Saturday 24 January 2009

Theme Tunes

It is one of those strange facts that when John Logie Baird gave his first public demonstration of his newly invented television, he gave a speech promising that his invention will revolutionise the world of entertainment. As the world of entertainment up until then had consisted of Charlie Chaplin waving his cane in an amusing manner and walking like he had hemorrhoids, it wasn't much of a boast but over 70 years later along came Buffy The Vampire Slayer and we were finally glad that the Scotsman had invented the box of delights that sits in the corner of the room and keeps men quiet for hours when golf comes on.
Not to say that everything on the television pre-Buffy was rubbish, but just let me throw out the name Lee Majors and let it rest there.
What television has given us is some amazingly good theme tunes such as Red Dwarf, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Rawhide, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, A Team, Dr Who and Blackadder.
I had always assumed that Buffy with Nerf Herders rip off of the 80's hit 'Codo' by German band DÖF would be the best theme tune ever (any similarity is coincidental Nerf straight faced at the time) but a recently acquired CD of music from TV shows has made me reconsider and wonder if possibly the theme tune to 60's show The Munsters is the best title music out there.
The secret to a good theme tune is that as the programme starts you still have it whirring around in your head which was a bonus for shows such as The Fall Guy and Airwolf which generally slumped seconds after the music finished or in the case of the former, as soon as the announcer had finished the sentence "And now the Fall Guy".
Bloody awful and Majors sang the theme tune with the line 'I die for a livin’ in the movies and TV'. Yep, you sure did.

4 comments:

Cody Bones said...

Disrespecting Lee Majors? You are coming down on the wrong side of history my friend. Not only was he the Six Million Dollar man, but he knew Farrah Fawcett (in the biblical sense). The man is a legend you heretic.

Anonymous said...

Lucy,

I like "Gilligan's Island". But the best is "The Beverly Hillbillies" - and not just because they look just like my family...

Q

Falling on a bruise said...

Cody, i think you forgot to leave a gap between the words LEG and END and accidently typed LEG instead of BELL.

Actually Q, the Beverly Hillbillies theme tune is well worth a mention, not sure i know Gilligans Island though.

Cheezy said...

I was always fascinated by Lee Majors's nose. The tip of it was (is?) so delicate.

As for theme tunes, it's hard to go past Dr Who for me. Kath & Kim is good too.