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Your Fave All Time TV Show Theme Songs
In continuing with Jurgen ‘s theme of greatest soundtracks …
How about what you consider what your fave All Time TV show Theme Songs Are ….
For me , like the movie soundtracks .. just far too many to list …I’ll give 10 off hand that standout off top of my head ..
Greatest American Hero/The Jeffersons/Good Times/One Day At A Time/Beverley Hillbillies/Sanford and Son/Welcome Back Kotter ( John Sebastian.😉) / Flintstones/Brady Bunch/Friends …
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56 Replies
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Great topic Jacki, I’ll share some of my favorites. This one was made into a hit record that got a lot of air play in the States. My brother’s band use to play it at their gigs. One of my favorite detective shows called Simon and Simon.
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Tim, I also watched Simon & Simon, Rockford, Kojak, Columbo. The A-Team, Hart to Hart, The Fall Guy, Airwolf and Magnum. At the time we only had three television programs (but no commercials!) Holy cow, how did I spend my youth? 😄 Although Airwolf was actually quite good and I would still watch Magnum today. I liked the subtle humor. Oh, and Miami Vice. Pleasantly colorful and fast. Our crime series were always kind of gray and slow. And yes, I still think Jan Hammer’s music is good today. On his last two albums he has continued to develop musically. He has found his way back to his classic roots.
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Jurgen, yeah I remember all those shows. Seems like every night there was a different detective show on. Miami Vice had some great music and some great scenery. I still watch a few on METV like Mannix, Cannon and Magnum P.I.
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I hold a grudge against Miami Vice because in 1986 Don Johnson released a song (!) timed so as to prevent Paul McCartney’s latest single from cracking the U.S. top 20. (And I’m sure it was intentional…)
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Somehow I missed that you posted this before I posted about Miami Vice.
I liked Jan’s soundtrack better than the show itself.
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Hi Jurgen
Yeah I always enjoyed Miami Vice. Loved the different songs they featured in many episodes like Phil Collins In the Air Tonight. As you mentioned a number of the big crime dramas, one that just pops to mind is Baretta. Did you see this in Germany? Sammy Davis Junior sings on the song, and the lyrics “don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time” was copied in a later police reality TV show Cops. The funky guitar sounds great. I always loved Baretta’s Cockatiel companion who often would do tricks on the show, and I think this show popularized Cockatiel’s as cool pets. https://youtu.be/kYdQuuLzg2A?si=vIzJJDthW_F4-Tfb
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Here’s another detective show where the theme song got turned into a hit record. The Rockford Files starring James Garner.
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Hi Tim
Some great TV show theme tunes there. I especially enjoyed Rockford Files. When they first aired the show, that telephone answering machine sounded so cool and cutting edge. I always loved the idea of living in a trailer by the Pacific Ocean right next to a Taco stand. I love Tacos. His Pontiac Firebird was nice, especially that trick he could do in an escape going in reverse and then braking and swinging the front end into drive, and continuing forward in one fell swoop…..
One that comes to mind is this one. I like the opening guitar sound.
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And this one was always a favourite. First time I think I really heard a banjo, and the fiddling is great too. “Black gold…Texas Tea”.
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I still watch the Hillbillies once in a while on METV. The great Earl Scruggs playing the banjo along with his partner Lester Flatt. Love the cigarette promotion. The closing credit verse was good too.
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I have to say I’m having difficulty deconvolving my favorite themes from my favorite shows. For me the theme is a signal to my brain that the show is about to start, and I can’t cleanly separate my thoughts about the two. That being said, pretty much everything listed so far would probably be on my list as well.
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Okay, here’s one I’ve always liked. It just screams late-70’s exuberance. Both versions (seasons 1 and 2) are included here, if you have the patience.
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I don’t remember Angie at all, I do remember WKRP in Cincinnati was a good comedy and the theme song got some airplay. I thought the closing theme was better but it meant the show was over.
https://youtu.be/zgrVP_J0BHk?feature=shared
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I love WKRP now, but I didn’t watch it when it originally aired. I had read that KRP was intended to stand for “crap”, and I didn’t want to subject myself to filthy language like that. (I’ve mellowed a bit since then.)
I grew up 90 minutes south of Cincinnati, and every summer we took a family trip to a major theme park just north of the city, travelling through downtown on the interstate. So my mind always goes back to those days whenever I see those establishing shots in the theme sequence.
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Anyone remember this very short-lived Happy Days spinoff? It was terrible, but the theme song was pretty catchy.
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Unfortunately I was too young for “Mission: Impossible” when it aired, but I do remember watching and enjoying the theme song.
I was a fan of the later Martin Landau / Barbara Bain show “Space: 1999”, which had a nice stirring instrumental theme:
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I don’t remember that one at all. I remember some of the actors but not the show. Didn’t Joanie and Chachi have their own show?. Also, Laverne and Shirley was a spin off and maybe Mork and Mindy?
Of course Happy Days was a spin off of the movie American Graffiti starring Ron Howard and Cindy Williams (Richie and Shirley).
Here’s Happy Days original theme for the first couple seasons.
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Yes, all of those were Happy Days spinoffs!
