You woke up this morning Got yourself a BEST TV THEME TUNES POLL NOMINATIONS AND DISCUSSION gun (End date - 12/11/12

Nominating some Mexican TV classics:

El Chavo del 8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fINPLCHpBKI

La Carabina de Ambrosio (which is mostly an instrumental remake of Black is Black by the Bravos)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROyC_VxW6VA

the sonic the hedgehog cartoon with the demented peer gynt music

Yes Minister
The Office ("Handbags and Gladrags")
Dinnerladies
Prisoner / Cell Block H / Caged Women ("On The Inside")

I assume this isn't eligible, but a most excellent 8 seconds all the same:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuN5QiUk00E

<i>the sonic the hedgehog cartoon with the demented peer gynt music</i>

This one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCaWI8_3VLU

The Sooty Show
Trapdoor
Duckula

SUPERTED

Heads And Tails
Pot Black
Sportsnight (aka Sportsnight with Coleman)

The Pink Panther Show (the theme song by Doug Goodwin)

i.e.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bii-PIGprv8

I watched one of the other intros linked after that video, and I'd forgotten all about the Blue Aardvark. I think that might be one of the underlying reasons I like Jackie Mason so much.

Can we have the opening to Red Dwarf I & II as a separate entry? Quite a haunting piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00powkXPhDg

Almost forgot, one of my favorites of the last 20 years or so:

The Drew Carey Show (starting w/ season 2) - "Cleveland Rocks," The Presidents of the United States of America
(oddly, it's way better than Ian Hunter's lugubrious original)

I loved the S1 intro when they danced around the office to "5 O'Clock World" by The Vogues.

Trapdoor

Yes!

Forgot about that one! Love that opening! Just looked it up: "Moon Over Parma" was S1 and part of S2; "Five O'Clock World" was most of S2; and "Cleveland Rocks" was S3 thru S7.

xp

German Sesame Street. The lyrics indicate they didn't get the show at all (and the dubbing of the Muppets' songs was also excrutiating) but the tune rocks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlng8RSxm-4

5 O'Clock World was by faaaaar the best Drew Carey opening credits imo

xp I'd forgotten about the Moon Over Parma intro altogether.

The best German kids' show -- Die Sendung mit der Maus -- also has a pretty bitchin' theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIApqBrsCYI

ABC's Wide World of Sports

I watched one of the other intros linked after that video, and I'd forgotten all about the Blue Aardvark. I think that might be one of the underlying reasons I like Jackie Mason so much.

― Johnny Fever,

That actually wasn't Jackie Mason - it was John Byner doing a Jackie Mason imitation! (Something I only learned myself a coupla years ago)

The Strange World of Gurney Slade
Mr Rossi
Van Der Valk (Simon Park Orchestra - Eye Level)

3 from childhood

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ("On the Other Side")
Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood -- written by Rogers himself
The Little Vampire

Blackadder

hey everyone please listen to the Little Vampire song if you haven't heard it. it may be your only chance to hear a fake leonard cohen sing a song about vampires and friendship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLVe1NkQA78

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiB4dMwDFtg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9veEk2GUw_8

Ooh, I do like that Little Vampire song. I'm not entirely convinced by the Leonard Cohen comparison, mind.

animal hospital

Man Alive
Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home

Screen Test

John Craven's Newsround (closing sting: "New Worlds by John Baker)

The Raccoons theme is great. Thanks for the full version.

btw I found out recently that the singing voice of Jem was Britta Phillips of Dean & Britta. kind of blew my mind.

John Craven's Newsround (closing sting: "New Worlds by John Baker)

Oh yes, that's a keeper. Sampled very sweetly here, skip to 5'06 for full Craven.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVRpSyj5-_w&hd=1

re Racoons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTDOrZy4dj4

always thought this would've been a good theme tune for 24 ... those 'dun-dun-dun' bits could be 'twent-y-four'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjRnyyJLNy0

Girl from Tomorrow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJtWlVK8Eqk&feature=related

You've just reminded me of:
Silas
German, early 80s, accompanied many a bored morning in the summer holidays

Composed by Christian Bruhn, who also did the rad theme tune for another German late-70s/early-80s kids' drama, Timm Thaler aka Tim Tyler, the boy who sold his smile (not the more recent cartoon version of the same story)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQjrQ89YUYI

(I sort of assume nobody else would vote for the above, but what the hell, may as well nominate it)

someone on ILX somewhere once said that the Raccoons soundtrack basically invents the whole chillwave/Altered Zones aesthetic, which seemed OTM - a combined hazy VHS-warped memory of that plus the collected works of Shuki Levy (80s kids scroll down)

(sorry, loading all the youtubes on this thread would kill my laptop, so apologies if his work is already all over the 360 hidden posts)

Pinky and the Brain

curb your enthusiasm always reminds me of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5udJCWvqKNM

larry david's escapades are very paddington-esque

Car 54, Where Are You

Mainly for "Khrushchev's due at Idlewild!" as one of the countless tasks for which Car 54 is needed.

the paddington bear theme has been getting stuck in my head every couple of months for the last twenty five years

The Young and the Restless

I was gonna post Tim Tyler!

A couple of classic TV themes by Johnny Pearson:

Owen, M.D. ("Sleepy Shores")
All Creatures Great and Small

people we have a youtube thread and im now not sure if you wanted to nominate that stuff or not.

Barbapapa!

...great in any language (see youtube).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN1bmTI5qjg

animal hospital

surely you jest? i was always struck by the irony of a show concerned with animal welfare having a theme with the sound of a poor saxophone being grotesquely tortured and mutilated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMWSh6kZxGc

and now i've got a tortured saxophone in my head ;_;

Catweazle

tim tyler! why does none of my pals appear to remember this?