those songs that periodically get stuck in my head, despite having only seen one episode of the show in my life.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:07 (twenty years ago)

i had to play it on a casio for a school concert in year 7

― sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:09 (twenty years ago)

i faked it. yeah you heard me. I FAKE PLAYED.

― sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:10 (twenty years ago)

The opening credits for Kung Fu and In Search Of caused my 8 year old heart to pound furiously... still do, in fact.

― andy ---, Friday, 6 January 2006 20:12 (twenty years ago)

Thanks imdb.com!

HAWAII FIVE-O - The hula dancer in the opening montage is played by Helen Kuoha-Torco, now a professor at Windward Community college.

http://starbulletin.com/96/11/05/news/dancer.gif http://starbulletin.com/96/11/05/news/dancerb.gif

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:21 (twenty years ago)

you just know this. amazing.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:33 (twenty years ago)

― truck-patch pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:34 (twenty years ago)

1) Doctor Who
2) Red Dwarf (zoom out from guy cleaning the ship with spooky music version, not chessy soft rock version).
3)Sopranos

― chap who would dare to work for the man (chap), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:38 (twenty years ago)

PP, somehow i missed the thanks imdb.com exclamation point. i rescind my josh.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:41 (twenty years ago)

1. Tie between Star Trek and The Prisoner
2. Tie between The Muppet Show and Space 1999
3. The 90s? Got to be Teletubbies.

Worst TV credit sequences? The Simpsons has to be right up there. Along with Huff. Partly because they're really good programmes, but the credits would put you off.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:45 (twenty years ago)

I had to pick between integrity or amazement in regards to imdb's credit up there. I went with the more boring.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:46 (twenty years ago)

1. Mission Impossible - with the fuse burning across the bottom of the screen and getting just to the edge of your tv set before switching to the next still. Music almost on a par with Hawaii Five-O. Not sure if this show has been in syndication.

2. All In The Family - Edith's & Archie's singing. Both cringeworthy and endearing. They didn't change it in all the years the show ran.

3. Letterman - NYC and Paul Schaffer's band.

― jim wentworth (wench), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:46 (twenty years ago)

I'll come later with proper answers, but Dallas' three-way split-screen thing was brilliant in terms of setting up so many future parodies.

― ailsa (ailsa), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:50 (twenty years ago)

Tomorrow People (70s version)

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:51 (twenty years ago)

3. Letterman - NYC and Paul Schaffer's band. i cringe whenever i see this.

votes for freakiest might be HR PufnStuf and The Wombles.

― sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:52 (twenty years ago)

1) Pre-70's: Dick Van Dyke
2) 1970'ss: MTM Show
3) 1980's: Tie: Magnum PI + A-Team
(seriously, why is 1970-1990 One giant 20 year span? Is 3 somehow more elegant that 4?)
3) 1990-today: The New WKRP in Cincinatti

― Jimmy Mod (I myself am lethal at 100 -110dB) (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Friday, 6 January 2006 21:22 (twenty years ago)

Alternately, Duck Tales

― Jimmy Mod (I myself am lethal at 100 -110dB) (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Friday, 6 January 2006 21:22 (twenty years ago)

count duckula

― sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 6 January 2006 21:23 (twenty years ago)

The A-Team
Twin Peaks
Married... With Children

I kinda like the Everybody Loves Raymond one where they run to lock all the doors, and the mother puts her hand through the mail slot and feels around on Ray's head.

― Mil (Mil), Friday, 6 January 2006 21:28 (twenty years ago)

Dangermouse

(Dangermooooouse
Dangermooooooooooooouse!)

― kingfish pibb Xtra (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 6 January 2006 21:29 (twenty years ago)

ooh! just got dangermouse on dvd fer xmas! must watch soon.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Friday, 6 January 2006 22:28 (twenty years ago)

What was the PBS (or BBC?) show with the animated Edward Gorey animation? Mystery House Theater or something? It was awesome and ghoulish.

― andy ---, Friday, 6 January 2006 23:51 (twenty years ago)

Mystery!

yes, awesome.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Saturday, 7 January 2006 00:12 (twenty years ago)

1) Get Smart
2) The Odd Couple
3) Rome

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Saturday, 7 January 2006 00:41 (twenty years ago)

1. get smart OTM!! i also like it when the show's premise is explained in the credits - the odd couple, the beverly hillbillies, green acres, i dream of jeannie, et al. best opening narration ever: the old george reeves SUPERMAN.
2. basically every american tv show of the 70s had an awesome credit sequence, it's impossible to choose.
3. pinky and the brain

worst credit sequences on otherwise good shows: that 70s show, seinfeld.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 7 January 2006 09:08 (twenty years ago)

mystery house theater!

the actually mysteries never lived up to the gorey animation

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Saturday, 7 January 2006 14:48 (twenty years ago)

sealab2021 is good too

― sunny successor (katharine), Saturday, 7 January 2006 14:53 (twenty years ago)

i second Duck Tales.
also, the sitcom Bread!

