Recently started watching old 90s and 80s shows just for the fun of it, because I’m bored with all of the new stuff that’s coming out, and I fell into Knight Rider.
My review of the show so far aside, it’s got straight up the most banger theme music I have heard in a TV show in a very long time.
It got me wondering what other TV shows have really great theme songs?
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Pokemon
The correct answers were: MASH and The Wonder Years.
I’m honestly surprised so many people still bring up Mash because, I mean, the actual song is called “Suicide is Painless”.
It’s a surprisingly adult song for a show that so many millennials grew up to listening to in the womb.
Yet it was written by the director’s teenaged son, on the set (of the original movie, not the TV show, which just ran with it).
Ninja edit - the song refers to the final scenes in the movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0bK-vUlw6M
The Wonder Years theme song is definitely a great song, but also a very heavy, depressing song.
It feels like your uncle is singing to you, and he’s drunk, and he’s sad that he never had any kids, but he’s trying to put on a happy face for you because he doesn’t want to share his burdens with you because he knows you’re just a kid.
Dude if my uncle could sing like Joe Cocker holy shit
+1, MASH has wonderful theme/song (and with the song itself). It’s also a type of series we probably need to watch today more than ever.
You mentioning MASH made me think of another oddball movie: Kelly’s heroes, the 70s one with Sutherland/Eastwood and Savalas. As a young boy in the 70s this was one of my favorite movies. It still olds a sweet spot in my heart now almost 60 ;)
I second Miami Vice. Also, Airwolf is probably my favorite theme music of all time.
Fresh Prince
I feel like if you had said this before the Oscar Slap, I would have said hell yes. It’s like quintessential 90s TV show theme song.
And it definitely stands on its own, but I feel like it’s lost some of its luster. I can’t listen to this and differentiate the Fresh Prince from Will Smith the Person.
Still a damn good song, though.
Game of Thrones has got to be up there. Very catchy and fairly unique, but it really captures the essence of (the best parts of) the show.
The themes to Foundation and Severance are also both really in tune with their respective shows.
But for me, the theme to The Expanse is my favorite. Again, it captures the essence of the show, and also like the show it’s pretty underrated.
Did you guys sing along?
Thrones yeah, game of thrones yeah, game of fucking thrones!
Floppy weiners! Floppy weiners! Floppy weiners! Floppy weiners!
damn that’s a deep pull
Found Ramsey Bolton’s account
Also;
🎶 DINKLAGE, PETER DINKLAGE (peter dinklage peter dinklage peter dinklage peter dinklage) 🎶
… and so on
The Expanse is the only show I’ve never once skipped the opening credits on, even on rewatch. The song’s a pitch-perfect mood throughout the whole series, and a great length, too. Doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Peacemaker season one had that effect on me. Season 2 grew on me but first season was one I would never skip, even on rewatch.
I feel like GoT wins, both for the theme and the intro itself. It’s instantly recognizable.
I like the Expanse theme, but I don’t think I would know it if I heard it out of context.
Got was very intense and visceral.
My college professor gave me the first book of the Game of Thrones series, and I hated it so much.
And because of that, I just, I’ve never watched the series. Some friends of mine had it on midway through the first episode, and the only time that it caught my attention was when there were titties on the screen. Like, I do not give the first fuck about Game of Thrones.
I have yet to see either the Expanse or Foundation.
I have them both in my to watch list, but I can’t really comment on their themes yet.
But Severance? I’ve watched every episode of Severance, I could not tell you what the theme song is from that show. Even if it’s really good, it’s also very, very forgettable, which, admittedly, probably fits with the theme of the show very well.
Huh. I have also seen every episode and I can’t recall the theme music at all. I know it had an intro because I remember thinking the visuals were cool but I can’t bring back a single snippet of the music. Weird.
You should check out Scavenger’s Reign! The intro music only becomes more haunting and fitting as you learn more about the story. I never skipped it and i typically don’t like title sequences
Edit: Intro link
Okay, that music was cool as fuck. Like, there’s so many places where that is appropriate music.
If it were played at the denouement of any dramatic thriller where like the hero is outside of the room where the person they were trying to save is being actively killed by the bad guy before they rush in to kill the bad guy in revenge, it would fit flawlessly.
There’s something very much about death in that song. Death and helplessness.
Oh yeah, 100%! It also lands a little differently through the show, sometimes despairing, sometimes regretful, and even with a flicker of hope. Absolutely recommend if you’d like a sci-fi survival story that feels like a dark graphic novel. The writing is top notch
Miami Vice https://youtu.be/dEjXPY9jOx8
I might edit this later with more.
I feel like as a standalone piece of music, it’s too much crammed into too little space.
But from my vague and hazy memories of childhood reruns of Miami Vice, I feel like it fits the show very well.
That depends. If you want the old style “explain the show” theme song, it’s Bruce Campbell’s 90s pirate adventure Jack of All Trades.
I irrationally love this song, and I know it all by heart. Once a week it pops into my head. I sing it at my cat, who is the scoundrel with a heart.
