Saturday, September 28, 2019

Weekend Post

Here are some more great TV theme songs that you and I suggested. 









38 comments :

Lemuel said...

All great, from a time when the cost-cutters didn't fret about lost seconds for commercials.
Let's not forget John Barry's "Persuaders" theme.

Anonymous said...

Anyone old enough to recall the insidious theme song for Chatter's World-
the syndicated voice-overed chimpanzee kiddy comedy shorts series-
likely requires digital de-aging of their arteries


http://classicshowbiz.blogspot.com/2013/01/chatters-world-1960.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ooeoSS3Q4

Mibbitmaker said...

On the original post's comments, I forgot to include the theme for the Monkees. I especially love the use of "For Pete's Sake" as the closing theme with the original closing's visuals during season 2.

Aaron Sheckley said...

One of my favorites from that era was the theme to "How The West Was Won", James Arness' post-Gunsmoke TV series where he plays mountain man Zeb Macahan. When I'm on a motorcycle trip out west in places like Utah, that's the music I hear in my head.

Earl Boebert said...

The Miami Vice theme reminds me: if you only see one episode of this show, make it "Out Where The Buses Don't Run." (S2 E3)

John Mankiewicz had a hand in it, and it shows.

kent said...

I just listened to the F-Troop theme. No reason they couldn't use it today, I'm sure those lyrics would be warmly embraced by a modern audience.

Anonymous said...

one short lived series with a great theme song
The Good Guys

CarolMR said...

"Let's not forget John Barry's 'Persuaders' theme." - Lemuel

What a blast from the past! Loved the show and the theme.

Mike Doran said...

Anonymous:

This Monday, I will observe my 69th birthday (aaarrrggghhh!).
I remember Chatter's World - in its original run on WBKB-TV, Channel 7, the ABC owned-and-operated station in Chicago, on Saturday mornings.
Chatter's World was mainly a live show; Chatter would run around the sets, which were set up to be … well, something, and off-camera, staff announcer Ronny Born would ad-lib like crazy, following along with the chimp, while a bewildered young man named Murray Hill valiantly attempted to control the proceedings.
The film segments came up, two to an hour, to enable the Channel 7 crew to put up the sets for the next live segment.
Up to the present day, I was unaware that WBKB had syndicated the film spots; as far as I knew, Chatter the Chimp was Chicago's Very Own, exclusively.
(Side Note: during this year, Channel 7 was running a series of print ads about the various Chicago personalities who had their own shows on the station - including bookseller Stuart Brent, pundit Norman Ross, popular Polish personality Bob Lewandowski, Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers, kid show stars Jim Stewart and Terry Bennett, some magazine publisher named Hugh Hefner … and Chatter the Chimp. Local TV - those were the days!)
Any The Hoo, thanks for the YouTube directions.
(Noting that the films seem to have been saved and posted by Ronny Born's daughter (I think; correction welcomed if needed).)

Oh … and yes, I can still sing that song (God have mercy...).

Peter said...

Thanks for including Dallas!

The Soap theme is another favourite of mine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QejBwptSQZc

Mark said...

A while back I did a post on TV themes from the famous for other things, McCartney, Goldsmith, Morricone, etc.

https://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2013/04/weekend-blogging-tv-themes-by-otherwise.html

Also includes the dueling UNCLE themes of Goldsmith and Schifrin

Mark said...

Weigel (MeTV, Decades, H&I) never cuts into the themes. That's one of the reasons I'm a fan.

Mark said...

Fans of late 60s/early 70s detective shows should check out Cowboy Bebop. Trust me on this one. Great opening titles. Great (and surprisingly approachable) show.

Cowboy Surfer said...

Ken this is unacceptable...

Where's LOVE BOAT??

'Love, exciting and new, come aboard'...you know you want to sing along, 'we're expecting you and love'...


And I'm not even gonna get into how much you pissed off the monkey from BJ AND THE BEAR.

Totally unacceptable!

Jen from Jersey said...

Did you watch the new episode of The Good Place? They played the Kars for Kids jingle in Hell.

Peter said...

Ken, as a fellow fan of World War II films, have you seen the trailer for Midway? So disappointing. Roland Emmerich has made some entertaining, if corny, films in the past, but this looks like a feature length video game. It just looks dreadful. His early films like Stargate and Independence Day had stunning practical effects. Midway is just awash in terrible CGI. Digital explosions in a film are unforgiveable.

Looking back, Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor doesn't seem so bad.

sueK2001 said...

I still will give another vote for Barney Miller..and whomever voted for Perfect Strangers..Thanks a bunch...that is a true guilty pleasure show of mine...
Also, another great theme that still is spooky 30 years later is Unsolved Mysteries..
https://youtu.be/OwAG-DnWhiY

Cap'n Bob said...

Of all the great Western theme songs out there only F Troop gets notice? Pfui, as Nero Wolfe says.

Tony.T said...

The Persuaders is my all time fave tv theme.

Dave Creek said...

I always liked the glimpses of multi-cam, studio-bound sitcom characters in the "real world." I always wondered who the lucky guy was escorting Mary Richards on a date in the Mary Tyler Moore Show open.

Kevin FitzMaurice said...

