Your favourite TV show intro sequences?

[Mike70]

i thought only I and a hand picked group of 70s geeks even knew of the existence of "the persuaders." now if you start talking about the "the new people"...one of our operatives may have to pay you a visit... and the fooking "tripods"?! another one that i thought only a few people on planet earth remembered. you must be one of them or are you?? somebody feeding you inside info?? anyhoo, here's my entry the "logan's run" tv show. cheesy as all hell with the "woo woo woo" synth part. but tell me if i'm wrong, the rest of the logan's run intro sounds just like "stargate:sg1." all the logan's run ones are embedding disabled. so, i'll try "Fantastic Journey"

[Neil]

so, i'll try "Fantastic Journey" I was trying to remember the name of that show, thanks! -- -------- Post added at 08:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:44 PM ---------- i thought only I and a hand picked group of 70s geeks even knew of the existence of "the persuaders." Surely, the best intro ever? Certainly the best tune anyway

[bassman]

The first two that come to mind..... Plus several others already mentioned.

[Mike70]

I was trying to remember the name of that show, thanks! -- -------- Post added at 08:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:44 PM ---------- Surely, the best intro ever? Certainly the best tune anyway i've got an entire copy of that show. pure 70s glory. too bad there only 10 of them.

[Neil]

size of an elephant... -- -------- Post added at 08:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:53 PM ---------- i've got an entire copy of that show. pure 70s glory. too bad there only 10 of them. Remember Automan and Manimal?

[shootemindehead]

Ahem...

[EvilNed]

[JDFP]

I'll probably be dating myself here, but I don't care. TV just isn't what it used to be. Hands down my favorite. And still the creepiest to any series I've ever seen!: A golden gem... "Oh, wow! Candy Critters!"... Another childhood favorite show, this is the one "Warehouse 13" ripped off (and was much better done!)... Another show intro that scared me pretty bad when I was a kid... Shitty quality video, but the theme is probably one of the best to any sci-fi series ever created: And perhaps the greatest TV theme of all time in the 65+ year history of television... j.p.

[Mike70]

to my shock and horror i forgot about friday the 13th the series. the first two seasons of that easily rank way up on my list of all time favs. the 3rd season sucked goat nuts though. i really dig anthology shows (which is what Friday the 13th was at heart). i'm much more likely to stay a fan of a show that changes from week to week than one that is following some damned story "arc." babylon 5 is the exception that proves the rule.

[Neil]

Nice! I think the only other series like this that had such a meaty theme tune was the Equaliser! -- -------- Post added at 10:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:50 PM ---------- I love this series...

[MikePizzoff]

Hell yes to Tales From The Crypt, Tales From The Darkside, Twilight Zone, and Freddy's Nightmares. I'll add: I'll think of more later.

[SymphonicX]

I'm designing a title sequence at the moment... Does it have to be TV? There are some amazing movie ones that I particularly love. These things are an artform in themselves and are astonishingly difficult to get right. My one is going to be 20 seconds long, in keeping with the current show's opening titles - but in 20 seconds you need to say SO much, get across SO much information - and make it fucking beautiful. The Borgias: Movie: Buried -- -------- Post added at 10:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:14 AM ---------- Surprisingly not bad movie either: For me it's all about having a strong style, a great eye for visual flare - the sequences I've listed above display this. A lot of the sequences here are nostalgic in nature, which is awesome. Personally though I feel the modern opener has come a long, long way since The Persuaders and nowdays have become just as important as the show itself. The Borgias is my favourite of all these sequences - it's just so brilliantly creative, holds the drama and intrigue of the show and tells you loads about betrayal, politics, and life in 14th Century Rome.

[Mike70]

Remember Automan and Manimal? indeed i do. i have a copy of all 8 Manimal eps (for whatever reason i cannot fathom) but automan never really did much for me, even as a kid. a few years ago the syfy channel was showing "automan" and i watched a few eps - man, did that show suck. yet another of glen larsen's attempts at tv. at least he finally got a hit with "knightrider." too bad that the king of all tv shows, Boris Karloff's Thriller, really didn't have an intro theme or i'd post it for sure. each ep. started with a cold opening followed by Boris introducing the main characters. sure, it had the same theme music but the "intro" for each show was different. like i've said many times, all my fav tv shows are anthologies or anthology like shows. night gallery twilight zone the outer limits Boris karloff's thriller the UK show by Brian Clemens also called Thriller (wasn't that by ITV?, i'm too lazy to look right now) Friday the 13th (not technically an anthology but close enough). and while we are the subject of tv shows: i'm an immense fan of the original doctor who, which was shown on saturday nights on PBS over here, but can't even remotely stand the new version. since i haven't seen it up yet:

[Tricky]

[Neil]

The most amazing piece of music 'construction' certainly for any TV theme tune! Epic piece of work - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_theme_music Each and every note was individually created by cutting, splicing, speeding up and slowing down segments of analogue tape containing recordings of a single plucked string, white noise, and the simple harmonic waveforms of test-tone oscillators which were used for calibrating equipment and rooms, not creating music. The swooping melody and pulsating bass rhythm was created by manually adjusting the pitch of oscillator banks to a carefully timed pattern. The rhythmic hissing sounds, "bubbles" and "clouds", were created by cutting tape recordings of filtered white noise.[1] Once each sound had been created, it was modified. Some sounds were created at all the required pitches direct from the oscillators, others had to be repitched later by adjusting the tape playback speed and re-recording the sound onto another tape player. This process continued until every sound was available at all the required pitches. To create dynamics, the notes were re-recorded at slightly different levels. Each individual note was then trimmed to length by cutting the tape, and stuck together in the right order. This was done for each "line" in the music – the main plucked bass, the bass slides (an organ-like tone emphasising the grace notes), the hisses, the swoops, the melody, a second melody line (a high organ-like tone used for emphasis), and the bubbles and clouds. Most of these individual bits of tape making up lines of music, complete with edits every inch, still survive. This done, the music had to be "mixed". There were no multitrack tape machines, so rudimentary multitrack techniques were invented: each length of tape was placed on a separate tape machine and all the machines were started simultaneously and the outputs mixed together. If the machines didn't stay in sync, they started again, maybe cutting tapes slightly here and there to help. In fact, a number of "submixes" were made to ease the process – a combined bass track, combined melody track, bubble track, and hisses. Grainer was amazed at the resulting piece of music and when he heard it, famously asked, "Did I write that?". Derbyshire modestly replied "Most of it".