Supreme Themes: The 60 Greatest Title Songs of All Time
Apr 16, 2013
by Elizabeth Wagmeister

(Additional reporting by Kevin Schlittenhardt)


For years TV Guide Magazine has told you what's worth watching, but what about what's worth hearing — over and over again? In the best TV theme songs, lyrics can summarize the backstory or comment on characters, while instrumentals can sell the mood or set the scene.

Just try reading this list of shows without getting a few of their songs stuck in your head.





Top 10:

Cheers
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Hawaii Five-0 (original)
M*A*S*H
Friends
The Beverly Hillbillies
Route 66
The Jeffersons
Sesame Street
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air







The Other 50 (Alphabetically):

The Addams Family
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
The Andy Griffith Show
All in the Family
Ally McBeal


Batman
Bewitched
The Big Bang Theory
The Brady Bunch


Car 54, Where Are You?
The Cosby Show
Curb Your Enthusiasm


Dallas (original)
Dawson's Creek


The Facts of Life
Family Guy
The Flintstones


Get Smart
Gilligan's Island
The Golden Girls
Good Times
The Greatest American Hero
Green Acres


Happy Days
Hill Street Blues


I Love Lucy
Laverne & Shirley
Law & Order


Malcolm in the Middle
Maude
Miami Vice
The Mickey Mouse Club (original)
Mission: Impossible
Mister Ed
The Monkees
The Muppet Show


The Odd Couple


The Patty Duke Show
Peter Gunn


The Rockford Files


Scooby-Doo
The Simpsons
The Sopranos
SpongeBob SquarePants
Star Trek (original)


The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Three's Company


Weeds
Welcome Back, Kotter


The X-Files

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Greatest-TV-Theme-Songs-60-1064098.aspx

Friends might be one of the best in the eyes of TV Guide, but to me, it is one of the absolute worst. OTOH, Dallas will always be a favorite of mine.

Another useless, waste-of-time list from TV Guide. :rolleyes:

REMINDER: Dawson's Creek and The Golden Girls weren't originally theme songs.

I kind of wish "You're Standing On My Neck" (The theme from "Daria") wasn't overlooked.

Well, they won't have to worry about adding any new ones, because there AREN'T any anymore. :(

....those 5 and 10 second opening titles "themes" {i.e. "Ba-da-bump-bump...barr-ummmp!!"}.

;)

:tv:

Can't have theme songs anymore...must make more time for commercials. :rolleyes:

Friends and Fresh Prince in the top 10? Where's Newhart, Wings, Barney Miller, WKRP, Family Ties and Night Court? I love the Big Bang Theory, but that theme song wouldn't even be in the top 100. :lol: It's hard to take this list seriously.

Can't have theme songs anymore...must make more time for commercials.

If they wanted to be completely commercial, they could write a new theme song for each episode [perhaps using the same music] to pitch a sponsor product for the show with each airing. That'd probably be really lame, but it'd be about what NASCAR seems like to me with the drivers wearing a ton of ads all over their racing outfits.