Most triumphantly, in Game of Thrones (theme song here). Who can even remember any of them?īut lately I have been detecting a slow, creeping return of the theme song, in a new, cooler avatar. Shows like Grey’s Anatomy, The Mentalist, Modern Family, Scandal and 30 Rock had truncated or generic theme songs. Let’s dive straight in. Frasier may have been the pioneer when it stuck its iconic theme song at the end, even when sung by Kelsey Grammar. No loving montages of actors’ tanned faces. With all this, the new brand of TV show wanted to cut straight to the chase. ![]() The theme song came to be seen as dated and tacky. Slots for sitcoms were slashed to half an hour, leaving little time for an opening number. The extra minute gained from not having an opening theme could be used to squeeze in another commercial. With more and more TV channels, attention spans declined, and people began to switch to other shows during theme songs. Network executives began to fear that people might fast-forward through the credits. Kelley used theme songs to differentiate their various offerings, often with the same actors crossing over from one show to the other. Boston Legal, with the glorious vocal stylings of singer Billy Valentine, was a fun, irreverent theme about fun, irreverent lawyers. The Practice, with its gritty “traffic sounds" theme song, was darker, scarier, grimmer. Chicago Hope used emergency room sounds for a more antiseptic, medical theme.īut then something happened. To cap it all, we’d have a gorgeous swooshy haircut in The Rachel, of course, because our friends “would be there for us". And hey, we could drink expensive cappuccinos all day while still staying thin. Watching this theme, we could all con ourselves into believing that yes, we too could live in a roomy Manhattan apartment on a waitress/masseuse’s salary. But an earworm, with immense brand recall. Then there was the definite theme song to end all theme songs, the Friends theme. Danny Elfman’s witty and gag-filled The Simpsons theme was perhaps the most dynamic ever, with the visuals (Bart’s writing on the board, for instance) changing with every season. The X Files song, deceptively simple, gave us goosebumps. ![]() The Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song made Will Smith a star, and introduced many of us to an unfamiliar genre of music-rap. Many of the theme songs of the decade were potted histories of the show. Searching My Soul, the chicklit-ish theme song to Ally McBeal, for instance, perfectly summed up ditzy, neurotic Ally, and her equally ditzy friends. ![]() The ’90s continued with some great theme songs. 1 on the UK charts, and has spawned over 20 different cover versions. Later, Robert Altman revealed that while he only made $70,000 for having directed the movie, his son earned more than $1 million for the theme song. Suicide is Painless climbed to No. The lyrics made it to the film version, but an instrumental version was used for the TV series, perhaps because they were too grim. Incredibly, these lines were written by a 14-year-old boy-director Robert Altman’s son-Mike Altman, with music by Johnny Mandel. The tragicomic hit M*A*S*H, about a team of surgeons operating during the Korean War, also had a very popular, though dark, theme song, Suicide is Painless. ![]() While Allen and Gimpel went on to star in other TV series, most of the Fame kids sadly and rapidly faded from public memory. Right here’s where you earn it? IN SWEAT!" The song also memorably featured dialogue from a young Debbie Allen. “I am going to live forever", sang Erica Gimpel for the theme, as us viewers clutched our imaginary Grammys.
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