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
― Communi-Bear Silo State (chap), Sunday, 10 January 2010 18:04 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― earlnash, Sunday, 10 January 2010 20:06 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnCJUImsXmU
― rionat, Sunday, 10 January 2010 20:24 (fourteen years ago) link
Flashing Bladehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-ZEDNkZ2L4
― bidfurd, Sunday, 10 January 2010 22:19 (fourteen years ago) link
Kaiki daisakusenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NILgqy_paJk
― meisenfek, Friday, 5 February 2010 13:16 (fourteen years ago) link
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!!
― meisenfek, Sunday, 28 November 2010 23:41 (thirteen years ago) link
(remember remember)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZh4DDl5wfk
― meisenfek, Sunday, 4 September 2011 22:22 (twelve years ago) link
Rick Springfield:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e5NlaM8bgI
― dlp9001, Sunday, 4 September 2011 22:55 (twelve years ago) link
mr. belvedere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IUSSrldd0U
― remy bean, Sunday, 4 September 2011 22:59 (twelve years ago) link
Seitz goes Newhart
http://www.vulture.com/2012/05/seitz-asks-whats-your-favorite-tv-theme-song.html
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 31 May 2012 19:43 (eleven years ago) link
Love these:
BlockbustersAnimal HospitalQuantum LeapHill Street BluesTaxiCheers
― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Friday, 29 June 2012 11:29 (eleven years ago) link
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.)
― Poliopolice, Tuesday, 25 December 2012 03:20 (eleven years ago) link
Derek Scott Orchestra - girl in the white dress - 'General Hospital (UK) 1973, 'drama theme tune'
― meisenfek, Wednesday, 8 November 2023 20:33 (six months ago) link
The Tracey Ullman Show, written by George Clinton (!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDbATFVoof4
― Dwigt Rortugal (Eric H.), Wednesday, 8 November 2023 20:37 (six months ago) link
ctrl-f "The Rockford Files"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg1Cx26-928
― The First Time Ever I Saw Gervais (Tom D.), Wednesday, 8 November 2023 21:17 (six months ago) link
the correct answer and also a top 10 pop hit.
― Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Wednesday, 8 November 2023 21:31 (six months ago) link
Sorry!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brtcb-DmuuA
― The First Time Ever I Saw Gervais (Tom D.), Wednesday, 8 November 2023 21:36 (six months ago) link
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 90The Gaffer (the world's only Britfunk theme tune?)The Bill ('Overkill' by Morgan Pask, 1984 versions and 1988 versions)
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 8 November 2023 21:37 (six months ago) link
haha touche
Have to add Art of Noise's Krypton Factor theme to that list
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 8 November 2023 21:38 (six months ago) link
Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World, and the variations in the two follow-up series.
― Duane Barry, Wednesday, 8 November 2023 21:47 (six months ago) link
the original theme song to Newton's Apple was a modified version of Ruckzuck by Kraftwerkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWIrDST8TcY
― Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Wednesday, 8 November 2023 21:50 (six months ago) link
I can’t find any mention of MASH.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 8 November 2023 21:53 (six months ago) link
Theme from S.W.A.T (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHDg96-ZN_U
― that's not my post, Wednesday, 8 November 2023 22:07 (six months ago) link
Lodge 49:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfZUBo9OuTk
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 8 November 2023 22:18 (six months ago) link
more tv show themes should have been like 3-2-1 Contact
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kypt0mAL2TA
― peace, man, Wednesday, 8 November 2023 22:23 (six months ago) link
World In Action (opening & closing themes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95qLDc7zwYY
― The First Time Ever I Saw Gervais (Tom D.), Wednesday, 8 November 2023 22:34 (six months ago) link
In Search Of...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_SAKcOuTpU
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 8 November 2023 22:46 (six months ago) link
Im really into the Taxi theme tune lately
― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Wednesday, 8 November 2023 22:54 (six months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DL8SGEyhZE
― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Wednesday, 8 November 2023 22:56 (six months ago) link
Has this been mentioned yet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-bd5j18N0s
― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Wednesday, 8 November 2023 22:57 (six months ago) link
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
― houdini said, Wednesday, 8 November 2023 23:06 (six months ago) link
My favorites are Hawaii Five-O (original recipe) and Sanford and Son, both mentioned in the OP, and I don’t know if it was here or somewhere else but I was turned on to the UK series themes for The Champions and The Persuaders which are also great.