I’m happy to know I’m not alone in my curse.
Hold the fuck up. How did I not know about this?
It’s fantastic, give it a watch. He’s a brash American spy who moonlights as pirate Batman, and she’s a prim and proper proto-MI6 agent, complete with steampunk Q gadgets. Verne Troyer plays a recurring villain role as Napoleon!
It lasted a season and a half or so, and never got picked up for reruns. The first time Napoleon shows up is worth it all.
If you’re talking about Bruce Campbell shows, it’s like nothing really holds a candle to the theme song from The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. because everyone has heard that song because it’s such a good song that America still uses it in the goddamn Olympics.
For years and years, I think it was NBC sports, would use a portion of the Brisco County theme during transitions. Every time, the nostalgia bullet went straight to the heart.
The theme from SWAT in the 70s is the GOAT of tv themes. https://youtu.be/LHDg96-ZN_U
https://youtu.be/hpiyIu-C528?list=RDhpiyIu-C528
“The Men” was a one season wonder. Three different heroes alternating.
That one was interesting. I’ve never seen or heard of this show before.
I’ll definitely see if I can’t find a few episodes
They did a movie reboot a few years ago.
Tank! Cowboy Bebop
Hell yeah.
There’s an extended version posted on YouTube last month that absolutely slaps.
Thanks for this! Best video I’ve seen in a good while. Yoko Kanno and SEATBELTS fucking rock!
I fuck with this hard.
This is the kind of music I would play to psych myself up for some hardcore diamond star level shenanigans.
I feel like now I need to watch Cowboy Bebop because I’ve never seen it.
see you around space cowboy.
WATCH IT YESTERDAY FR
You might really like this one then. The show is one of the best ever too.
It’s in my top 10 favorite shows of all time.
And I have REALLY good taste.
Well gee, then go on with the rest of the list. How can you just tantalize us like that and not feel bad?
One of my all time favorites! Well worth the watch. Saw a few episodes of the live action and dug that too.
Best of all time?
The Peacemaker season 1 Theme slaps and really sets the tone for rest of the show.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_mrr3UNALww&pp=0gcJCU8Co7VqN5tD&ra=mBest of the 80’s? The Greatest American Hero.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=72MxOo5koto&ra=mPeacemaker opening is definitely a good theme.
That’s the kind of music you want to wake up for because you’re so excited about your life you’re gonna go and do something amazing.
Peacemaker Season One. Season Two just doesn’t have the same pep.
Just finished both and thought that at first but season 2 grew on me and fit the season theme better. Choreography for season 1 though was definitely more fun. Just songs though, both slap.
Best of the 80’s? The Greatest American Hero.
Had to scroll way too far to find the right answer.
Mission impossible https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tGSUjuSBt1A
and Peter Gunn. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Emg_6ANjWzo
Okay, I feel like Mission Impossible is cheating because everyone’s heard it and it’s obviously a banger.
And apparently Peter Gunn is one of those things that, at the very least, I’ve heard it, just never in its original context.
Both very solid contenders.
Highlander https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UyPWpP6w8AA although that’s also cheating
Yeah, Queen is definitely cheating.
Whatever the film company paid Freddie Mercury and Co. to do the music to the original Highlander movie was not enough.
But I don’t think I can say the same about SWAT Kats.
If you take out the zwoops and the fwooms and other sound effects that they used to match it to the animation, it’s just a really middling 80s guitar track.
Best is not cheating. Is best.
Sticking with the 80s theme: The Fall Guy
There’s loads of great 80s themes. Another one I remember the tune but not the show, went along the lines of ‘until tomorrow, I’ll just keep moving on’.
In the 80s I would say either Greatest American Hero or Fame
What about Barney Miller?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roHYXrLhmHc
This theme song inspires in me the desire to wear tie-dyed bell-bottom jeans and go walking through the city streets at noon on a Thursday.
I don’t know if it’s an all-time banger, but it definitely has a vibe.
I don’t know. For some reason, the theme song to the greatest American hero just does not do it for me. It seems very soft, if that makes any sense.
Like, it’s the kind of song I would imagine being played when I’m leaving the party early because I’ve really got to poop.
And the fame theme song was interesting. I have vague memories of it in reruns also, but I don’t think I would ever jam out to it on its own.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Damn, okay, so when it comes to classic legendary anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion is definitely high up there, but I feel like there’s a really strong contender in serial experiments Lains “Duvet” by Boa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM8RufZr5lw
If they were to duke it out to the death, I don’t know which one would win.
Which one would win is the intro to Gurren Lagann, coming in from stage right swinging a folding chair. (Also from Gainax, for whatever it’s worth.)
Propane Genesis Evangelion
Xam’d always had what I consider the most catchy theme song. It’s been over a decade and I still get it stuck in my head randomly.
That was interesting.
Like, the music could have been in the Matrix. It could have been in any early 2000s leather jacket and guns movie, and it would have fit.
