The Silver Screen Oasis

Other theme songs, some of which became hits were -

Theme from "The Monkees"
The Greatest American Hero
Here Come The Brides - (The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle)
Theme from "Baretta"
Love American Style

Some others?

movieman1957 wrote:Other theme songs, some of which became hits were -

Theme from "The Monkees"
The Greatest American Hero
Here Come The Brides - (The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle)
Theme from "Baretta"
Love American Style

Some others?

Dr. Kildare theme, as sung by Richard Chamberlain. I remember hearing it all the time on rock radio stations. It must have gone fairly high on the charts.

The dog show you're describing sounds like Run Joe, Run, which was a great kids' show; a sort of updated, canine version of Chuck Connors' Branded. I don't remember a theme song for it, though (my little brother watched it every Saturday).

Thanks Brooklyn Girl! I Googled Run, Joe, Run and it is not the series I was thinking of, but it did lead me to the one I remember. It was called The Littlest Hobo and was a CANADIAN show that ran in syndication from 1963-1965. I found a web site which has the lyrics for the theme song, written by Ronald Stein and sung by Randy Sparks. Looks like this series is available on Netflix, so I think I'll take a trip down memory lane.

Jezebel38 wrote:

The dog show you're describing sounds like Run Joe, Run, which was a great kids' show; a sort of updated, canine version of Chuck Connors' Branded. I don't remember a theme song for it, though (my little brother watched it every Saturday).

Thanks Brooklyn Girl! I Googled Run, Joe, Run and it is not the series I was thinking of, but it did lead me to the one I remember. It was called The Littlest Hobo and was a CANADIAN show that ran in syndication from 1963-1965. I found a web site which has the lyrics for the theme song, written by Ronald Stein and sung by Randy Sparks. Looks like this series is available on Netflix, so I think I'll take a trip down memory lane.

This one got by me, Jez - I don't remember it at all. I see that there were two separate syndicated series (a second one in the 70s), plus a movie. I don't know if I ever saw the show. I wonder if it was run in the NYC area. Seems to have had a lot of neat guest stars, though.

EDIT: I tried posting the youtube url

Anyways it's the Duke of Hazard theme.



One of my other favourites. The extended single version that became a hit wasn't so bad either.

[quote="JohnM"]I completely forgot about this show. It ran in the 7:00-7:30 timeframe. I watched it with my kids. We liked it.
[quote]

It was the earlier B&W version from the 60's that I watched as a kid - I found a clip with the closing lyrics that I remember:

[youtube][/youtube]

Get Smart
Family Affair
Adam 12
The Avengers
I Dream Of Jeannie
The Munsters
Hogan's Heroes
Dick Van Dyck ,Show

We never the mentioned the classic that is "Green Acres."

(Yeah, it's a slow day.)

I loved Green Acres , both the show and the opening. And Get Smart . No mention of The Patty Duke Show ? Shocking!

Like, wow, Pop-O. How strange that you should mention The Patty Duke Show. That high-powered theme song has been in my head for the last several days, in one of those perpetual audio loops I seem to be so susceptible to.

[youtube][/youtube]

It must be because we were young that all these years later we still remember the lyrics to these themes. We can't remember what we had for dinner but this stuff is still there.

Do you ever feel that it is taking up space that would be better used for important information?

Off the top of my head (and because I'm at work, I can't tell if Dewey already linked to these or not):

*Green Acres
*Dynasty
*Roseanne
*Alfred Hitchcock Presents
*Fawlty Towers
*Maude
*Moonlighting
*The Mary Tyler Moore Show (both versions)
*L.A. Law
*Laverne and Shirley
*The Love Boat
*Dallas
*South Park
*thirtysomething
*Wonder Woman
*Charlie's Angels
*Daria

The worst:

*Cheers (too damn depressing for such a witty comedy)
*Friends (thoroughly unpleasant)
*The Golden Girls (too sugary)
*Gimme a Break! (bad show, bad opening, bad everything)
*The Cosby Show (too embarrassing to watch)
*Two's Company (just to hear Elaine Stritch's voice makes my throat sore)

-Stephen

movieman1957 wrote:Theme songs are a thing of the past. They take up too much time. Time that can be used running commercials.

I think that's the main reason. But I also wonder if part of the reason for the death of the series theme is that audiences possess VERY short attention spans. These days, they're prone to flip to another station if they have to sit through a minute opening theme, plus three-four minutes commercials.

But that aside, I agree that commercials are the main reason. It's most annoying on TV Land, where, despite three-four minutes edited from any given episode and time-condensed credits (I'll never understand why they didn't do that in past years on syndicated shows), they still occasionally have to condense a show's opening theme.