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Wednesday, Nov 4, 2009
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?
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
Also, Babylon 5, Mission Impossible, Cheers, just off the top of my head; amazing credits all.
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.
Which theme song was better, the original, the second, or both equally good?
It lacked music, but The Outer Limits had a great opening.
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.
Johnny Quest! Rocking music, incredible animation.
That 70s jiggle classic "Hugs and Jugs." Killer sax.
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).
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