TV Openings & Tunes

[black king]

I know with streaming and the skip intro buttons, these aren't really things anymore, but did you ever have any tv show intros or themes that just hit you? Amped you up, had you jamming along, or just gets stuck in your head years later?

One of the ones for me is a bit obscure. It's the theme to the old MIB cartoon. I rarely find myself humming the bass part. Fun fact; the opening ten seconds are also how Null and Refluxe used to walk into the old MGSF Staff Lounge

[Dirty Duck]

I'm really against skipping the intro. Anytime my girlfriend does it without thinking we look at each other like this:

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These are some all timers that are always in my head:

[starschwar]

Customized with visuals for each episode (which is a bummer for any "part 2"s since they tend to spoil how cliffhangers resolve).


 

Trek in general has had a history of good opening titles, but post-Season 2 TNG is as good as it gets.




All of Marvel's Netflix era shows had stylized credits sequences.  While Jessica Jones and Luke Cage had some kick ass soundtracks, Daredevil's was just perfect.  Born Again's version - I get what they're going for, but it's just a hollow imitation.




Season 1 (in the US at least) had an alternate score that was reverted to the international version for the remainder of the series.  




They've had some pretty impressive openings dating back to '63, but the Series 8-10 version is especially classy.


I have plenty more, will add in time.

[starschwar]

This was X-Files for kids and it kicked ass. Even the ultra clunky cgi vr world stuff.




And this was the first all CGI animated series. Recently remastered from the original 576p/25fps master tapes. Can't find the intro isolated so here's the first episode in its entirety (legit official upload.)

[starschwar]

The first (Japanese!) Anime(s) I ever saw - both the heavily edited dub opening and the legit original:

[black king]

A killer theme that also manages to show off all the characters and their gimmicks in under a minute. And yes, the '97 versions were all great too.


Another good one from the early 00's. Had a good futuristic feel despite being 20 years old.

Honestly, the late 90's and early 00's had several good superhero shows and themes going for it. Probably one of the reasons we have so many movies and series today. Shoutout to Justice League, Spiderman, Batman TAS, and Static Shock as well.

Now onto some non-cartoons.

Someone mentioned X Files. Great opening that people still use as background music to this day (mostly conspiracy nutjobs but still). I was too young to watch it when it came out, but my parents did and I remembered the theme anyway. Did a binge of it probably in 2012/13.



And of course, one that played whenever my dad was watching TV:

[Blueblob]

Hear me out here, but going from a cold opening of someone who either should be murdered or a corpse into this cheery theme song is top quality cinematography



And on the theme of unserious british murder mystery theme songs, the same energy is captured in the opening of Death in Paradise which is always immediately preceded by the discovery of a corpse and screaming:

[starschwar]

I've never watched this one, but the intro might make it the most 1980s thing ever. Synth music (by Tangerine Dream, I think). Dramatic narrator explains the premise. Protagonist has unreasonably cool name that fits his job later in life. A vehicle is featured more prominently than any actor. A supporting actor is seen doing something odd that is probably meant to be funny, but is lacking the context to make it as such. Another, the "nerdy" type (due to his affinity for computers and goggles) somehow manages to fire a belt-fed machine gun and look silly at the same time. The lone actress is simply shown walking about an office, possibly in a secretarial type job. I think that checks most of the boxes.

[starschwar]

This may also be approaching peak levels of 90s...ness?

[Jassassino]

It's peak BBC tunage time