Best TV Show Theme Songs

Callan, another one Portishead must have noticed.

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

Whatever happened to the likely lads?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcJ4C0pTGDw

> Randall and Hopkirk

awesome, there should be an ITV music thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SfG_f-quqk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqg-U1iTuF4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOqT3A5tpPc

Dig the theme to The L Word. It must be heard to be believed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6pZ-JRsYh0

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

correct answer is dr. who

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF2x5IKxmAQ

This should have been a poll. There are several fantastic submissions above, but it's "The Jeffersons" for me.

Denise Nicholas and Karen Valentine...sigh; I'm a '70s guy.

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I always forget.

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

Wow, "Room 222" is all in 7/4 time and prog-rock jazz-flute mellowness!

Anyway, can't believe nobody's mentioned my all-time theme song fave. Mike Post FTW!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPSulCDZ1rA

Pretty much everything by Ron Grainer belongs here.

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

>Anyway, can't believe nobody's mentioned my all-time theme song fave. Mike Post FTW!

ha! which leads us to gotcha - Tom Scott (cheating intended).

Love this funky harpsichord.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOkN8AU_XXA

Oh the harmonies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQHpV0F2xx4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQHpV0F2xx4

Oops, one of those was supposed to be the closing theme (maybe better than the opening):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQHpV0F2xx4

Zoo Gang from the mid-70s - music by Paul McCartney

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4EdVmJOLfo

Slowed down, this sounds a bit like the theme for 80s series Bergerac

Suicide Is Painless is a song written by Johnny Mandel (music) and Mike Altman (lyrics). Mike Altman is the son of the original film's director, Robert Altman, and was 14 years old when he composed the song's lyrics.

:o
true?

Closing credits to Monkey Magic, possibly best theme song EVER:

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

Opening theme equally awesome: just ride out the minute of non-singing for the awesomeness to kick in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfl7LqvxxDw

thanks for the far-east cue!
*stunned by the 1 minute intro in the opening theme*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-anabfAg06U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3U2qO4f1_k

That Manga intro is beautifully animated.

best intro intro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB1NiNKwueE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPAt4pAF46Y&feature=related

lollest:

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

Kingswood Country represent!! (Lex Marinos in the house yall)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsEzk66T4PY

<3<3<3 Room 222 theme for all time

And don't forget MINDER...Arfur Daley, lads!....used to watch it JUST for the song when i was little.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=280-jLL1u78

I forgot how awesome the Equalizer opener is. Damn.

Was going to rep for Famous Five theme being one of the best ever, but listening now...were those kids on valium? They sound so fragging bored! In my mind it was a lot more 'up'...yeesh

But i still love the "...George and Timmy the doh-ohhhh--OG"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPkh0lxFOhE

No White Horses, no credibility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR6z8GUywyc

i dont like to reduce the whole OST to one theme.
so i will not mention Cowboy Bebop.

I liked the opening music Red Dwarf used for its first two series, and the visuals are cool too. Quite haunting for a comedy programme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY_nkBU4Wjk

These two songs are a jam and the opening titles are sharp. The Rookies has a better tune, but they are both classic.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUJu17fAnKU

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

Flashing Blade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-ZEDNkZ2L4

Kaiki daisakusen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NILgqy_paJk

The Onedin Line (Aram Khachaturian)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx7RWW36wes

The MERE idea of using that Adagio from Spartacus theme for the Onedin Line plus giving the audiences a customized, fuller lush Hollywood-like orchestration deserves already an Oscar.
The TV orchestration is even better than the original. It was the spineshiverer of our childhoods. Gooooorgeous!!

(remember remember)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZh4DDl5wfk

Rick Springfield:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e5NlaM8bgI

mr. belvedere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IUSSrldd0U

Seitz goes Newhart

http://www.vulture.com/2012/05/seitz-asks-whats-your-favorite-tv-theme-song.html

Love these:

Blockbusters
Animal Hospital
Quantum Leap
Hill Street Blues
Taxi
Cheers

thanks to netflix I've rediscovered this fucking brilliant theme song. Love it, love it, don't care what anyone says. Love the little instrumental solo between verses too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzccLTr7gJA

(in case you're wondering why it doesn't sound like the theme song you remember, this show had two theme songs, and this one was the second (and better) one.)

Derek Scott Orchestra - girl in the white dress - 'General Hospital (UK) 1973, 'drama theme tune'

The Tracey Ullman Show, written by George Clinton (!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDbATFVoof4

ctrl-f "The Rockford Files"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg1Cx26-928

Another classic. "The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" (by Robert Mellin and Gian-Piero Reverberi).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNsV1BUb9mc

I did bring up the subject of Boon with my older brother a while back, thinking he might have a clearer memory of it, and he was like "um, he was a bodyguard...or no, hold on, he was a fireman I think...?" Hi ho Silver!

I do remember my 10yo self thinking it was a lot like Lovejoy. Shows about these guys who did stuff.

As for anime themes, I've always loved the Outlaw Star opening. The show itself was only so-so (Cowboy Bebop on sugar pills, basically):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoDUxs3rlRU

Forgot about how much Knight Rider theme was a Carpenter/Moroder-esque banger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C00gX_5iAG8

I hate 99.99% of anime but who among us could hate on both the opening (and closing!) theme(s) of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gciVpfFh9Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9ZiYaYaFcU
bbc ice skating = james last - mornings at seven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=526OsPdSlxk
ski sunday - the cavendish orchestra . pop goes bach

i wanna _garage_ band that does just gr8 tv themes now. at first i was "i wanna band that...," but i searched, found and now i see it MUST be a garage band, because otherwise it turns out kinda gross

the anime opening rabbithole goes _deep_, there are like a _billion_ anime shows every season now and a lot of them have absolute banger theme songs. one of the niches i get into is when people put up pirate comps of all the anime OPs from a year or a season. here's four i just picked now from 2020... that's four out of 175 total.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjdvgI_jVP8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOoYcBoj0W0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q7wY3K0cm0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kpK_SwJ12w

the first is from an anime called "darwin's game". no idea what it's about. the second is from an anime called "food wars". i don't know if i've talked about it here. it's an "ecchi" anime, which is like hentai but not as explicit apparently, and also a cooking anime, which ... on paper, that sounds to me like a good way to ruin a cooking anime. but it's surprisingly likeable. basically it's about a cook who makes dishes so good that people experience sexual pleasure from eating them. i enjoy a good meal more than i enjoy sex - asexual people don't all experience it the same way, but that's my experience. i kind of like the central hook of the show. if other people want to see it as dirty, that's fine... all i see is people who are really enjoying their meals. it's the opening sequence to the fifth season of the show. oh, the other thing to know about anime theme songs is that they tend to have a new theme song every season... sometimes two new ones a season, like with the next selection. the weirdest one i've seen is that one of the opening sequences to the classic '80s anime "maison ikkoku" uses gilbert o'sullivan's "alone again, naturally" as the theme. well, ok, then.

the third is from an anime called "fruits basket", the remake. like a lot of anime "fruits basket" is based on a manga, and the first time they made an anime adaptation the manga wasn't done yet. so they kind of made up an ending. this remake adapts the full manga, including the ending. it's really highly acclaimed and people like it a lot. it's also my ex-wife's favorite manga and anime ever, so i'm never going to watch it. the fourth is from an anime called "sleepy princess in the demon castle", which i've watched some of. it's a funny deconstruction of rpg tropes where the kidnapped princess basically terrorizes the entirety of the demon castle in her quest to get a good night's sleep. it's not, like, the best anime ever, but it's fun.