Theme Song Lyrics That Changed (or never aired at all!)

[Stanislav]

Expanding a bit on my suggested thread about theme show lyrics changing due to a cast change (as with Petticoat Junction), how many other shows changed their theme lyrics for whatever reason?

The best-known example is probably Gilligan's Island in which Dawn Wells and Russell Johnson got short shrift the first season when not only were their characters not mentioned in the lyrics ("And the rest...") but they didn't even get mentioned at all until the end credits. Reportedly, it was Bob Denver who went to bat for them, threatening to not renew his contract unless they received proper credit. (And rightly so -- it's not a case where the Professor and Mary Ann were lesser "supporting characters" that could get second-class treatment -- in an ensemble show like GI, they were all pretty much on an equal footing.) The producers gave in, obviously realizing they couldn't very well do "Gilligan's Island" without Gilligan, and the theme was re-done.

Another interesting example is The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Recall that in the first season, the lyrics started with "How will you make it on your own?" over shots of Mary driving into Minneapolis, looking a bit apprehensive. Once her character was established in the Twin Cities, it changed to the new lyrics starting with 'Who can turn the world on with her smile?" And this is interesting because (and I hope I'm not reading too much into this).....remember, originally the concept was for Mary to be a divorcée, which was still a bit taboo for 70's TV. So they changed it to simply having her on the rebound from a rather vaguely described romantic relationship. Yet.....do not the lyrics "How will you make it on your own?" imply that before coming to Minneapolis, she wasn't "on her own" -- i.e., was involved in a relationship that went well beyond a mere chaste romantic fling? Something that implied that she was sharing more than just dinners and drinks with this guy? (As in.....financially and emotionally a couple....as in "shacking up?") So, perhaps either the original lyrics were penned when the "Mary as divorcée" concept was still in play, or they were a subtle way of implying the true nature of her previous relationship without coming right out and saying it.

Another theme song topic: themes that had lyrics that were never heard on-air, either in whole or part. For example, many do not know that "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" had a third verse that wasn't used in the broadcast theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies (although I believe it was included on the recording or when it was done in concert). The verse went:

Ol' Jed bought a mansion, lawdy it was swank
Next-door neighbor was pres'dent of the bank
Lotsa folks objected, but the banker found no fault
'Cause ol' Jed's millions was a-layin' in the vault
Cash that is...
Capital gains...
Depletion money

I suppose including the extra verse would have made the opening too lengthy, and the first two verses were sufficient to establish the premise in case you'd been living in a cave and seeing the show for the first time. Plus, IMHO, the extra verse doesn't flow as smoothly as the others.

The I Love Lucy theme had lyrics ("I love Lucy, and she loves me....we're as happy as we can be...") not used in the opening or closing (although didn't Desi sing them in one episode?). So did the famous original Star Trek theme, although they were not quite "original" -- Gene Roddenberry wrote them after the fact to Alexander Courage's music, somehow in the process getting himself cut in for half the royalties. (Roddenberry was not just an artist and a visionary...he was a pretty shrewd businessman as well...)

Any other examples?

 

[Braves2005]

Alice: The theme song changed at least 4 times that I know of with the following being sung at the opening:

1976-1978: "Early to rise, early to bed, and in between I tossed and turned and went out of my head."

1978-1980: "Used to be sad, used to be shy, and there I was crossed in between and I never knew why." (slow version)

1980-1981: Same version (only faster)

1981-1985: A jazzy version of the 1978-1980 version of the theme only with the "I" added to the "Used to be sad" part.

 

[Braves2005]

Just came up with more:

Petticoat Junction: Mentioning the cast change, after Bea Benaderet died, the theme song changed twice in the 1968-1969 season, the first one that was changed was where Uncle Joe is mentioned first and then when June Lockhart joined the cast and she was mentioned in the opening which lasted until the show was cancelled in 1970.

The Facts of Life: Two versions of the theme song:

1979-1980: "There's a place where you gotta go and just somewhere there you know The Facts of Life, The Facts of Life."

1980-1988: "You take the good, you take the bad, and put all them together you have The Facts of Life, The Facts of Life."

It's a Living/Making a Living: Seems like I recall a different version of the It's A Living theme song when it became "Making a Living" on ABC in the 1981-1982 season which starred Louise Lasser, but when it was rerun in syndication along with the syndicated version, the theme song that always appeared on It's a Living was used.

