Best TV Show Theme Songs

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

the correct answer and also a top 10 pop hit.

Sorry!

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

The Crystal Maze (90s)
Grandstand (tho it is Keith Mansfield library music)
Sorry! (like Woo doing Cardiacs' Insect Hoofs on Lassie, which did not yet exist)
Big Brother (UK)
Joe 90
The Gaffer (the world's only Britfunk theme tune?)
The Bill ('Overkill' by Morgan Pask, 1984 versions and 1988 versions)

haha touche

Have to add Art of Noise's Krypton Factor theme to that list

Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World, and the variations in the two follow-up series.

the original theme song to Newton's Apple was a modified version of Ruckzuck by Kraftwerk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWIrDST8TcY

I can’t find any mention of MASH.

Theme from S.W.A.T (1975)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHDg96-ZN_U

Lodge 49:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfZUBo9OuTk

more tv show themes should have been like 3-2-1 Contact

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kypt0mAL2TA

World In Action (opening & closing themes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95qLDc7zwYY

In Search Of...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_SAKcOuTpU

Im really into the Taxi theme tune lately

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DL8SGEyhZE

Has this been mentioned yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-bd5j18N0s

Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends!
I am surprised at how rarely this gets mentioned as a great TV theme - maybe the connection with the programme is too strong. I am biased because it's probably the first music I remember adoring, but I honestly think it is a bit of a masterpiece - Roland ragtime on a railway rhythm! It's so warm but so unusal - I think the piano part is sped up (those trills are not possible to replicate in real time) and though many fans I've tried, I've never heard a recreation of the theme that gets close to the quality of the original recording. I'm not five anymore but it's always gonna be musical ambrosia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U70prkddO7w