please bring back opening credits and theme songs

Dear TV Execs:

I hate that TV shows no longer carry opening credits set to catchy tunes. I lurve me some good-old fashioned opening credits. It sets the tone for the show and helps my brain switch gears from one show to the next. Plus, I like to SEE the people who are starring in my favorite shows. It comforts me.  And it gives me something to HUM or SING when I'm bored.

Sometimes I hear an old-time theme song -- like the Star Trek theme or Facts of Life song -- and good memories immediately come flooding back to me.  Having an opening theme song allows us as humans to share a common bond that unites us across space, time, and distance.   It helps us make sense of all that is senseless in this world.  It gives us meaning and hope.  It is the one constant in an ever-changing world.

I don't know why you took this away from us.  And I don't even care. Just know one thing -- WE FRICKING WANT IT BACK.

Signed,

Disgruntled TV viewer

P.S. Imagine how pitiful our world would be without this.

Or this.

Or this.

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Are you with me folks?  Don't you think that this year's crop of new TV shows are completely indistinguishable without their catchy theme songs. Wouldn't U2's "Stuck in the Moment" work extremely well for the Nine? After all, it would perfectly capture the essence of the show - about nine people who somehow get stuck after sharing a traumatic experience.

Some of my favorite opening credits (in no particular order):

1) Believe it or Not -- The Greatest American Hero
2) Where Everybody Knows Your Name - Cheers
3) Making Our Dreams Come True -- Laverne & Shirley
4) I'm No Superman -- Scrubs
5) Theme to Magnum, P.I.
6) Theme to Dynasty
7) Searching My Soul --Ally McBeal
8) The Love Boat song -- come on, you know you love it!
9) Gilligan's Island song -- another classic
10) Closer to Free -- Party of Five

Runners-up:  "Moving on Up" (The Jeffersons), Happy Days Theme, Dallas Theme, Beverly Hills 90210 Theme, "Those Were the Days" (All in the Family), "I'll Be There for You" (Friends), "Love is All Around" (Mary Tyler Moore Show), Patridge Family theme song, The Facts of Life theme song, and of course, Taxi.

What's your favorite theme song?  Need some audio reminders?  Click here.

Comments

[Nicole]

Gotta love the Welcome Back Kotter theme. Not just because John Sebastian is a good songwriter but because during the song they showed MY Brooklyn! Although I didn't actually live in the area shown (Bensonhurst) I was near enough to enjoy the first on-screen representation of a world close to my own. The fact that my father even looked like Gabe Kaplan back then, I actually grew up with a Puerto Rican Jew and I myself am a part-Italian Jew was just the icing on the cake!
You mentioned most of the standout faves. An obscure, short lived favorite--Square Pegs.
Other faves: Baretta, Hawaii 5-O, Three's Company, WKRP! And how has Brady Bunch not been mentioned? My 6 year old caught a BB marathon on TVland recently and even she knows that one!