Glad to see Airwolf and KITH on your missed list, though maybe KITH would've been too international for the list anyway? Your approach regarding international shows was probably the right one. You don't need a bunch of anime guys telling you that Cowboy Bebop should have been #1, as right as they would have been.
My pet choice would have been MST3k, which is fun as heck and really captures that Gilligan's Island era of premise-explaining songs. White Lotus S1 is also an all-timer and I'm very partial to the Bojack Horseman theme, too.
Good point on KITH. I think it stayed on for a while past our “no international shows” ruling, in part because I am half Canadian and thus don’t think of that place as another country.
KITH was produced by Lorne and shown and aired contemporaneously on HBO in the US, so I would say more multinational. But I agree that Having An Average Weekend should have been included.
It's a pretty great list. My only strong "Wait, but..." objections to omissions were Barney Miller (which you noted here) and Night Court. (There's a couple or three more I could make a case for, but not so much that I'd call them *oversights*.)
The entire point of lists like this is to spark conversation, anyway. :) I loved the inclusion of Match Game, which is honestly one of my favourite artifacts of seventies TV.
Finally, loved the Husker Du cover of "Love is All Around", but I'd like to also offer up what I think is the ultimate cover of that song, by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Honestly…the lists lack of animated shows is telling. No Animaniacs. No Pinky & the Brain. No Justice League. No Batman The Animated Series. But you know what made it?
Too Many Cooks. A show that didn’t even exist. So while it is “just a meaningless list” —here’s the problem. People read these. Smart people. Ignorant people. And lists like these can educate those people on who the likes of the late great Shelly Walker are(just one example).
But the fact that Too Many Cooks made this list over the 2001 Justice League animated series, which slaps so hard even Will Smith would let it joke about his wife, is just…god damn it I hate getting annoyed at these lists.
Batman: TAS is tricky though. Do you honor Danny Elfman's re-working of his movie theme for the first 65 episodes...or do honor Shirley Walker and chose her own theme from The Adventures of Batman & Robin?
Phenomenal list! But there is one omission I find perplexing, and I thought for sure you would explain here. In most cases, I could understand why my personal favorites didn’t make the list (The Fall Guy, Family Ties, Veronica Mars, Charles In Charge), but I thought for sure John from Cincinnati would make the list, and could’ve sworn you previously wrote about how perfect that Johnny Appleseed opening was even if the rest of the show was more of a mixed bag. Any chance you could provide some brief thoughts as to why it didn’t make the cut here?
I had zero problems with the list! In fact, I thought of what my #1 would be as soon as I saw the article pop up and it matched up.
The only quibble - I'd have limited it to original compositions; in other words, no existing songs grabbed for openings (sorry Golden Girls) should have been considered.
I feel like there should be two lists, one with original creations and one with unoriginal ones. I give more weight to originals, but there's an art to finding the perfect pairing of existing song and show.
Such a fun article to read. Just thinking about purely instrumental themes, I could not possibly rank Rockford, Hawaii5-0, or Miami Vice. All iconic. Probably give it to 5-0 on the basis of “I’ve seen it played at football games and the crowd loves it”
Great stuff as always, and now I’ve got a brain full of 70s show music
Can I assume there's an plucky Canuck out there making a best-of Canadian theme list? Today's Special! Littlest Hobo! Degrassi! Seeing Things! King of Kensington! HNiC! Some shows made this century!
Haha, I'm still irritated that I figured out ages ago it's pretty much physically impossible for a grown adult man to crawl under a dumpster, and even if you can somehow pull that off, it isn't going to happen quickly. The Walking Dead was never all that smart in any form, but as the comic progressed (and therefore the TV show that happily repeated it), the plotting and narrative degenerated into the violent, nihilistic repetitive slog it always threatened to become. Good riddance.
As for Andor, I thought Cassian improved as a character in the second half of season 1 but for the love of God, could they hire one writer on that show who can do funny? Tony Gilroy is very talented but he's incapable of humor, seemingly allergic to the very idea of it in his career, and what Andor really could use is just a bit of levity every now and then.
I do like that the name of the show is both about Cassian and the woman who actually ignites the Rebellion at the end of season 1.
Surely the Little Steven-penned, Southside Johnny-sung "I Don't Want to Go Home" just barely missed out, despite "Down the Shore" being a largely forgettable proto-Friends https://youtu.be/XQuk-WjNbtE
Glad to see Airwolf and KITH on your missed list, though maybe KITH would've been too international for the list anyway? Your approach regarding international shows was probably the right one. You don't need a bunch of anime guys telling you that Cowboy Bebop should have been #1, as right as they would have been.
My pet choice would have been MST3k, which is fun as heck and really captures that Gilligan's Island era of premise-explaining songs. White Lotus S1 is also an all-timer and I'm very partial to the Bojack Horseman theme, too.
Good point on KITH. I think it stayed on for a while past our “no international shows” ruling, in part because I am half Canadian and thus don’t think of that place as another country.
KITH was produced by Lorne and shown and aired contemporaneously on HBO in the US, so I would say more multinational. But I agree that Having An Average Weekend should have been included.
