Happy Days generated a remarkable seven spin-offs (two of which were animated). Coincidentally, his friend (and frontman of The Diamonds) Dave Somerville had written a song about a stunt man for a show that never went forward. Along with writer Mark Frost, he created a TV series for a major broadcast network. Though the song never charted, Jones nevertheless included it in his Greatest Hits collection. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Heroes in the half shell Turtle Power! The production company, Mercury Zeitgeist Film Studios was hired to create the animated sequence for the opening theme. Stars: Andy Griffith, Ron Howard, Don Knotts, Frances Bavier. The song became so popular, with DJs playing it on the radio, that the group recorded an extended version for a single, and a companion video was produced featuring the six leads of the show. The series takes its title from the song of the same name, which was originally released on a hit record by The Romantics in 1980; it was written by the group's members Wally Palmar, Mike Skill, Rich Cole, and Jimmy Marinos. At the end of the final season, McGoohan left and launched the unofficial sequel, cult classic sci-fi show The Prisoner. Check. Why just 50? The Wire? Part of the new success was owed to the rocking U.S. theme song, which became a No. Having a single career woman in the lead was a huge deal at the time, and the incredible cast and crew (including creator and sitcom writing/directing legend James L. Brooks) powered the show to 29 Emmy wins over its run. Howe… It certainly would have made a Top 100 by me, possibly Top 60. The fantastic one was the harder rock, jazzy, sexed-up version found under Del Shannon-Runaway (Crime Story) where the lyrics were altered and updated. The 50 Best TV Theme Songs of All Time 1. A piece that’s destined to live forever on Halloween compilations and in sports arenas, The Addams Family theme might contain the most famous double-snaps of all time. Though certain parts of the song changed over the course of the five seasons, the core of “The Muppet Show Theme” remained the same. 5. It also won a Grammy in 1975. No Star Trek?! Turtles count it off: (1!) You have obviously never heard of “Airwolf”, one of the greatest themes in the history of TV. The song was performed by creator Henson, Frank Oz, and other operators via their various characters. M*A*S*H Intro by Johnny Mandel, “Suicide Is Painless” M*A*S*H was unique in that it was a tragedy with a laugh track. The theme, which is actually called “Yo Home to Bel-Air,” puts the show’s premise and Smith’s talent on full display. Lynch, Frost, and much of the cast revived the series on Showtime in 2017. Used in revivals of the show? It’s by far the most unique and immediately recognisable of the list. Legal drama Perry Mason’s theme had a jazzy swagger that befitted the character borne from Erle Stanley Gardner’s detective stories (some of which ran in The Saturday Evening Post). Although we can't say if they were originally intended to do so, a show's theme song has the power to take you back to a (hopefully) simpler, happier time. A few that were missed, Rawhide by frankie lane, Bonanza theme,and my top pick Runaway 1986, Del Shannon redid his original 1961 hit Runaway. The theme song was written by Haim Saban. The Sonny Curtis theme became an empowering anthem, and Mary’s hat toss at the end of the opening is an iconic TV moment. © Copyright 2021 Saturday Evening Post Society. Television theme songs set the tone for the entire series, and for the beginning of each episode. It starts with a nod to the old Universal horror days with a fugue on organ. It pretty much invented a whole genre (electronic) and was very popular on thee continents. Someone was a genius. " It's a Jungle Out There " is a song written by Randy Newman and used as the theme song for the TV series Monk starting in its second season. Your support helps us preserve a great American legacy. A giant of educational programming and the generator of countless beloved characters (and the proving ground for The Muppet Show), the show has won an unbelievable 189 Emmy awards during its run. The memorable track with a single lyric (“Batman!”) paired wonderfully with the animated intro, evoking the campy and comedic tone of the show. CBS picked up the show for the next two seasons, but moved the setting to the 1970s. From the second season to the tenth season, the Happy Days theme was moved to the front; the 11th season featured an updated version with Bobby Arvon on lead vocals. (3!) It’s not often that a second theme song becomes the one that’s most associated with a show. The show had five definitive spin-offs (a couple of which spun off their own shows). The show was a huge hit and launched Smith into an even more successful film career. 1 hit for Jan Hammer in 1985, the Miami Vice theme was as cutting-edge and of-the-moment as you could find on TV. The theme from The Brady Bunch serves as a microcosm of our bigger list. Glad to see “Cheers” was included, but “The Facts of Life”? The two series even had a crossover episode; another episode guest-starred Charlie’s Angels. I kept waiting for two of them….obviously The Rockford Files Which came in at number 2…and Welcome Back , Kotter …and that is a disgrace that it is not on the list at all never mind top 5. Impossible Missions Force trivia tidbit: In the 1980s series, Phil Morris plays the son of the character that his father, Greg Morris, played on the original series. Another reason why the theme song works is because of the visuals and the way the names of the cast and crew appear in Hindi. Two TV series. The best of The Saturday Evening Post in your inbox! I didn’t include Soul Train, American Bandstand, The Tonight Show Theme, the SNL Theme, Solid Gold, etc. After a decent run on CBS, the show became enormously popular in syndication. Country legend Waylon Jennings nailed the spirit of a show about car chases and misadventures with his plot-explaining anthem. The theme opens with portentous classical sounds, and then kicks into full-on sci-fi disco. Turtles! TV Theme Song Lyrics. What exactly do you want from a tv theme song if that’s not good enough to get on these lists? TV Themes - 50s, 60s, & 70s Lyrics; TV Themes - 80s & 90s Lyrics Joss Whedon gets a lot of credit for revitalizing genre TV. