Letters to the Editor

Letters posted here are associated with the following article:
Credit check TV's best opening credit sequences celebrate the essential spirit of the shows they introduce. Check out some of our all-time favorites.
The letters thread is now closed.
  • This is the Letter Where I Write About the Opening Theme to "It's Garry Shandling's Show."

    When we're talking about opening credit sequences and theme songs, let's not forget the opening to "It's Garry Shandling's Show" (His show before "Larry Sanders"). The lyrics went something like this:

    This is the theme to Garry's Show,

    The opening theme to Garry's show.

    This is the music that you hear as you watch the credits.

    [and]

    Garry called me up and asked if I would write his theme song.

    I'm almost halfway finished,

    How do you like it so far,

    How do you like the theme to Garry's Show?

  • Missed one of the Greats

    Cult Classic, but great opening credit

    "The Prisoner"

    Tobar the Eighth Man (some Japanese animation from the early sixties, but I still cant get the theme out of my head)

    My childhood favorites were:

    Wonderful World of Disney

    Alfred Hitchcock Presents

    77 Sunset Strip

    Paladin

    Branded-- corny but cool to a kid didnt like the show as much as credits

    Rawhide-- best music ever

    Twilight Zone

    Adultish:

    Lots mentioned before but would add:

    Northern Exposure

    Weeds-- simply awesome

    Best credit music ever (no particular order):

    Secret Agent

    Taxi

    Mission Impossible

    Tobar the Eighth Man(LOL

    Best All TIme: Rockford Files

  • Hill Street Blues left out? Wow.

    Also, Babylon 5, Mission Impossible, Cheers, just off the top of my head; amazing credits all.

  • Re: Credit check

    What's always been most frustrating to me is when the show doesn't deliver on a great credits sequence. I watched "Smallville" for about three years just because the opening promised the kind of show I wanted to see -- some kind of archetypal small town teen soap with great music mixed with superhero fantasy -- but the next 58 minutes almost never delivered and seemed like filler until the next week's credits.

  • Re: In Living Color

    Which theme song was better, the original, the second, or both equally good?

  • There is nothing wrong with your television set.

    It lacked music, but The Outer Limits had a great opening.

  • Don't Forget Rocky and His Friends

    Not the oddly boring credits for the Sunday Bullwinkle show (what, did they think they were going mainstream?), but the one used on the previous twice a week after-school funfest. Rocket J. Squirrel zooms in and out of the other characters to the strains of an odd little tune that Danny Elfman, too, surely knows by heart

    Bom Bom Bom-Bom Bom-Bom

    Bom-Bom Bom-bom-bom BOM bom-bom

    Bom Bom Bom-Bom Bom-Bom

    Boddle-bom diddle-dee doo dEE-doo

    Bom Bom Bom-bom bom-BOM--

    Diddle-diddle-dee dum-dum!

    (brief cymbal crash)

    (commercial)

    Or maybe Elfman doesn't know it. Yes, I am old.

  • Cartoon Great

    Johnny Quest! Rocking music, incredible animation.

  • Yet Another Left Out

    That 70s jiggle classic "Hugs and Jugs." Killer sax.

  • Deadwood

    Where's the love for Deadwood? One of my favorite openings. Great music and a poetry of images which convey the series perfectly.

    And, another nomination for Doctor Who, particularly the new series, though I fondly remember getting hooked on the theme song when I watched the Tom Baker Doctor Who shows on PBS many years ago.

    Wonderfalls.

    Dead Like Me.

    Outer Limits is classic. Along with Twilight Zone, it's ingrained in our minds. Well, for my generation, anyway.

    Childhood favorite: The Electric Company. That always got my sugar-addled body jumping (even more).

Most Active Stories

Read More

Letters Help

Daily Delivery

Salon headlines in your mailbox