There have been some great animated opening titles too. One of my recent favorites is from the British show HUSTLE. The new USA network program COVERT AFFAIRS also has slick animated titles. I wonder if they were made by the same company or at the very least the COVERT producers used HUSTLE as their template.
Here's both HUSTLE and COVERT AFFAIRS.
Note: the worst 60s teen theme is next.
Covert Affairs reminds me of the opening for Chuck.
ReplyDeleteLove Hustle. Great music and graphics in the opening and it's a great show. It must be amazingly difficult to write a con show.
ReplyDeleteTo me it looks like both intros are inspired by the "Mad Men" opening.
ReplyDeleteHustle preceded both.
ReplyDeleteHustle did come first, I looked it up. I guess Mad Men copied Hustle :)
ReplyDeleteIn that spirit: Jeeves & Wooster
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78BS_7lKgJw
Hustle - I thought Mad Men meets the Pink Panther, w/out the great Mancini theme. Napoleon Solo lives!
ReplyDeleteI've always thought HBO series have especially cool opening titles, e.g. THE SOPRANOS, SIX FEET UNDER, THE WIRE (all 5 of 'em), ENTOURAGE, ROME, CARNIVALE, DEADWOOD. If they released a DVD of just their title sequences, I would buy it.
ReplyDeleteAnd in fact, HUSTLE aired on MAD MEN's home base, AMC. I don't see it much on the schedule, but it still shows up in the On Demand section of my cable.
ReplyDeleteI love the "Hustle" theme so much that I put it on my eye-pod. The graphics and the music work together perfectly, I think--love how the music builds from nothing, adding ingenious textures here and there and then stepping away from them, and that vocalized "hoo!" at the beginning...that's an ingenious composer, or group of composers (actually I believe it is a group). This was the theme from the first couple of seasons of the show circa what, 2002 or so?; they diluted the lean-ness of the theme later on (in my estimation) even as the show itself began to lose its edge.
ReplyDeleteI need to take a moment and say THANK YOU. My wife and I are on the 4th season of Hustle because of your recommendation and you are right, it's one of the best shows we've seen!
ReplyDelete~Sean in Tempe AZ
One of the finest theme songs in recent memory, accompanied by great animation is "Human Target" by Bear McCreary.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNJ0UEYdcFo
I'll second the vote for "Wooster & Jeeves" and also recommend the classic Gorey animation for "Mystery" on PBS.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4502MXkb-Dc