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_theme_music (Turtles!) How do you determine the greatest TV show theme songs of all time? 1 hit for Rhythm Heritage and sold over a million copies. Frequently covered and used as a musical cue in film, the song received a second life in the 1980s as the music for the enormously popular Spy Hunter video game. It’s also one of the few lasting themes to prominently feature harpsichord. Thanks for putting these together. Martin, HBO’s Game of Thrones became a worldwide fantasy phenomenon. Friends Theme Lyrics I'll Be There for You Lyrics by the Rembrandts. The album itself hit No. Covers by members of U2. A single with both the instrumental and Cruise versions charted in over a dozen countries between 1990 and 1991. Do they realize that that is the only television theme song to reach #1 on the Billboard Top 100…to the creators of this list…up your nose with a rubber hose. The theme song was originally sung by Shannon Chan-Kent, Pinkie Pie's singing voice. Music was an integral element of the show, with classic and current hits splashed across every episode of its run. Season 1 did not air on Netflix for an unknown reason. In 2017, a CBS television reboot starring Shemar Moore debuted; it uses an updated version of De Vorzon’s theme by Robert Duncan. This prompted a resurrection of the show that ran from 1964 to 1968. Laverne herself, Penny Marshall (Garry’s sister), contributed the hopscotch chant that comes before the song in the opening credits. (Turtles!) I’m not sure why but this website is loading incredibly slow for me. Musical side-note: the late regular cast member Roxie Roker (Helen Willis) is the mother of rock star Lenny Kravitz. TC, you’ll notice that none of the themes are from shows that are expressly music and variety shows (except mayyybee The Muppet Show). (2!) When the evil Shredder attacks These turtle boys don't cut him no slack Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Splinter taught them to be ninja teens (He's … only lasted two seasons. The “I’ve been seen with Farrah” line was a reference to Majors’ then-marriage to Farrah Fawcett of Charlie’s Angels; she also appeared in The Fall Guy pilot. Space: 1999 didn’t have a long run, but it left behind several generations of fans. Though there have been a number of versions, you know that theme when you hear it. Check. Uploaded to YouTube by GreatestShowsOnEarth. When the show was retooled for season 2 (which included replacing four of the girls — one of whom was a young Molly Ringwald — with Nancy McKeon’s Jo), portions of the lyrics were rewritten, including the addition of the more famous “You take the good, you take the bad” opening line. This short segment is so powerful, the arrangements, the voice, the whistling, everything works perfectly. The 25 Greatest TV Theme Songs of All Time: Spoken-Word. However, the rights holder wanted too much money for the song so Semper ended up not being able to use it. So, no love for the theme from Soul Train? It's a shell of a town! The premise turned on the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, who have to try to survive when the moon is knocked out of Earth’s orbit. The theme, Falling, was derived from a song that Lynch and his frequent collaborator Angelo Badalamenti wrote for singer Julee Cruise. One of the great statement-of-purpose themes, “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” received an Emmy nomination in 1983. 20 in A Major, D. 959, Rondo: Allegretto, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_television_theme_music&oldid=1015805986, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles with style issues from January 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 3 April 2021, at 17:34. The first one he did for ‘Crime Story’ was too close to the 1961 version. Innumerable references in popular culture. The elder Altman would later note on The Tonight Show that the song’s use in the film and TV series had subsequently earned his son over $1 million in royalties. ... You can hear a few tracks off that record via NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series… If Norman Lear was the king of 1970s sitcoms on CBS, his counterpart at ABC was Garry Marshall. 3! We're warning you now: after reading this, you'll be humming these theme songs all day. I’m on the search for such info. However, Season 2 only aired on Netflix. The first version was used for season 1 and featured star Charlotte Rae and a number of the seven featured young ladies trading lines. All three of these shows were great too, and not just because I say so. If all else fails, then it's time to kick butt! It was the first TV theme to have its sound rooted in synthesizer. Subscribe now, Culture, Movies, Movies for the Rest of Us. Thank you for another excellent article. … By Kristin Hunt. No Wild, Wild West or Mannix or The Real McCoys? Five years after "Jimmy Neutron" aired on Nick, "Phineas And Ferb" debuted on rival network the Disney Channel, with Bowling for Soup adding another theme song to their repertoire. The theme, Falling, was derived from a song that Lynch and his frequent collaborator Angelo Badalamenti wrote for singer Julee Cruise. Both Incredible theme songs with the latter having an unexpected sexy ending! Not sure how/why the “Fresh Prince” theme was even chosen at all, but oh well. Widower Sheriff Andy Taylor, and his son Opie, live with Andy's Aunt Bee in Mayberry, North Carolina. 21 on the pop chart and hit the top of the Hot 100 Country chart in 1980. Two-Mix also did the main song “White Reflection” for the wrap-up film, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz. It was first used in the opening series in 2015. The release was a massive hit around the world between 1995 and 1997, and notched No. In this case, it mainly reflects the story of station program director Andy Travis (Gary Sandy).