James Komack's shows had great theme songs and great talent performing them:

--Harry Nilsson, "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" (ABC, 1969-1972)

--Jose Feliciano, "Chico and the Man" (NBC, 1974-1978)

--John Sebastian, "Welcome Back, Kotter" (ABC, 1975-1979)

Lorimartian said...

Yes, thanks for including "Dallas." I worked on the show for eight years and always looked forward to viewing every answer print and the shows on broadcast nights, in part, just to hear that magnificent theme by Jerrold Immel. I've wanted to download it as my ringtone but haven't figured out how to do it safely. Sigh.

I'm Outraged! said...

Agree re The Persuaders theme, fantastic piece of music, and though I've never had any desire to go to America, I now have an urge to drive route 66.

Larry Stone said...

All great choices. My hall of fame nominees are Penn & Teller's Bull**** (seasons 5 through 8) and the ending instrumental to My Name Is Earl.

Peter said...

Lori, that's awesome that you worked on Dallas. It was part of my childhood. I was such a huge fan of Larry Hagman. I'm also a huge fan of Patrick Duffy. I saw him in a play in London and he was fantastic.

For the ringtone, I just tested this site and it works.
https://www.redringtones.com/dallas-theme-song/

waldcast said...

In school we changed Sherwood Schwartz' "Its About Time" to "Its about time, it's about space...its about your ugly face!"

Anonymous said...

To Mike Doran from Anonymous:

1. Congratulations (up to a point) on your birthday! I am, of course, decades younger, but look 79.
2. It seems Chatter conquered the Eastern stations, as well as Chicago's WBKB [now WLS-Channel 7).
Wonder if he ever made it to the West Coast to challenge Bonzo's hegemony.
3. One of Brent's bookstore's last grand gasps was a joint appearance of Claire Bloom and former customer Philip Roth.
=======================================================================

BACK TO THEME SONGS

Comedy short subject series (precursors to the TV sitcoms) often had their own themes.

The Three Stooges, after Punch Drunks, tried Pop Goes The Weasel, and then used
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5a45f1uy80

Edgar Kennedy had Chopsticks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNY6ypKJTyw

Marvin Hatley talks here of his Laurel & Hardy theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3LzeeicZtE


Philly Cinephile said...

A Friday question...

This season, LAW & ORDER SVU began its 21st season, thus breaking GUNSMOKE's record as the longest-running scripted drama series. It reminds me of a story I heard and have long wondered if it is true.

According to the story, when Kelsey Grammer began his 20th season playing Frasier Crane, he suggested inviting James Arness to appear on an episode of FRASIER, as an homage to Arness's having played Marshal Dillon for 20 years. The offer went out and Arness allegedly responded, "Kelsey Grammer can go f*** himself."

Is there any truth to this?

Anonymous said...

Dave Creek, I read that the guy escorting Mary was her then husband, Grant Tinker.

Pam, St. Louis

estiv said...

Always liked this one. Flambards was one of those very British seventies BBC-to-PBS series, but the theme is somehow both sedate and weird. I hear whistling, theremin, hand drums, horns, piano, and probably more. Always loved the voice quietly going "mahm."

https://youtu.be/rR8buXUJ-CU

John said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFf85RxteI8

Wild Wild West --- set a good tone for the show -- half western -- half cheeky comedy.

Anonymous said...

The already-noted Perry Mason theme went through a few permutations
during the show’s long run- one version, if I recall, had a strip tease instrumentation.
Here, the composer tells how another tunesmith was approached to replace it
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_3YcLrXuZI

One of the more famous TV themes- not yet referenced -
was titled “Funeral March Of A Marionette” and was written
by Charles Gounod back in 1872.
To hear the theme, and learn of its usage by Laurel and Hardy Disney Murnau and Harold Lloyd:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_March_of_a_Marionette

Lorimartian said...

Peter, thanks for the suggested ringtone site. I will give it a try.

Nick Archer said...

I liked how the theme from "Branded" told the whole premise in terms that I could understand as a seven-year-old.

Lauren said...

I love these. Show themes are often BETTER than the show.
One of my favorite in the 'big band for kids' category. (We all loved jazz as we grew up, wonder why?) is the theme for Jonny Quest!

MattP said...

Thanks for sharing these Ken but I just discovered something that made the theme tune to the classic British series "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em", by Ronnie Hazlehurst, my favourite. It features two piccolos spelling out the title in Morse code, excluding the apostrophes:



[•••] [― ― ―] [― ―] [•]/ [― ―] [― ― ―] [―] [••••] [•] [•―•] [•••]/ [―••] [― ― ―]/ [•―] [•••―] [•]/ [•] [― ―] /[•―•―•―]
[S] [o] [m] [e]/ [m] [o] [t] [h] [e] [r] [s] / [d] [o] / [a] [v] [e]/ [e] [m] /(full stop)

Unknown said...

If you enjoy all these theme songs, they get played on a radio station in Chicago. MeTV FM (87.7 FM if you are in chicago, and your radio can tune that low).
You can also stream it https://metv.fm/
They have celebrity intros for the theme songs, like Dawn Wells introducing Gilligan island, or Jamie Farr introducing the M*A*S*H theme.

Tune it

GasStationSushi said...


The theme song to Route 66 is fantastic. It evoked such memories of the glamour of travel and adventure of that era.