1 of 1- RadioActive
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The Top TV Themes Of All Time Ranked
There's a syndicated radio show called "That Thing With Rich Appel" that asked viewers to rank their choices for the top TV Theme Songs of all time. It won't surprise you to hear that most of those chosen actually did make the charts and were considered hits in their time.
(Although I can't quite recall either the MASH theme - "Suicide is Painless" - or the infamous Twilight Zone's "do do do do do do do do" ever making Billboard. And I guess the "I Love Lucy" intro music may be too old for the voters, but it's also iconic in its own way.)
Today, the old TV theme song is close to extinct, with shows preferring to get right into the action to prevent tune out. So the chart listed at the linked article may well soon be the all-time never changing ranking. And it's hard to argue with any of them. But really - no "Green Acres" or "Addams Family?" A huge injustice!
The Top TV Themes Of All Time
- mace
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I am showing my age here, but IMHO, it is tough to beat Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn theme and M Squad by the Count Basie Orchestra.
- Doug Thompson
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Speaking of "I Love Lucy" RA, in 1976 the Wilton Place Street Band (really LA studio musicians) took "Disco Lucy (The I Love Lucy Theme)" to # 24 on Billboard and # 7 on the U.S. Club Play chart..
Last edited by Doug Thompson (March 24, 2023 9:45 pm)
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- turkeytop
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mace wrote:
I am showing my age here, but IMHO, it is tough to beat Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn theme and M Squad by the Count Basie Orchestra.
Yes and yes.
I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
- mic'em
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Nice to the Rockford Files theme in the top 3. Still my favourite TV series of all .
- Leslieville Bill
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I am showing my age here, but IMHO, it is tough to beat Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn theme and M Squad by the Count Basie Orchestra.
Thanks! I was just about to log in and mentioned this glaring omission.
- Not an industry person. Just a guy with a love of Toronto radio.
- Leslieville Bill
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My personal favourite? Gerry [Thunderbird, Space 199] Anderson's UFO from 1970. I love the Hammond B-3 organ.
Last edited by Leslieville Bill (March 25, 2023 12:44 pm)
- Not an industry person. Just a guy with a love of Toronto radio.
- ig
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My personal favourite? Gerry [Thunderbird, Space 199] Anderson's UFO from 1970. I love the Hammond B-3 organ.
I know this puts 'geek' into a whole new level but if you can have a favourite font, that isn't Helvetica, the one on the sped-up selectric in this clip was mine. Called 'Orator' it was _the_ newsroom font for scripts etc.
The other is Serpentine, if you want to re-live 1980's Dubner or Chryon days 
. I believe TSN used to use this extensively, among many others.
Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.
- Leslieville Bill
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I've recently changed my Linux distribution from Ubuntu to Linux Mint. I'll be sure to add that one to my .font directory.
My personal favourite? Gerry [Thunderbird, Space 199] Anderson's UFO from 1970. I love the Hammond B-3 organ.
I know this puts 'geek' into a whole new level but if you can have a favourite font, that isn't Helvetica, the one on the sped-up selectric in this clip was mine. Called 'Orator' it was _the_ newsroom font for scripts etc.
The other is Serpentine, if you want to re-live 1980's Dubner or Chryon days
- Not an industry person. Just a guy with a love of Toronto radio.
- RadioActive
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My personal favourite? Gerry [Thunderbird, Space 199] Anderson's UFO from 1970. I love the Hammond B-3 organ.
I was a big fan of another Gerry Anderson show theme: "Fireball XL-5," which aired in the U.S. on NBC. The theme song was a moderate hit in the U.K., but never really caught on here. Too bad. It was a great tune. The part I like is the extro - it starts at about 1:24.
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Thread Starter- paterson1
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Great tunes! The music is so British sounding with the great loud horns in the orchestrations. The closing theme is pure British pop music. Anyone remember who ran these shows in Canada? I remember watching SuperCar on maybe CFTO or CHCH back around 1961/62.
- darcyh
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Who can forget the themes for The Munsters and Batman.
- RadioActive
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Who can forget the themes for The Munsters and Batman.
Speaking of The Munsters, that's the main reason I like this song. Very cleverly worked into the instrumental bridge.
This one, not so much. Beware of the tune below. Once you experience it, you can't unsee it. And yes, that IS Butch Patrick, who played Eddie in the original show. Don't say you weren't warned!
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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This just came out this week coincidentally. It's a new book by a Variety writer about the history of TV theme songs. And in this excerpt, he notes how close those opening tunes came from disappearing altogether, until one show at least temporarily brought them back in a big way.
How the ‘Friends’ Theme Song Helped Save TV’s Main-Title Tunes From Going Extinct
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