Let's talk about favorite classic TV cartoon show theme songs. We can include made-for-TV toons, repackaged theatrical shorts, local as well as national shows, or even live-action shows that featured cartoons.
I'm partial to the old WB cartoons, so high on my list has to be the classic "This is it!" theme to The Bugs Bunny Show. Great song, and great animation of the opening. I also hold fond memories of the Road Runner theme ("If you're on a highway and Road Runner goes 'beep beep...'"), first used on the short-lived Road Runner Show and then incorporated into the opening when it was merged to become The Bugs Bunny-Road Runner Show.
Also liked the theme to The Jetsons with its quirky pseudo-futuristic (now, in hindsight, more like "retro-futuristic") music. And of course, the classic Flintstones theme -- the "Meet the Flintstones" version that appeared from Season 3 on and ruled in rebroadcast and syndication, not the earlier instrumental "Rise and Shine" (which many have pointed out bears a striking thematic similarity to "This is it!"). I remember that as kids we used to argue about that one hard-to-decipher lyric ("Through the courtesy of Fred's good feet"). Oddly, there are prints of some episodes in which that line is deleted from the soundtrack, but the animation unaltered, leaving the music to end early with awkward silence over the last clips. (My pet theory has always been that the network got tired of letters asking about the unclear line, and just decided to cut it out...) <g>
Also liked the infectious theme song to The Banana Splits -- music that to this day when heard yields pleasant flashbacks of my youth in front of the tube.
More modern cartoons have some good ones, too. Both The Simpsons (which has surely been around long enough to be considered a "classic") and Family Guy are good in and of themselves, but as a former musician I also like the way they sometimes rearrange the theme in different styles (appropriate to the content of the episode) to play over the end credits.
Your favorites?
I'm partial to the old WB cartoons, so high on my list has to be the classic "This is it!" theme to The Bugs Bunny Show. Great song, and great animation of the opening. I also hold fond memories of the Road Runner theme ("If you're on a highway and Road Runner goes 'beep beep...'"), first used on the short-lived Road Runner Show and then incorporated into the opening when it was merged to become The Bugs Bunny-Road Runner Show.
Also liked the theme to The Jetsons with its quirky pseudo-futuristic (now, in hindsight, more like "retro-futuristic") music. And of course, the classic Flintstones theme -- the "Meet the Flintstones" version that appeared from Season 3 on and ruled in rebroadcast and syndication, not the earlier instrumental "Rise and Shine" (which many have pointed out bears a striking thematic similarity to "This is it!"). I remember that as kids we used to argue about that one hard-to-decipher lyric ("Through the courtesy of Fred's good feet"). Oddly, there are prints of some episodes in which that line is deleted from the soundtrack, but the animation unaltered, leaving the music to end early with awkward silence over the last clips. (My pet theory has always been that the network got tired of letters asking about the unclear line, and just decided to cut it out...) <g>
Also liked the infectious theme song to The Banana Splits -- music that to this day when heard yields pleasant flashbacks of my youth in front of the tube.
More modern cartoons have some good ones, too. Both The Simpsons (which has surely been around long enough to be considered a "classic") and Family Guy are good in and of themselves, but as a former musician I also like the way they sometimes rearrange the theme in different styles (appropriate to the content of the episode) to play over the end credits.
Your favorites?
