Top Ten TV Show Openings
We know, we know. The Angry Puppy vlog has the best opening of anything you’ve seen online or off, but we thought we’d open up the race for some lesser known works.
#10 - The Sarah Silverman Program
OK, so it’s not sci-fi, horror or any of those other things in our tagline. But it has everyone’s favorite gay geeks Brian and Steve. What really makes it special is Sarah Silverman’s unique brand of ego-centrism. “People call me on the phone, my parents are dead, I like cookies, why are we doing this?”
#9 - Firefly
This also makes the future list of Ten Shows That Didn’t Have Soundtracks But Really Should Have. The open beautifully sets the tone for the curious half-western/half-science-fiction series. And I can’t get that damned song out of my head.
#8 - The Simpsons
I like the one with the dancing elephants! And the one with the Flintstones! And the bizarre 1930’s one! The fax machine open! The whack-a-mole open! The Monty Python open! The Time Bandits one! The Powers of Ten one! The one with the AOL slow screen load! The awesome monster couches eating the neighborhood! Remember the one where Homer peels off the FOX network bug and stomps on it? The one where Homer evolves from a single-cell organism? And, of course, the staggering genius of the live-action recreation!
#7 - Tales from the Darkside
“Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But… there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit… a Darkside.” I always wanted the announcer to replace the last two words with “Delaware” for comedic value, but then that would have ruined the moment. Granted, nobody was impressed with either the cheap title graphic or the stock footage flipping to a negative before spinning off the screen in a cheesy wipe. Look, creepy announcer dude with his scary words made for excellent TV in 1985. Just think about what it was up against. Anyone remember the theme song to Misfits of Science? (Yes, with Courtney Cox as telekinesis girl). Nope.
#6 - Doctor Who
If nothing else the Doctor Who show open wins the prize for consistency. The show launched in 1963 with an awesome jaunty theme song and a psychedelic background interrupted only by the show title, and has pretty much remained unchanged in the four or five decades since. Both the theme song and the background have evolved through various iterations, with the modern version taking the most orchestral approach to the track, while the title emerges on a nifty surfboard-like graphic. Long-time fans of the series get the added bonus of feeling like they’re really traveling through time as they sit down today to re-experience the series they grew up on.
#5 - The Tick (the animated series)
Dub dwee, dub dub dub dwee dow! We love The Tick because it’s a spot-on parody of the superhero genre. Sometimes subtle and sometimes… well, not so much. The show open nails it from the beginning with a mix of overstated sequences demonstrating action scenes and The Tick’s general ineptitude, all overlaid with a fast-paced theme song sung through with nonsense lyrics.
#4 - Dexter
This feels more like a work of art than a show open. It’s a gorgeous cinematic sequence of our anti-hero waking up on a typical morning and getting ready for a long day of examining blood splatters, hangin’ with sis and carrying out vigilante justice. We’re especially fond of any show open that can pack in so many direct and indirect references to blood. Yay blood!
#3 - Lost
Anything we write here will be longer than the Lost intro. Click to see how easily it could have gone wrong.
#2 - Battlestar Galactica
In the face of shrinking attention spans, a lot of shows these days are forgoing opening credits and theme songs altogether. Battlestar Galactica, however, has two!
You don’t care that they have a plan? OK, here’s some pretty music, awesome space fight scenes and that ever-decreasing count of the entire human population.
#1 - Cowboy Bebop
Three, two, one, let’s jam! What’s not to love about the fantastic open to this super-cool anime series that celebrates modern music against a background fusion of western and sci fi genres. The intro looks like what Roy Lichtenstein might see if he dropped acid while reading pulp novels in a really excellent jazz club. The art is incredible, the action, guns, and dancing chicks rival the best Bond opens, and that bit at the end where the trumpet freaks out is pure genius. See you space cowboy…
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April 11th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Other: Star Trek TNG, either version of the opening.
April 11th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
“#9 - Firefly
This also makes the future list of Ten Shows That Didn’t Have Soundtracks But Really Should Have.”
Huh? I have the CD Soundtrack of Firefly … is that what you were talking about?
April 11th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Airwolf gets no mention? hrmf.