― Josefa, Wednesday, 8 November 2023 23:13 (six months ago) link
I don't think I've ever noticed how ska the Thomas theme is. Or maybe how Madness-ish it is. Or how "Mr. Soft"-ish it is.
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Thursday, 9 November 2023 01:47 (six months ago) link
learned a rather dainty fingerstyle guitar arrangement of the Taxi theme last year, kinda hard.
tv themes were maybe the first songs that i heard and needed to make them recallable, i used my dad's little dictaphone to tape the intros to Charles in Charge, Who's The Boss and others so i could listen to them more than once a day.
this one is my favorite, i think:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQllBwL8gZc
― Deflatormouse, Thursday, 9 November 2023 02:26 (six months ago) link
I think the Succession theme may have entered the club. I recently watched a documentary on US capitalism and the soundtrack was clearly influenced by Succession !
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 9 November 2023 02:48 (six months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G29EyeGzm9w
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 9 November 2023 02:49 (six months ago) link
villa alegre ownshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZDhkcJQoFU
zoom not so badhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq01f7pbzCc
― digital chirping and whirring (Hunt3r), Thursday, 9 November 2023 02:53 (six months ago) link
x files
― Vapor waif (uptown churl), Thursday, 9 November 2023 03:24 (six months ago) link
taxi theme song is such a gorgeous mood setter for not just the show but an evening it really does it for me lately
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 9 November 2023 04:48 (six months ago) link
I always loved the Taxi outro, especially the very last shot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VY9HSjFdh0
Look how young the cast looks!
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 9 November 2023 04:54 (six months ago) link
15 years and nobody's mentioned The Mary Tyler Moore Show yet?
― Hideous Lump, Thursday, 9 November 2023 06:19 (six months ago) link
there are some great western tv themes but damn y'all these anime themes are next level. just some random ones:
venus line (theme to Birdie Wing):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA7dgQl1nso
the theme to gakko no kaidan (notorious for its us comedy dub "ghost stories"):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGI0g8xX-VY
and if we're gonna get really obvious "a cruel angel's thesis", the theme to evangelion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIZL5qeEKj0
― Kate (rushomancy), Thursday, 9 November 2023 06:33 (six months ago) link
you mean "goodnight mr walters! (groan)"? xxp
i had bob james's 'touchdown' on an old ipod. i also meant for it to be a mood setter but it didn't work out that way because walking around manhattan with the cues from taxi as an overlay is actually pretty funny.
― Deflatormouse, Thursday, 9 November 2023 06:35 (six months ago) link
Yes, that part. For some reason, it always made me laugh when I was a kid.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 9 November 2023 12:04 (six months ago) link
xp to Kate: Thanks for those anime themes. Those are great. I don't watch a lot of anime, but binge-watched bootlegs of Rurouni Kenshin on CD-ROM a few decades ago. Grew very partial to its theme song, Sobakasu.
Full version:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DBkXcDU270
Freckles, the English dubhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSen97C496M
― peace, man, Thursday, 9 November 2023 14:38 (six months ago) link
Sorry (Remix): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmL-OT4Q3sc
Young Ones (outro): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY4n_sfkcUo
In terms of putting me right back on the sofa, thirty years ago
Boon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6mjSAgxusM
The Taggart intro and (especially) outro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k6RF7nBxX8
The Denton/Cook Tomorrow's World theme is a huge slapper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sSxz9ojrI8
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 9 November 2023 15:25 (six months ago) link
My favorite w/lyrics is “Diff'rent Strokes” (an Alan Thicke banger). There are too many instrumentals to rate… many of the best ones by Mike Post.
― Phair · Jagger/Richards · Carl Perkins (morrisp), Thursday, 9 November 2023 15:37 (six months ago) link
I loved the Boon theme as a kid. I have no memory of what the show was actually about
― Duane Barry, Thursday, 9 November 2023 17:23 (six months ago) link
Michael Elphick did stuff, on a bike, sometimes he was a fireman?
Yeah, it's a tricky one
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 9 November 2023 18:01 (six months ago) link