What television show had/has the best theme song?
I have liked a bunch and it’s hard to choose between Barney Miller, Sanford & Son, and Hawaii Five-O. Of course, Mission: Impossible and the original Star Trek have special places in my heart.
What say you?
For me, it’s between Barney Miller and Taxi:
I loved Taxi.
See, I knew Angela from my brother’s record collection, so I never considered it a true theme song. But it fit the show’s mood so well that it deserves mention as the best of all time. I should have mentioned the Rockford Files, too.
Do any of the current shows have theme songs specifically written for the show? I can’t think of any.
I liked the MASH theme, myself, even as I also thought it wildly inappropriate for a show that was about 80% comedy..! 😉
Wait! I know what my all-time favorite was!
The Greatest American Hero!
And what about Cheers? That was a great song.
This was the one that came to my mind.
I was never all that knocked out about the theme song for the Sopranos, but David Chase was great for using music, especially at the end of each episode. There was one where Tony was particularly nasty with his sister at the end and as he’s walking down the street up comes “I’m Not Like Everybody Else”, a great Kinks song from the sixties, only this was a live version done by Dave Davies. Fantastic. The original was a non-conformist anthem. Chase used the live version, where Davies is shouting, and turns it into a sociopath’s anthem. Sly.
Hill Street Blues was good.
Yep. One of the best ever.
Rawhide
But one of my all time favorites…
The theme from Northern Exposure, which is also my ringtone.
C’mon you guys- this one is a slam dunk. Chico and The Man, sung by Jose Feliciano….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXdYrERzrWg
gotta say the twilight zone
and all in the family
are definitely classics.
My dad was so annoyed with the original All in the Family soundtrack that he actually wrote to the show saying it was incomprehensible. A couple of months later they redid it so that the lyrics could be understood, if not a bit overdone. He bragged forever about that. But, the incident did teach me that if enough people say something, change can happen.
Don’t forget the theme for Twin Peaks.
I visited the “Old Town” square of Warsaw, Poland the first year TP was showing in Europe. Every vendor in the square had synched their boom boxes and were playing that music non-stop. It was as surreal as anything in the series.
LA Law. Hands down.
great topic!
most of my favorites have already been mentioned: Sanford & Son, Barney Miller, Mission Impossible, Hawaii 5-0, All in the Family. Can’t possibly pick one.
gotta mention the best of Saturday morning too though:
On with the show! This is it!
Season Four, The Wire.
” Way Down in the Hole” written by Tom Waites
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9kf1FeADYc
Wow. I’m going to put up the original Battlestar Galactica theme, but upon revue it’s really not all that good. I do still like the rousing core melody, but uhh, whoa strings and french horns and yiiish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHp9oZPqs8E
Cosby Show Season 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS6wZl7G-QE
and Season 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxch2td-uNA
were favorites of mine, too.
price is right, hands down.
Right on!
dude, do you seriously smoke up that early in the day?
no, i just like price is right.
you don’t have to be high to rock the showcase showdown.
IT’S A NEW CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How about the sexy playboy…
Or that boat…
Or that groovy disco beat of the California Highway Patrol…
How about “Secret Agent Man”? My girlfriend insists that Johnny Rivers is singing “secret Asian man”.
lalo schifrin, the composer of the theme to mission impossible, also composed the theme to mannix:
Hawaii Five-O,
Mission Impossible
The Lone Ranger
Police Woman
SWAT
“secret agent man” by johnny rivers:
Greatest American Hero
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Q3orQhEcA
One of the coolest shows EVAH!!!!
But terribly misunderstood and under-watched. I loved the extra characters like Agnes DePesto….
“the odd couple”:
“keep your eye on the sparrow” sung by sammy davis jr. for “baretta”
Great Intro from Six Feet Under…
“s.w.a.t.” (with some help from the shaft theme?)
a modern classic: “x-files”:
MARY!!!!
I was too young for it, but my mom was a huge fan of Dallas, and to this day that theme song still gets stuck in my head.
“green hornet” theme by al hirt:
“i dream of jeannie”
OMG — The “I Dream of Jeannie” theme!
Hubby and I were in Cocoa Beach last summer, visiting Cape Canaveral, and he wouldn’t shut up with that damn song…
Too funny.
“there goes the spider-man”:
Huntley-Brinkley Report – 2nd movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8SW7TQksRY
I always liked The Addams Family theme song.
I’d embed it but every time I try it tells me there is HTML code errors.
fixed it
yeah, that’s great. Better than The Munsters, but I like The Munsters’ theme, too.
Only saw the first comment which mentioned Taxi.
But I’d go with Taxi as well–great opening scene with the tune going across the Triborough Bridge.
I believe WKPR in Cincinnati is the best theme song, followed by TAXI.
yeah…’WKRP’ was the first on my mind for this discussion….along with ‘Welcome Back Kotter’
For a time we remember now as something of a ‘lost’ decade, the ’70’s weren’t all that bad, on TV at least…
The Jeffersons
End of discussion.
Oh, also, for music over the closing credits, the sad piano music at the end of The Incredible Hulk is unmatched. (The name of the piano piece is “The Lonely Man.”
just had to come back with this rare twofer: the carpenters on the dating game! classic theme music (at 2:43) by herb albert:
“The Prisoner” – has a very 60’s sound to it though.
Early boomers will remember the theme from Peter Gunn.
Definitely the best ever!
My all time favorite is the theme-song/lead-in to the Maverick show on TV in the late 50s/early sixties.
Jim Garner and a guy named Kelly were the two Maverick brothers.
“livin’ on jacks and queens.”
/object>
I kinda liked “Petticoat Junction” too.
The Wild Wild West (but it’s hard to separate the music from the opening sequence which was pretty cool).
What’s really amazing is how many of the songs mentioned were written by Mike Post. And incomplete list of his work includes.
The Rockford Files, NYPD Blue, The Commish, NewsRadio, Blossom, Hill Street Blues, The A-Team, The Greatest American Hero, Magnum, P.I., Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, CHiPs, Hardcastle & McCormick, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Doogie Howser, M.D., Quantum Leap, Hooperman, Riptide, Remington Steele, Renegade, Silk Stalkings, Stingray, Wise Guy
But not a piece by Post, no list of theme songs is complete without Sesame Street… courtesy of Gladys Knight and Pips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNtNlnN4O-s