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Best TV Theme Song

Alice ( the early years )
Flo
Hello, Larry
WKRP
Cheers ( I actually like the theme better than the show LOL )
The Flintstones
The Jetsons
Wait til Your Father Gets Home
Bondie & Dagwood ( when the Blondie films from the 40s started to air on TV )
 
Dominic Frontiere's theme for The Outer Limits. They even released a CD in the mid '90s.
The Munsters & The Addams Family (with that finger snapping)
Bewitched (Didn't they add lyrics later, or did the TV show borrow that theme?)

LynnW said:
Many good themes mentions so far. I'd like to add Miami Vice.
Click to expand...

Yes, Jan Hammer. I think that's the last instrumental to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, which might make an interesting twist to this topic... How many TV themes were also charted records? Some have already been mentioned (Welcome Back Kotter; Theme From Hill Street Blues; Peter Gunn). Also...

Ballad of Jed Clampett - Flatt & Scruggs
Theme from SWAT; Baretta's Theme (Keep Your Eye On The Sparrow) - Rhythm Heritage
Out of Limits - The Marketts (the opening notes taken from The Twilight Zone)
Theme from Ben Casey - Valjean
Theme from Dynasty - Bill Conti
Those Were The Days (All In The Family) - Carroll O'Connor & Jean Stapleton
Happy Days - Pratt & McClain
Making Our Dreams Come True (Laverne & Shirley) - Cyndi Grecco
Different Worlds (Angie) - Maureen McGovern
Believe It Or Not (Greatest American Hero) - Joey Scarbury
Good Ol' Boys (Dukes of Hazzard) - Waylon Jennings
This may not count because it came out over 20 years later, but... Disco Lucy (I Love Lucy) - Wilton Place Street Band

I don't know if these were ever released:
Mary Tyler Moore Show ("You might just make it after all...")
Cheers ("Where everybody knows your name") I've heard this one on the radio, but don't know by whom
Taxi (I've heard this instrumental theme on the radio, too)
 
Dukes of Hazzard (beginning & end themes)Waylon Jennings
Laverne & Shirley-Cinci Greco
Happy Days(Rock Around The Clock in it's entirety) not the newer "these days are ours" theme.
WKRP
"Without Us"-Johnny Mathis & Denice Williams starring in "Family Ties" theme.
Josie & the Pussycats
Sandord & Son
Mary Tyler Moore
(hated the show but)Growing Pains(in the butt) ;D "As Long As We've Got Each Other-B.J Thomas & Jennifer Warnes
Joey Scarbury-Greatest American Hero
Welcome Back Kotter
Taxi
My Three Sons-"Music by Devol" :D
Bewitched
The Odd Couple
 
One that varies depending on the season is The Cosby Show. To me the best was the version with the cast dancing in front of a sign for the Apollo Theater, followed by the doo wop version by Bobby McFerrin. The worst was the classical version with the cast doing ballet.
 
oldiesfan6479 said:
Legend City said:
I just like saying....Hugo Montenegro, makes you want to go to some hip club in Manhattan circa 1959 wearing a fez,
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Yo Legend--

Wearing a fez? ;D

I didn't know Bill Johnson's Big Apple was a hip club.
Do they have valet parking for '76 Gremlins?

(It's a PHX radio board joke, folks.)
Click to expand...

The fez is coming back, in a big way!
 
While just about all the themes are good choices, one I like is the theme to "The Good Guys" a relatively obscure CBS sitcom (1968-70)..The show I thought was better than its reputation..The theme was written byJerry Fielding, with lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhGssQZroyc&feature=PlayList&p=15951337DF2C818F&index=11

First Season Theme..

Funny thing is while I watched this show first run, the thing I remember most about it is the theme song..
 
Tim L said:
While just about all the themes are good choices, one I like is the theme to "The Good Guys" a relatively obscure CBS sitcom (1968-70)..The show I thought was better than its reputation..The theme was written byJerry Fielding, with lyrics by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhGssQZroyc&feature=PlayList&p=15951337DF2C818F&index=11

First Season Theme..

Funny thing is while I watched this show first run, the thing I remember most about it is the theme song..
Click to expand...

Anybody remember the Bob Cummings Show aka "Love That Bob" from the late 50s? I liked that theme.
 
And I still find myself humming the Odd Couple theme.
Click to expand...

Sack beat me to the punch...The Odd Couple theme and the Batman TV Show theme were both composed by Neal Hefti who was a prominent trumpet player & arranger for Woody Herman and Count Basie. Hefti also arranged and conducted the 1961 Sinatra album: Sinatra & Swingin' Brass.

As for all-time favorite TV theme songs go, my vote goes to The Rockford Files.
 
BaltimoreJack said:
What? No love for "Green Acres"
Click to expand...

Green acres is the place for me.
Farm livin' is the life for me.
Land spreadin' out so far and wide
Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.

New York is where I'd rather stay.
I get allergic smelling hay.
I just adore a penthouse view.
Dah-ling I love you but give me Park Avenue.

...The chores.
...The stores.
...Fresh air.
...Times Square

You are my wife.
Good bye, city life.
Green Acres we are there.
;D 8) ;D 8) ;D 8)
 
What about closing theme songs? I'm referring to TV shows that had a different closing theme from their opener, and had lyrics and vocals. With that in mind, I particularly liked the closing themes from Beverly Hillbillies and Gilligan's Island, because both themes continued what was started with the opener, and that was telling the story behind the show. Of course now, they just tamp down the volume of the closing theme, and the announcer talks over it, and tells you what is coming up next, so that makes a separate and distinct closing theme a waste of the composer's time, effort, and money. Even worse is what NBC now does, which is overrun the show's closing theme entirely with the Tonight Show theme, when they tell you who Jay's guests will be! ::) The only thing more annoying than this is the tendency (mostly on cable channels) to "scrunch" the closing credits of the show (usually a movie) into a corner while they run something else on the screen! :mad: So if you were the "best boy grip" in a movie, your moment in the sun will be even smaller (literally!) now! :eek:

When exactly did closing themes become nothing more than music beds for TV announcers to talk over? Hey, wait a minute, isn't that what we've done in radio for years? ;D At least, we didn't talk over vocals! Well, most of the time we didn't! ;D
 
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