The genesis of Happy Days is really unusual. Garry Marshall filmed a pilot episode (with Ron Howard, Anson Williams, and Marion Ross) in 1972, but no network would buy it, so it ended up airing as an episode of Love, American Style. George Lucas saw it and thus decided to cast Ron Howard in American Graffiti. Then the success of that movie convinced ABC to put Happy Days into production.
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Yeah David, It seems I remember seeing that episode of Love American Style and remember that story too. It seems I heard Ron agreed to act in American Graffiti in exchange for a chance to direct his first movies which were Grand Theft Auto and Eat My Dust.
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I had no idea that this song was a TV theme, Chris! I assume a very abbreviated version was used for the show?
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I saw Mission: Impossible, It’s this one that I was too young for. It started around 1960 or 61. It was first in Europe and called Danger Man. Secret Agent Man was the American version that came after, around mid-’60s, and that’s the one which had the Johnny Rivers song.
A couple guys in the Brill Building wrote the short theme, then later fleshed it out so Johnny Rivers would have a full song to play.
There are episodes of it on YT and elsewhere.
forbes.com
Songwriter Steve Barri On How 1960s Hit ‘Secret Agent Man’ Came To Be
It started out as a 30-second opening jingle for a CBS summer replacement TV show from Great Britain, and ended up a No. 1 hit song in the U.S.
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I don’t remember the show but Secret Agent Man was great. I forgot how much I liked Johnny Rivers. He got a lot of slack for doing so many covers, especially Chuck Berry tunes but I thought he did a great job with them.
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One more to add:
News anchor Ted Baxter and his girlfriend/wife Georgette were the funniest and goofiest couple in sitcom.
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Jung, this is one of my very favorite shows of all time! I’m actually in the middle of a long binge-watch of the entire series on YouTube, one episode per night.
I’m glad you posted the first-season version of the theme, whose lyrics are more poignant than those of the later version.
Fun fact: Sonny Curtis, the composer and singer of this theme, was a member of Buddy Holly’s group, the Crickets.
A few years ago I drove from North Carolina to Montana and back just to “collect” a few more states, and I paid a visit to the Mary Tyler Moore statue in Minneapolis, located at the corner where she famously threw her hat in the air. People were stopping by every few minutes to take selfies with it.
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Hi David
Mary Tyler Moore was one of my big favourite. TV shows of the time, and there was the Rhoda spin off too. Some great comedy moments there and characters, like Lou Grant. I recall they spun a show off in his character as well. Goes to show how successful and iconic Mary Tyler Moore is. I never knew there is even a statue of her in Minneapolis, great to know, wouldn’t miss it if I’m ever down that way.
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Hey, Jung. The statue was commissioned by the TV Land cable channel about 20 years ago.
By the way, Phyllis got her own spinoff series also.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9a/13/5f/9a135faa0b4ae49e94459f436ba794d8.jpg
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That’s a classic Jung, it’s still on one of the classic TV stations I get. Ted and Georgette were the funniest ones on there. Betty White was pretty funny too.
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Hi Jacki,
my favorite theme? I don’t have to think about it for long. „Raumschiff Enterprise“. That’s what „Star Trek“ was called for us. And that’s how I experienced the opening credits as a child. Unforgettable.
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That’s so cool, Juergen! I actually have a German-language photonovel of one of the episodes: “Invasion der Tribbles”.
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David, I have all 79 episodes and the movies in a German dubbed version on Bluray or UHD (because I’m too comfortable listening to it in english. But it wouldn’t actually not be bad for my understanding of the language to do that…). If you happen to be in the area, just drop by for a coffee. Then we can watch the one or other episodes together. That would be fine 😀
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Ausgezeichnet! I’d love to hear Kirk yell “Khaaaaan!” in German.
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Very good, David. „Der Zorn des Khan“. Khan with a long a. By the way, the episode you are referring to was first broadcast under the title “Invasion der Wollmöpse” and then later renamed “Mehr Trouble mit Tribbles”. Both sound kind of stupid… When translating film and book titles, German dubbing sometimes develops unimagined potential. However, the translation is often very good (even if not word for word) and some voice actors sometimes sound better than the original actors (and above all: you got used to the syncron voices). Arnold Schwarzenegger, for example, is also dubbed by us. He never speaks in his original voice. It is better like that. „Hasta la vista, baby“
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I was going to ask for a translation of Möpse, but I just looked it up. You’re right: pretty stupid, given the context.
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Jurgen, Did you ever watch Baywatch, I’ve heard it was quite popular in Germany. I actually only watched the first few seasons because later I took a second shift job. And who was your guys favorite Baywatch Babe, Lol, be honest. I thought Yazmine Bleeth was the prettiest but I’ve always been a sucker for brunettes. But I also loved Brooke Burns later, I had dreams about her, Haha.
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Well, Tim. You mean the TV- Series in which the women had particularly large ears and their shoes were always very tight? Yes, that was popular here, but not because of the sophisticated plot. I watched it, because I was curious. But the combination of David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson tortured me intellectually. My eyes couldn’t compensate that.
