Eric Deggans pens an elegy for the TV theme song, a change in the network-watching landscape that’s equally attributable to the shortened attention spans of the viewing populace and the leeriness of network suits toward doing anything that might encourage people to change the channel. (For example, the 1:19-long season one Law & Order theme, posted above, feels like a symphony compared to the truncated version shown on TNT’s reruns.) Deggans laments the loss of great themes like those used at the top of Sanford & Son and Barney Miller, although while railing against the use of Who songs for the CSI themes he neglects to note that The Benny Hill Show performed a similar trick when ganking “Yakety Sax” for its crazy-chase-scene endings. Anyway, while doing some research for this post I came across a craptastic compendium of TV themes that made me wonder if this death wasn’t hastened by the ever-devolving talent pool of composers out there:
If you can get through all 10 minutes of that, my hat’s off to you. I crapped out somewhere in the middle of the Just The Ten Of Us theme because a) the one song I really wanted to hear was the still-awesome theme from Mr. Belvedere; and b) I realized that 10‘s theme was pretty much a note-for-note ripoff of the opener for the show it was spun off from, Growing Pains, and that I’d confused the two in my mind for the last 15 years. Which I guess means that I didn’t waste too much time watching reruns of either show, but still, yeesh.
Death of the TV theme song creates a void [Chicago Tribune]
Law & Order Season One Intro [YouTube]
ABC TGIF Intros [YouTube]
There’s only one Mike Post and not enough of him to go around these days.
@loudersoft: which is why law & order: ci is using a recycled theme song!
We need Alan Thicke now more than ever?
@maura: and if you listen to the three law & order themes back-to-back, the C.I. one is so “REMIX!!” style.
I’m glad someone is acknowledging the genius of the Mr. Belvedere theme.
Believe or not, I’m walking on air. I never though I could feel so fre-e-e. Flying away on a wing and a prayer, who could it be? Believe it or not, it’s just
Me.
I bet even just reading that will make the song stuck in your head all day.
You’re welcome.
@maura: and now that CI has moved to USA, it’s been using the L&O: Trial By Jury version, which is ridiculously bombastic at the end.
@loudersoft: Mike Post is a saint among men.
@Dead Air ummm Dead Air: Oh that’s still one of the greatest songs ever. The midsong break’s a treat too.
@Dead Air ummm Dead Air:
I remember that we were forced to sing that song in my 4th or 5th grade chorus class…
Once again, I can’t see the embedded clip, but I offer you The All-Time Greatest TV Theme Nobody Has Ever Heard: the one for P.O.P., a 1984 comedy starring Charles Durning and Bea Arthur that somehow lasted only a millisecond before it was cancelled.
@Dead Air ummm Dead Air: Yes!
The “King of the Hill” theme deserves to be considered among the upper eschelon of theme songs. It may be brief, but it does everything it needs to do in 30 seconds.
three words:
The. Fall. Guy.
Liz Phair did a great theme song (“Miss Fortune”) for the little-seen sitcom “The Weber Show.” That song gets a lot done in under a minute.
I just got the Twin Peaks DVD box set…That show had a great theme song, but when compared to what is on TV today, it feel like it’s 10 minutes long…I have to scan through the intro now…
@Mick Kraut: We were forced to sing the “Growing Pains” theme in high school. Half the group mutinied because it wasn’t the TV arrangement.
The “Family Matters” theme wasn’t too bad. I totally remember the “Going Places” theme, but not a single thing about the show.
Also… there was a black person on “Boy Meets World”?
ha! my wife and i lament the loss of the tv theme song on an almost monthly basis. the advertising jingle, too.
here’s an obscure-theme trivia question: what’s the instrumental theme that kicked off the earlier seasons of “eight is enough?” i don’t mean the “eight is enough to fill our lives with love” song that came later, i mean the sprightly stock-music-ish instrumental. i would love an mp3 of that.
@Jay-C: There are 3 great Angelo Baldemanti CD’s with music from Twin Peaks that you can get. Highly recommend anything TP, except for the “Guide to Twin Peaks” faux travel book.
Also, you know what show had a great theme? Quincy M.E.
I swear, I’m 24. Nowhere near as old as I sound.
Brocktoon!
Not to knock the genius of the Mr. Belvedere theme, but “the second time around” that Step By Step theme is growing on me.
And I lament the YouTube vid not using the longer theme for Family Matters and the original credits for Boy Meets World and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
@silkyjumbo: he is a saint!
also, i think we’re talking about the same L&O theme — the version I was referring to is the one that gets all crazy Lords Of Acid style, which must be the Trial By Jury version (does that sort-of techno-remix thing where it goes da-dada-duh-da-da-da?)
@loudersoft: yep, that’s the one.
@loudersoft: i actually looked for a cd of his themes and found one, but it’s out of print.
What about Andy Partridge doing the Wonderfalls theme? There’s something so joyfully mediocre about it that somehow works wonders. I am still bummed that show only made it one season.
I somehow managed to battle my way through all 10 minutes of that. Revenge will be mine, Johnston.
I just made it almost all the way through…I felt as thought I was reliving every time I was allowed to stay up late and watch TV in grades three through seven.
It made me go and search to see if Perfect Strangers is on DVD yet.
I hereby declare the theme song to be alive and kickin. It occurs less frequently, but it’s also less cheesy and usually pretty decent: The Office, 30 Rock, Six Feet Under, Curb, Dexter. All top shelf.