― Slumpman (Slump Man), Saturday, 7 January 2006 15:00 (twenty years ago)

I'm changing my 70s/80s choice to Tales Of The Unexpected.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 7 January 2006 15:36 (twenty years ago)

From the 70's: "Chico and The Man".
And "Good Times" - with the big gospel choir...
Well, many of the theme songs in the 70's had lyrics that explained the context of the show. It was a great decade for theme songs. "Wonder Woman" is on my playlist, like, right now.
From the 80's: "Miami Vice".
There was a subtle shift to theme music, with no lyrics.
90's: "Twin Peaks"
I can actually recite the entire opening of "Law and Order", which is scary.
And let's not forget "Laverne and Shirley". Shlemiel! Shlemozza!Hafenpeffer Incorporated!

― aimurchie (aimurchie), Saturday, 7 January 2006 16:03 (twenty years ago)

Well, many of the theme songs in the 70's had lyrics that explained the context of the show.

and that's sort of why the nanny was one of my '90s picks ("she was working at a bridal shop in flushing, queens...").

― miss michael learned (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 7 January 2006 16:09 (twenty years ago)

A-Team thirded, Tales of the Unexpected seconded.

Nostalgic "I Love The 80s" answer = Grange Hill cartoon strip with a sausage on a fork.

I like the simplicity of the Sopranos' opening credits.

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 7 January 2006 16:14 (twenty years ago)

what about Greatest American Hero, then?

hehehehe... i just finished typing up an interview with the fab Viking Moses, where he said

"the first songs i remember really moving me were: the
themesong from tv's Greatest American Hero, you know,
'believe it or not, i'm walking on air, i never thought i
could be so free-eee-eee....'"

though since the show never aired in the UK i can't really use the quote.

― i am not a nugget (stevie), Saturday, 7 January 2006 16:28 (twenty years ago)

Man About the House (70s) - great theme tune as well

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Saturday, 7 January 2006 16:33 (twenty years ago)

Sopranos.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 7 January 2006 18:09 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I might as well have put the Sopranos for my last one.

and that's sort of why the nanny was one of my '90s pick
I almost thought you were talking about Nanny and the Professor.

"Phoebe Figalillee (sp?) is a silly name
And so many silly things keep happening"

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Saturday, 7 January 2006 19:08 (twenty years ago)

3) Space Ghost Coast To Coast.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 7 January 2006 20:02 (twenty years ago)

there was a really good show in the 90s on fox called FLYING BLIND starring the awful TEA LEONIE and it had a really good theme song by DAVID BYRNE.

― howell huser (chaki), Saturday, 7 January 2006 21:24 (twenty years ago)

3) Space Ghost Coast To Coast.

Oh hell yeah, my daughter and I used to sing/scream along with Sonny Sharrock on the opening credits and Man or Astroman? on the closing credits.

― truck-patch pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 7 January 2006 23:26 (twenty years ago)

four months pass...

'sealab', people!

― sunny successor (katharine), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 14:12 (twenty years ago)

"You Can't Do that On Television"

― kingfish doesn't live here anymore (kingfish 2.0), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 14:14 (twenty years ago)

1) ???
2) The Mysterious Cities of Gold
3) The super-minimalist approach of Lost

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 14:15 (twenty years ago)

1. Doctor Who
2. The Six Million Dollar Man

― holojames (holojames), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 13:43 (twenty years ago)

2. All In The Family - Edith's & Archie's singing. Both cringeworthy and endearing. They didn't change it in all the years the show ran.

I think they did re-record it at one point to articulate the line "Gee our old La Salle ran great" because it was kind of run-together in the original, and they had people writing in asking what it said a lot.

Only one vote for the Avengers? Make it two. Also I Spy, Star Trek. The 60's rule!

― nickn (nickn), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 19:51 (twenty years ago)

Munsters
Sanford & Son
Pete & Pete

― dave's good arm (facsimile) (dave225.3), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 21:05 (twenty years ago)

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