Your favourite TV show intro sequences?

[MinionZombie]

I was thinking about this the other day and decided to compile a list of the TV show opening title sequences that I never once skip past.

http://deadshed.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/favourite-tv-show-title-sequences.html

But was also wondering what you guys would put on your own lists of all-time favourite, never-skip tv show intro sequences. :)

[LouCipherr]

The first one off the top of my head would be The Simpsons since they change it almost every episode.

[Neil]

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...and Tangerine Dream for the win...
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..and missing classics like The Rockford Files, Miami Vice, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Airwolf and Space 1999 :)

[Tricky]

Who can forget this bad boy!
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Really liking this one as well at the moment, gives a good idea about the world the stories are set in & boundaries between the kingdoms etc

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[Neil]

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[AcesandEights]

I wouldn't call it a fav, but it's a classic:

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[paranoid101]

Miami Vice

[AcesandEights]

Always loved it.

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[Neil]

^^ Tis a classic!

And I'd forgotten all about "Get Shorty" :)

Time Tunnel was kind of cool too!

[rongravy]

Buck Rodgers and Laverne and Shirley. Someone already mentioned the Duke boys.

[Danny]

im not a huge fan of the show, but i dug this one for showing the bridge between realty and fiction with this decades long franchise that has influenced what it was trying to emulate.
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[ProfessorChaos]

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[krisvds]

The Kingdom; great cinematography and creepy atmosphere

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKGkBwhCIZk

and probably my all time favourite series was this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2lkvrMa27c

[MinionZombie]

Lou - good point on The Simpson's ... although I do tend to skip the bits in-between the new bits, but aye, I always make sure I catch the weekly jokes they stick in. Indeed they've really been doing a lot of background quick sight gags (e.g. funny store signs, shelves of books etc) in recent episodes, so it's always worth pausing and rewinding every now and then.

Neil - ah yes, UFO, that was a show I used to watch when it was repeating in the 90s (during the resurrection of Gerry Anderson's kick arse shows). All the GA shows had great intros. :) Come to think of it, they used to use the themtune to UFO on the Hollywood Babble-On podcast.

The Rockford Files (never seen it), Miami Vice (know of it, but never watched it), Battlestar Galactica (don't watch it/never watched it), Buck Rogers (never watched it), Airwolf (kick arse theme song, but never watched it, I was all about The A-Team) and Space 1999 (watched it back in the 90s).

Twilight Zone is a classic intro, although I have to admit - I've never properly watched an episode of it. There's just so much stuff out there to watch, so inevitably you'll miss a classic ... I know prepare myself for an utter onslaught of "OMFG?!" from you guys. :o:lol::o

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Lots of good choices here by you folks. :)

[LouCipherr]

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:D

[Mike70]

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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.
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so, i'll try "Fantastic Journey"

[Neil]

so, i'll try "Fantastic Journey"

I was trying to remember the name of that show, thanks!

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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.....

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Plus several others already mentioned.

[Mike70]

I was trying to remember the name of that show, thanks!

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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...
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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...

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[EvilNed]

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[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!:

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A golden gem... "Oh, wow! Candy Critters!"...

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Another childhood favorite show, this is the one "Warehouse 13" ripped off (and was much better done!)...

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Another show intro that scared me pretty bad when I was a kid...

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Shitty quality video, but the theme is probably one of the best to any sci-fi series ever created:

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And perhaps the greatest TV theme of all time in the 65+ year history of television...

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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]

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Nice! I think the only other series like this that had such a meaty theme tune was the Equaliser!

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I love this series...

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[MikePizzoff]

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


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou-FeOoKDq4


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNIt4qvBoHQ


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqMFnCBGWi8

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:
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Movie: Buried
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Surprisingly not bad movie either:

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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:
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[Tricky]

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[Neil]

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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".

[Mike70]

^^
huh. i did not know the back story of the theme's creation. sounds like a lot of work and quite a bit of creativity went into it. it certainly is an iconic piece of music that is immediately recognizable to many, many folks. i think that Orbital's version of it rocks the known 'verse. my ex was very into techno, so i learned to either love it or at least live with techno. turns out, i rather like most of it and that is how i first heard their version. but that is a story for another thread.

as for doctor who: like i said, back in the 70s and early 80s it was shown on PBS over here. i don't know how many eps. we were behind but once i saw the show as a kid, i was hooked and every saturday eve. there would be two "new" eps. on.

as you can probably tell, i'm a huge fan of 60s and 70s (and a bit of the early 80s) horror and scifi tv. i've literally scoured planet earth for some of the shows i have collected over the years. of course, the intranets have made that, ahem, easier.

another great 70s show no one has mentioned yet was survivors. another one i was totally hooked on.
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too bad the remake a few years ago was crap (in my opinion at least). though it's pretty hard to live up to something that was as good as "survivors" was, esp. that first season, that was some amazing tv.

[Neil]

^^ Nearly included that myself! And yes, the remake missed the mark!