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A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

Where are the theme songs?

August 25, 2011

Finish this line for me…

“What ever happened to predictability …”

My guess is that if you are anywhere in your 20s or above, you can finish that. Not only can you finish the line, but you can sing it with the tune and everything.

Would you like some help?

Yes, that was the long version of the Full House theme and intro. It’s something that you don’t really see anymore — television show jingles. When I was growing up, it was part of the show. A minute or a minute and a half of the song and credits. But it was something that you grew used to seeing and hearing. When the theme came on, you knew you had a moment to grab a drink or a snack and get back for the show.

Now, they just start the show and run the credits in the opening moment.

Why?

The intro songs were a part of the show. I realize that the time on the show is important, but why take something so good away from the show.

Think of shows from the 1980s and 1990s. I’d be willing to bet if you were a fan of sitcoms, you could identify a show by its theme alone. Think Cheers. It’s one of the longest running shows of all times. The theme song goes with the show.

Don’t remember it? I’d be shocked if that was the fact. Here it is…

That theme is so popular that there have been off-shoots of it. Take Flaming Moe’s from The Simpsons.

Anyway, back to the TV theme song.

I’ve noticed recently the trend to totally avoid theme songs and it’s disheartening. As someone who grew up with the themes, I would love to see a resurgence of them. Even some of the more serious shows had the theme songs. I’m sure if I said some shows — Hawaii 5-0, Hill Street Blues, Perfect Strangers, Dallas, Different Strokes — I have a feeling many of you would easily be able to sing along or hum along the theme.

With that in mind, the reason for this post. I know I won’t be able to convince television executives to bring back these themes, but I can at least enjoy some of my favorites. Below, I give you 10 of my favorites (not including the ones up top), in no specific order. I’m sure I will miss a couple, but these are some of my favorites.

This is the first of several of these posts I will do over the coming weeks. This one are for shows that started or were fully in the 1980s and had words with the theme songs. Therefore, you won’t see themes such as WKRP in Cincinnati, Alice, Laverne and Shirley, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son etc.

In future editions of this subject I will do theme songs (with words) that ran in the 1990s. I will also do one that is for themes without words (haven’t decided if I will do an 80s/90s one or have one for each decade). Finally, I’ll likely do a post on older themes as well, which will mix themes with and without words.

Did I miss your favorite (with words) theme from the 80s? Post it in the comments below.

Enjoy!

10. Perfect Strangers

9. Webster

8. My Two Dads (I’m posting two videos here, one with the talk-in intro and one with the song intro only)

7. Charles in Charge

6. Punky Brewster

5. Growing Pains

4. Mr. Belvedere

3. Who’s the Boss?

2. Family Ties

1. Family Matters

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

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Filed Under: music, My world, television, Video, YouTube Tagged With: cheers, simpsons, sitcoms, theme songs, tv show intros, tv theme songs

12 Comments

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Comments

  1. Mike says

    August 25, 2011

    They need more room for commercials. Those silly songs got in the way of revenue. I miss them too.

    Reply
  2. Sparticus says

    August 25, 2011

    Brings back lots of TV memories. Ones without words I love are Airwolf, Knight Rider, and a few others. Other theme songs I loved were Dukes of Hazzard, The A-Team, and the Fall Guy. Thanks for all the great flashbacks.

    Reply
  3. ErikaJean says

    August 25, 2011

    Too many videos to watch but I know many! I think Theme songs are still around, we just TiVo through most of them! Most of the Cable channels are the ones that skip out on the theme songs when playing reruns (TBS)

    I think some of the catchiest ones on TV now-a-days are Two and a Half Men, CSI, Scrubs(over ;-() oh and we can’t forget Sesame Street (and no… I can’t think of anymore because its SUMMER and NOTHING is on! lol)

    90’s… Friends, 7th heaven, Dawsons Creek, Drew Carey

    I think and important one you missed that originated out of the 80’s and is still on today…. COPS.

    I think part of the reason that ew feel like the theme songs aren’t around anymore (they ARE still there!) is because there is just SO much TV on these days. Back in the 80’s satellite and cable wasn’t in (almost) every household like it is now with a billionnnnn options! There also isn’t that one show everyone in the nation is watching with their families on Sunday night…. people are doing and or watching other things – so those theme songs I think, don’t get cemented in our heads like they used to!

    Reply
  4. ErikaJean says

    August 25, 2011

    haha wow ew – we! Sorry for my long comment!

    Reply
  5. P.J. says

    August 25, 2011

    Mike — Agreed on the revenue part.

    Sparticus — I will be touching on wordless ones, soon!

    Erika — Theme songs as they were are not around anymore. They are quick jingles to show either the stars or the name of the show. I don’t personally TiVo over any openings because I like them. Take Two and a Half Men. I love the jingle, but every clip I went and found is longer than the theme, but the jingle/opening itself is still only about 20 seconds long. CSI seems to be about a half minute and the long version of Scrubs I could find (I’m not a fan of the show) is 22 seconds.

    As for the 90s, I will tackle those soon. I agree on some of the ones you’ve mentioned.

    As for COPS, I didn’t miss it — I didn’t personally want it in the list. The song isn’t for the show per say (which is why I’ll have a hard time with Dawson’s Creek, but I will probably include it in my 90s shows), but moreso because COPS isn’t a sitcom and I was going more with the sitcom/drama rather than a reality type show. But being that is such a long-running show and the song is synonymous with it, I agree that is a good call because it’s an intro song for sure.

    And no worries on the long comment… gives a lot of food for thought.

    I am shocked nobody pointed out one that I knew I left off, though. Saved by the Bell!

    Reply
  6. ErikaJean says

    August 25, 2011

    Oh yes, Saved by the bell… and The FRESH PRINCE of Bell Air. Who DOESN’T know every word to that song!?

    Reply
  7. P.J. says

    August 25, 2011

    Fresh Prince isn’t 1980s! Started in 1990… 🙂

    Reply
  8. Jenny says

    August 26, 2011

    So happy to see that Growing Pains is on there! I always said if that song was on a CD I would probably buy it and listen to it in the car 😛

    Reply
    • P.J. says

      September 9, 2011

      Jenny — I know I had it somewhere, once. Maybe off a TV theme CD or something. If I find it, I’ll let you know where I got it!

      Reply
  9. Brent says

    August 31, 2011

    So I’ll admit I don’t know the decades and they’re not sitcoms but we’ve been randomly rattling off some old cartoon jingles at work recently.

    Ducktails
    Tailspin
    Lambchops
    Elephant show (Skinnamarink)

    Just to name a few.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. In West Philadelphia… | A 'lil Hoohaa says:
    September 8, 2011 at 2:01 pm

    […] in search of today’s shows that have true theme songs. In my last post, when I hit up the 1980s themes, some people made a point that there are some shows with intros and songs. The songs now are short […]

    Reply
  2. TV themes don’t always need words | A 'lil Hoohaa says:
    September 22, 2011 at 4:04 pm

    […] have already posted about theme songs (with words) from the 1980s and 1990s. The installment after this post for this series will be an “everything else” […]

    Reply

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