Theme Songs

Sunday, 08 November 2009

In general, televion has come a long way in the past ten years.  The top rated shows in 1999 included Friends, Frasier and The Drew Carey Show -- all fine shows, but with significantly lower production values than we're used today.  I don't have any hard numbers, but I'm certain that the average cost for a hit TV show is many times higher today than it was for these shows, but there's one area that has been severely sacrificed in our continual investment in special effects and high paid actors: Theme music.

All I have to do is type out a couple of lines, and you know exactly what classic TV show I'm talking about:

Come and knock on our door...
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale...
Thank you for being a friend...

While I sometimes appreciate the shortened introduction sequence to today's shows -- less theme means more show, right? -- I wonder if we haven't lost an integral part of the show that we'll miss later on when it's in syndication.  Not only have theme songs gotten shorter, but most of them have cut out the lyrics entirely.  I loved the TV show Alias, but I really can't bond with another fan over the theme to that show:

Unnh. Unnh Unnh Unnh. Du-du-du-du-du-du-duuuuu

I guess it's not entirely true that the theme song has gone the way of Kelsey Grammer. I have to give big kudos to a couple of shows that have really great theme songs with lyrics.  The Big Bang Theory's theme song is one of January's favorite's. And I'm not just talking about theme songs, I'm convinced it's one of her favorite songs period.  Every Monday night when it comes on, she sings right along even though the 30-second skip button is right there on the remote. In all fairness, I'm right there next to her, bopping right along. Here it is.

If you haven't seen FX's drama Damages, do yourself a favor and rent/Netflix/download the first season this week.  Season two didn't grab me quite as much, but the first season was brilliant. It has an equally brilliant theme song, written and performed by an unsigned Los Angeles band The VLA. The version used in the intro is incredibly short, but it's catchy and sets the tone for the whole show. Here's the full version.

So maybe there's hope yet. But just in case, it might be a good idea to put together some theme songs for our currently favorite shows to suggest to the producers.  Any suggestions?

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