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Back when Norm MacDonald hosted Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live he had a running bit about Germans and David Hasselhoff:
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Okay David, I’m going to tell you the whole truth about David Hasselhoff and the Germans: It wasn’t Hasselhoff that we loved, but his car K.I.T.T. In order to save costs, a different vehicle was initially planned. A test episode was even filmed and shown to German test viewers. The feedback was devastating. Only then were new episodes with K.I.T.T produced and yes, we loved it: the car. I’ll just name a few of the gimmicks/gadgets here:
Changeable license plate: K.I.T.T. is able to change his license plate from KNIGHT to KNI 667 (Have you driven too fast again? Never mind).
K.I.T.T. has a built-in ATM (you’ll never have to rob a bank again if you urgently need money)
Ejection seat: K.I.T.T. can transport the driver and front passenger out of the cockpit into the air using the ejector seat (if the front passenger knows everything better again and chatters too much: get rid of him)
Anharmonic Synthesizer: This ability allows K.I.T.T. to imitate a variety of sounds, animals or people (The built-in sampler on the Casio MT-40 was yesterday. This is the future)
Silent Mode: A mode in which K.I.T.T. drives with an inconspicuous, quiet engine noise (this allows the driver to inconspicuously approach pedestrians and then press the horn hard)
Here is the test sequence (You should also be able to set English subtitles via YouTube settings. K.I.T.T. would have done that automatically for you)
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Jurgen, that’s pretty funny. That would have made a good show for maybe one episode, I like silly stuff like that. I forgot about the Knight Rider. That could be a separate discussion, all the movies and TV shows with “super” vehicles like the Batmobile or the General Lee.
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Lol, yeah I don’t think the brain was the body part they were aiming to stimulate. They did introduce some good music like Miami Vice did but after the first year or so the story lines and acting was pretty terrible. I thought Pamela was actually ok until all the plastic surgery.
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Hi Tim, I recall that show was often called “Babe Watch”. 😁 It certainly glamorized the beaches along LA.
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One of my all time favorite musicians is Jan Hammer. I found him via Jeff Beck in the ’70s, but he was a Prague prodigy, and later a huge name in jazz rock fusion. First with Mahavishnu Orchestra, and as great as that band was, I really like the Jan Hammer Group that came later too. He has always had a very singular style, so you could tell it was him right away.
In the ’80s he got noticed in America by writing the weekly music for Miami Vice.
Here’s a nice interview with Jan about the show.
This clip is one time he actually got in front of the camera too.
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This sitcom really set the bar high for every one that followed. I still love watching it on MeTV. Great opening and closing theme songs too.
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That show was a regular when I was growing up. I remember for a long time, I didn’t get the line in that song,
“Gee, our old LaSalle ran great.”
Couldn’t figure out what they were saying, and no web to look it up on.
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I was in that same boat, Chris. It’s annoying to sing along with a song you like and have to resort to gibberish at some point: “G. R. ola sell red great”?
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Yeah, I was only 12 when the show first aired. It took me a long time to figure out that line. Edith’s singing voice irritated me too, sounded like my Aunt Delores.
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Lol… Yepoers many if you are on same thinking as me here…You’re All rattling off ones that I love but didn’t want to go on and on with for fear there’d be an issue arusing with too many posting or YT links as that was an issue on here in the past… Angie, Laverne and Shirley, WKRP, etc are some of my other faces…. Glad I posted this topic, am enjoying the replies and how similarly we’re all on same kind of viewing oath… All in the Family is a Stellar classic.. Live Biat… Hawaii 5-O, Mod Squad, Streets of San Fransico, Out of the Blue, , etc …like I said… I could easily be Gere all day posting exactly All my TV Show Theme Faves …
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Oh Jacki, I got a hundred more, I probably watched too much TV as a kid. I’ll try to space them out but every time somebody posts one I think of a dozen more. I haven’t even got into the westerns yet. Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Lone Ranger, haha. It’s a fun discussion.
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Tim…. Dallas, Ponderosa, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Little House On the Prairie ,
I also enjoyed Facts of Life, The Waltons , Three’s Company, Outta This World, Growing Pains ( Dusty Springfield and BJ Thomas sang the theme song in later seasons whereas it was originally Jennifer Warnes and BJ Thomas) , Dukes of Hazzard , Golden Girls, Fish, Chico and the Man, Barney Miller, Barnaby Jones, Alice, On The Buses, The Banana Splits show, … etc…I’ll post as I recall more… Yes, the 50s-80s were prime TV show eras….. as for the 90s to now, not really, well, at least for me…lol…. I love my 70s childhood tv memories and my teen yrs in the 80s….. Whoops…this gal just aged herself …. lol 😉
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This reply was modified 1 year ago by Jacki Hopper.
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Jacki, I really didn’t watch this show a lot when it was first aired. Waylon Jennings was/is one of my favorite country singers and this was a big hit for him.
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This reply was modified 1 year ago by
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Married With Children was a silly comedy that ran for 11 seasons. It used the Frank Sinatra recording of Love and Marriage for the theme song. Fun fact, it used a clip from the movie Vacation in the opening credit video. At the 0:17 mark you can see the Griswald family truckster rolling down the highway heading out of Chicago.
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