 

[radiorob2.0]

RE: Beverly Hillbillies

The original version of the theme had Lester Flatt singing lead. However, the network or Paul Henning though Flatt sounded too country so another singer was used for the shop. The single release of the theme was Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs with Flatt singing.

 

[gr8oldies]

The Dick Van Dyke show theme with the bongo drums.

 

[Braves2005]

In the 6th season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the theme song was shortened to where Sonny Curtis was singing "Love Is All Around" first instead of "Who Can Turn The World On With Her Smile" first. This was changed back for the final season of the show.

 

[YEKIMI]

I know there were lyrics to "The Andy Griffith Show" theme but I don't believe they were ever used during the opening, just the whistling is all I remember.

 

[dhett]

The theme to "Bonanza" had lyrics.

http://bonanzaworld.net/lyrics.php

 

[LKellerIII]

The theme to "Bonanza" had lyrics.

http://bonanzaworld.net/lyrics.php

Yeah - sung by Lorne Greene. I believe the flip side of the single was a spoken word "song." A friend of mine had a copy of the single. As I remember, it got a few experimental spins on LA Top 40 radio (the old "Hitbound" status), though I don't think it ever made it to the regular Top 40.

RE: MTM - am I remembering correctly: Didn't they also change the lyrics from "...you might just make it after all" in the first season or two to "...you're going to make it after all" ?

 

[mleach]

Over the years I have heard that the opening to the old Banana Splits show has changed, both those opening amusement park scenes and the theme music.

The one I remember and the only one at that was the opening & closing scenes shot at Cincinatti's Coney Island and Six Flags Of Texas and that "Tra La La" theme.

However according to the a number of posts on the many amusement park sites..there was another opening used. This one featured the Banana Splits riding an open convertable going through the streets of San Francisco ( or perhaps LA ) and the theme was the Banana Splits tune "Wait til Tomorrow".

The story goes that when Cincinatti's Coney Island closed in 1971 ( the park has since re-opened ) Hanna-Barbera felt it would be stupid to feature a closed park in the opening to Banana Splits so everything was re-done as far as the opening and closing shots and the theme....but I had never seen this.

Last time I saw the Splits on TV was on the Cartoon Network years ago and the opening & closing...all looked like the original to me.

 

[classictvfan]

1979-1980: "There's a place where you gotta go and just somewhere there you know The Facts of Life, The Facts of Life."

Actually it goes like this:
There's a place you gotta go for learning all you oughtta know about the facts of life, the facts of life

 

[Ultimajock]

Over the years I have heard that the opening to the old Banana Splits show has changed, both those opening amusement park scenes and the theme music.

The one I remember and the only one at that was the opening & closing scenes shot at Cincinatti's Coney Island and Six Flags Of Texas and that "Tra La La" theme.

However according to the a number of posts on the many amusement park sites..there was another opening used. This one featured the Banana Splits riding an open convertable going through the streets of San Francisco ( or perhaps LA ) and the theme was the Banana Splits tune "Wait til Tomorrow".

The story goes that when Cincinatti's Coney Island closed in 1971 ( the park has since re-opened ) Hanna-Barbera felt it would be stupid to feature a closed park in the opening to Banana Splits so everything was re-done as far as the opening and closing shots and the theme....

...one additional possible reason for this may have been that Decca Records released "Wait Til Tomorrow" as a 45-rpm single and on a full-length LP of music from the show; the single is seen at http://www.doylex.com/Music/Bubblegum/Images/WaitTillTomorrow-Splits.jpg while http://franklarosa.com/vinyl/BigImg/splits.jpg displays the album cover. Hanna-Barbera may have wanted to plug the single in hopes of additional sales...

 

[RicoGregg]

I know there were lyrics to "The Andy Griffith Show" theme but I don't believe they were ever used during the opening, just the whistling is all I remember.

The official title of the Andy Griffith Show is "The Fishing Hole Song", and the never-used lyrics were written by actor Everett Sloane, perhaps best known for playing Mr. Bernstein in Citizen Kane, and portraying Franklin in a Twilight Zone episode that featured a talking, taunting, and stalking slot machine.

 

[LKellerIII]

I know there were lyrics to "The Andy Griffith Show" theme but I don't believe they were ever used during the opening, just the whistling is all I remember.