Isn’t Pachinko a foreign series?
It’s produced by Apple. It’s just shot in Korea and Japan.
It's a pretty great list. My only strong "Wait, but..." objections to omissions were Barney Miller (which you noted here) and Night Court. (There's a couple or three more I could make a case for, but not so much that I'd call them *oversights*.)
The entire point of lists like this is to spark conversation, anyway. :) I loved the inclusion of Match Game, which is honestly one of my favourite artifacts of seventies TV.
Finally, loved the Husker Du cover of "Love is All Around", but I'd like to also offer up what I think is the ultimate cover of that song, by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWQHhKrdtSA
No "Is he strong/Listen Bud/He's got radioactive blood" 60's Spider-Man?
Honestly…the lists lack of animated shows is telling. No Animaniacs. No Pinky & the Brain. No Justice League. No Batman The Animated Series. But you know what made it?
Too Many Cooks. A show that didn’t even exist. So while it is “just a meaningless list” —here’s the problem. People read these. Smart people. Ignorant people. And lists like these can educate those people on who the likes of the late great Shelly Walker are(just one example).
But the fact that Too Many Cooks made this list over the 2001 Justice League animated series, which slaps so hard even Will Smith would let it joke about his wife, is just…god damn it I hate getting annoyed at these lists.
Batman: TAS is tricky though. Do you honor Danny Elfman's re-working of his movie theme for the first 65 episodes...or do honor Shirley Walker and chose her own theme from The Adventures of Batman & Robin?
Phenomenal list! But there is one omission I find perplexing, and I thought for sure you would explain here. In most cases, I could understand why my personal favorites didn’t make the list (The Fall Guy, Family Ties, Veronica Mars, Charles In Charge), but I thought for sure John from Cincinnati would make the list, and could’ve sworn you previously wrote about how perfect that Johnny Appleseed opening was even if the rest of the show was more of a mixed bag. Any chance you could provide some brief thoughts as to why it didn’t make the cut here?
Johnny Appleseed was another one I thought about for that "great theme from a show nobody remembers" slot.
Just here to say thanks for Terriers. https://twitter.com/joshfrai/status/1595870984636338176?s=46&t=Tk-POweD5WqwkEStO0e06w
I had zero problems with the list! In fact, I thought of what my #1 would be as soon as I saw the article pop up and it matched up.
The only quibble - I'd have limited it to original compositions; in other words, no existing songs grabbed for openings (sorry Golden Girls) should have been considered.
I feel like there should be two lists, one with original creations and one with unoriginal ones. I give more weight to originals, but there's an art to finding the perfect pairing of existing song and show.
The only theme I really hoped would have made it was Clone High.
A good one! Bill Lawrence-wise, we also could have had Scrubs.
Such a fun article to read. Just thinking about purely instrumental themes, I could not possibly rank Rockford, Hawaii5-0, or Miami Vice. All iconic. Probably give it to 5-0 on the basis of “I’ve seen it played at football games and the crowd loves it”
Great stuff as always, and now I’ve got a brain full of 70s show music
I was hoping for “Home to Emily” from the Bob Newhart Show, another instrumental number that just slaps.
Every time I walk out of my office in midwestern winter, I think of Bob and that song.
Can I assume there's an plucky Canuck out there making a best-of Canadian theme list? Today's Special! Littlest Hobo! Degrassi! Seeing Things! King of Kensington! HNiC! Some shows made this century!
And as far as Warren Zevon songs - the short lived Action's "Even a Dog Can Shake Hands" was also great.
Great list. I can't imagine how tough it was to put together. Did the Party of Five theme merit consideration? That's a personal favorite.
Haha, I'm still irritated that I figured out ages ago it's pretty much physically impossible for a grown adult man to crawl under a dumpster, and even if you can somehow pull that off, it isn't going to happen quickly. The Walking Dead was never all that smart in any form, but as the comic progressed (and therefore the TV show that happily repeated it), the plotting and narrative degenerated into the violent, nihilistic repetitive slog it always threatened to become. Good riddance.
As for Andor, I thought Cassian improved as a character in the second half of season 1 but for the love of God, could they hire one writer on that show who can do funny? Tony Gilroy is very talented but he's incapable of humor, seemingly allergic to the very idea of it in his career, and what Andor really could use is just a bit of levity every now and then.
I do like that the name of the show is both about Cassian and the woman who actually ignites the Rebellion at the end of season 1.
Surely the Little Steven-penned, Southside Johnny-sung "I Don't Want to Go Home" just barely missed out, despite "Down the Shore" being a largely forgettable proto-Friends https://youtu.be/XQuk-WjNbtE
Did the Americans theme get considered? I love the opening but it might be due to the music combined with the pictures.
It didn’t. Great combo of music and pictures, though, yes.
Sesame Street...the first tv theme lyrics many of us first learned. Did it make the cut?
There is a full list of 100 songs right here! https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-tv-theme-songs-of-all-time-1234630913/
#50...seems like the right spot.