Sing A Song

I have always loved a well done TV theme song. The theme to The Dick Van Dyke Show stands out immediately as I think about them. Over the years, some of my favorite shows had theme songs that immediately got me into the mood for the show. In college, my good friend Rhonda had a cassette of Mike Post theme songs (LA Law, Remington Steele, NYPD Blue, The A-Team, Magnum, P.I., et.al.) and would put it on her stereo and blast it out the dorm room window out into the quad. Aaah, good times.....

A while back TV shows stopped with the pesky theme song, what with more commercials and less time to tell a story, that precious minute or two was used to start the actual story, leaving time for a title card after the teaser, and credits would run at the bottom of the screen once the action started. It made sense financially, but I missed the theme songs and opening title sequences.

But with the new television season, I have noticed that more shows are going back to theme songs and opening credits, although most of them are instrumentals. A lot of them are wonderful little ditties. As expected, sit-coms have perky, sing-songy tunes that make you want to sing along. Notable ones are from The Office, 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother. The dramas have some nice ones two, my current favorite being "A Place In Time" which opens The 4400. Other notables are Ugly Betty, Journeyman, Chuck and Bionic Woman, in all it's cheesiness. The CSI franchise has given The Who a nice little boost as well.

Not all shows have added the theme songs back (my favorite, Jericho, has a bleak, morse code title card that seems appropriate for the show), but it's a nice little trend that I hope continues.