I believe the lyrics were written later. The theme song was composed (and whistled) by TV theme music master Earle Hagan, who also wrote the Dick Van Dyke theme and many others. He passed away recently, and one of his obits (can't find it) mentioned that when producer Sheldon Leonard heard the great theme Earle had written, he got the idea to film Andy and Ron walking down by the Mayberry "fishing hole," which was actually a man made lake in Burbank.

Here's another obit about Hagan, who was a big band trombonist in the 40s, and wrote Harlem Nocturne, which later became the Mike Hammer theme.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/arts/television/28hagen.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

 

[MHB]

The theme to "Bonanza" had lyrics.

http://bonanzaworld.net/lyrics.php

Yeah - sung by Lorne Greene. I believe the flip side of the single was a spoken word "song." A friend of mine had a copy of the single. As I remember, it got a few experimental spins on LA Top 40 radio (the old "Hitbound" status), though I don't think it ever made it to the regular Top 40.

Right. The theme was actually the flip side. The spoken word song was Greene's 1964 country hit "Ringo."

Two more examples:

"Bewitched" (the lyrics went "Bewitched, bewitched, you've got me in your spell . . .")

"Leave It to Beaver" (the show used an instrumental version of an unrelated song about a toy parade)

 

[firepoint525]

Here is a LONG Gilligan's Island theme that was, fortunately, never used:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJZ5YZ4qmD0

 

[Scoobyfan1]

There's only one show that I can think of that had this happen, it also happens to be my favorite tv show. Scooby Doo Where Are You? when it premiered had a mostly instrumental version of the theme song written by I believe one of the producers, however about three days before the shows September 13, 1969 premiere the version of the Scooby Doo theme that everyone is more familiar with was written by Ben Mook and Dave Raleigh (I think those are the correct names, I might have switched them, I don't know). The original instrumental theme was used in a few reruns of SDWAY when Cartoon Network ran the show regularly in the late 90's, however the instrumental theme is still heard in reruns of the show bot not very often if at all. During the second and last season of the original show Austin Roberts who later had a Top 40 hit in 1973 called Rocky was contracted by Hanna Barbera to write and perform "chase scene songs" and a new version of the Scooby theme. He also wrote most of the "chase scene songs" for the cartoon version of the Josie and The Pussycats comic books.

 

[buster2]

Somewhere in my old stack of vinyl I have an LP of TV themes. I used some of them as a music bed for a segemtn I did when I did an airshift in the mid-1980s. I never actually used Andy Griffith or I Love Lucy, but this LP has sung versions of those songs.

Desi Arnaz did, in fact, sing the words to the theme as part of one of his band's "shows" on an episode.

The Andy Griffith theme starts out, "Well, let's take down the fishin' pole, and head down to the fishin' hole..." I can't remember the rest. Andy Griffith himself sings it.

Leave it to Beaver also had words. "Here they come with a rum, tee, tum. It's time for the toy parade..." It has nothing to do with the show, the producers just used to tune because they liked it.

Star Trek also has words, but Gene Roddenberry wrote them at the last minute so he could get half the royalties to the music. This ticked off the composer, Alexander Courage, not because Roddenberry ripped him off, but because Roddenberry never asked Courage. Courage would have actually helped write the lyrics, had Roddenberry simply asked. The Desilu executive who ran Star Trek for its first two season, Herbert Solow, wrote about this in his memoir.

 

[Smittian]

Eight Is Enough--- Seasons 1 & 2 had an instrumental theme. Seasons 3,4, and 5 featured a new theme song sung by Grant Goodeve (David Bradford)

Partridge Family--- Season 1--- "When We're Singing". Seasons 2,3, and 4 used the more familiar "Come On Get Happy"

Happy Days used Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock" in the first season, then changed to the "Sunday, Monday Happy Days......." theme in season 2.

 

[azumanga]

Happy Days used Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock" in the first season, then changed to the "Sunday, Monday Happy Days......." theme in season 2.

I think "Sunday, Monday Happy Days" also had slightly different lyrics early on, after it became the opening -- after "Thursday, Friday, Happy Days", the early version had a line following it beginning with "The weekend comes...", though later seasons had that line replaced with "Saturday, what a day" (or something like that).