I voted for cowboy bebop only if only for the ytmnd parody: Cosby Bebop.
http://cosbybebop.ytmnd.com/
April 11th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
More great show openings…
Angel, The Office (NBC), Secret Diary Of A Call Girl (ITV2), Six Feet Under, The O.C.
April 12th, 2008 at 3:52 am
Have voted for firefly. I LOVE this song. Hve watched firefly now for almost three weeks in permanent repeat. Almost missed a house-episode because of it.
Other than that: babylon 5 third season (I think) - slightly über-dramatic but shivers down my spine everytime I watch it.
April 13th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Good List. I would have rearranged the last three: #3 Bebop, #2 Dexter, #1 Battlestar. Other shows I would have liked to have seen on the list are Freakazoid!, Six Feet Under, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (80’s)
Here’s another list:
Television shows whose intros go on too damn long! #1 Dante’s Cove
April 13th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Oh shit Darrell, I love Freakazoid and avatar too.
And flicking through youtube I think the single greatest opening on a show EVER is the one from Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors.
Lightning strikes!
April 13th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
The original “Battlestar Galactica” theme still has it going on. So do both “Lost in Space” themes. For pure kitch, you have to throw in season one of “Space 1999″ - when Barbara Bain turns to the audience with all her misplaced gravitas, I have to laugh out loud.
April 13th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I voted for Cowboy Bebop. LOVE that show. Neon Genesis Evangelion has a cool opening, too, in my opinion.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
I couldn’t vote for any of the shows. Did I miss a qualifier in the criteria? There were no golden age of TV show intros. While not as stylish as todays, many were either ground breaking or have become iconic. Like Star Trek, which should be on my list, but isn’t because it’s too obvious. The stars in space are a precursor to Star Wars.
I’ve never seen cowboy bebop, but from your description and top ten spot, I was expecting alot more from the intro. It is an homage to late 60s Opening credits from numerous movies and T.V. shows like ‘It Takes a thief’ and ‘Wild Wild West’ and others. Considering that it’s an animation, I feel kinda cheated they would go the retro route, rather then explore their own brand of animation, like I said I haven’t seen the show.
‘It Takes a thief’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjtTC_7w3Jw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osKE2kuRDzs
‘Wild Wild West’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKBTEtI4R44
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX_ibEv_fS0
My also rans
‘Bewitched’
http://www.hulu.com/bewitched
‘Branded’
I never understood why they took Chuck Conners’ buttons but how hot with his shirt left open!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKmJPnAGUJk
‘Kung Fu’
Still parodied today. You got to watch the dude brand himself every week!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnGEX_x_FGY
The only clip I could find is incomplete and cuts off before Caine opens the door and collapses in the snow, numbing his burns.
‘The Flintstones’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX0Ep4SpX1s
Because the opening and closing credits were tied together.
6. Rome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jon4QqbA4RA
Being a student of 1st century Rome and Pompeii I love the graffiti coming to life.
My Top 5
5. Tales From The Crypt Intro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyUE2mpw7bI
A one shot intro.
4. The Addams Family
http://www.hulu.com/the-addams-family
3. The Twilight Zone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzlG28B-R8Y
2. Alfred Hitchcock Presents
http://www.hulu.com/alfred-hitchcock-presents
1. Get Smart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvMj5LuT5hk
April 15th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
You don’t have to like our choices; that’s what the “Other” button is for. :)
Thanks for your list. A few of them were in our starter list (e.g. The Addams Family and Tales from the Crypt), but there are only ten slots, so we narrow them down.
We weren’t just going for amazing cinematography in the intros. For instance, the Lost opening is about as simple as it could be (one sans serif word floats across the screen with a few notes playing ominously), but that sets you up for an episode perfectly. It’s such a tense, WTF kind of show.
As for other criteria, nope, it’s just the ones we like. Though we tend to stay post-1970 in general. Not by design, but by default.
Unless you count Inkubo… ;)
July 18th, 2008 at 11:06 am
I love Firefly, but while the music may set the tone the lyrics just make me laugh….and uh, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel theme song like 10000000000x’s better than Firefly’s
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:52 am
Ric - I lovelovelove the theme of Angel, though I’d like to hear a less digital version.
I don’t know, though. Firefly just seems to stand out for me. Maybe I don’t watch enough Westerns?