Seth MacFarlane Explains Why Opening Theme Songs Are A Dying Breed

[Brian Damage]

MacFarlane also wrote and voiced Family Guy's theme song — and then fought network executives for its survival.

"We had to fight pretty hard to do a theme. ... It's a tradition that's kind of going away, and part of that is the networks are worried that people don't want to sit through the same thing week after week, and so shows are being discouraged from writing themes," he says. "I think what [executives] don't realize is, showmanship is showmanship. It hasn't changed in hundreds of years. It's a drum roll saying, 'Here comes a show.' ... And it gets the audience psyched up. ... And I think the absence of that is really tragic."

MacFarlane also fought for the theme song in his second Fox sitcom, American Dad! But by the time The Cleveland Show aired, he says, Fox executives had stopped discouraging him.

"Luckily, by the time The Cleveland Show came out, we never even heard anything from the network about that," he says. "I think by that point, they realized it was a stylistic thing for these shows — that you need a little bit of a drum roll. You need a little bit of a P.T. Barnum intro."

http://www.wknofm.org/post/seth-macf...-guy-sings-out

[steevo]

I completely agree with Seth here. TV shows need opening themes. It identifies what the show is and announces it in a way that a cold opening cannot. I also liked how TV themes would be different in certain shows each season, indicating what season it is. I also suspect you don't see too many opening (or closing) themes so that advertisers can squeeze in one or two more commercials.

[Brian Damage]

Originally Posted by steevo

I completely agree with Seth here. TV shows need opening themes. It identifies what the show is and announces it in a way that a cold opening cannot. I also liked how TV themes would be different in certain shows each season, indicating what season it is. I also suspect you don't see too many opening (or closing) themes so that advertisers can squeeze in one or two more commercials.

Agreed! I did find it interesting that FOX believes that viewers don't want to see the same thing week after week (such as the opening theme)

[Retro4Life]

I really miss the old themes. They were touchstones of generations, defining, and as the article states, announcing the beginning of an event or show.

And "viewers don't want to see the same thing week after week..."??!! This from the networks that air NOTHING BUT the same tired, cliched crap YEAR after YEAR?

What utter hypocrisy!

[Brian Damage]

Originally Posted by Retro4Life

I really miss the old themes. They were touchstones of generations, defining, and as the article states, announcing the beginning of an event or show.

And "viewers don't want to see the same thing week after week..."??!! This from the networks that air NOTHING BUT the same tired, cliched crap YEAR after YEAR?

What utter hypocrisy!

Retro, I'd really like to know who started the whole elimination of opening themes. Do you or anybody knows when that stopped???

[Retro4Life]

I don't know for sure, Brian. It seems like for about ten years now we've been getting fewer and fewer themes. Look at some of the 90's hits...Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond...even back then you were just getting brief, several line themes or themes with no lyrics at all. My guess was always that it was because the networks wanted to slot more time for commercials, similar to why they cut the number of regular season episodes down to 18 from 22 (28 when I was in HS), and cut the regular running times of the shows.

[Brian Damage]

Originally Posted by Retro4Life

I don't know for sure, Brian. It seems like for about ten years now we've been getting fewer and fewer themes. Look at some of the 90's hits...Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond...even back then you were just getting brief, several line themes or themes with no lyrics at all. My guess was always that it was because the networks wanted to slot more time for commercials, similar to why they cut the number of regular season episodes down to 18 from 22 (28 when I was in HS), and cut the regular running times of the shows.

Disgraceful...

[LUNCH]

The ONLY reason there are hardly any opening theme songs anymore on television shows is because is they want to put in alot of extra commercials.So I agree with about everything retro mentioned.--Modern British shows for example,even the newest ones still often have opening them songs or music,but then again television in the UK and many other countries has not been over-run by commercials.--

[Brian Damage]

Originally Posted by LUNCH

The ONLY reason there are hardly any opening theme songs anymore on television shows is because is they want to put in alot of extra commercials.So I agree with about everything retro mentioned.--Modern British shows for example,even the newest ones still often have opening them songs or music,but then again television in the UK and many other countries has not been over-run by commercials.--

Don't get me wrong, I understand that commercials are the main way a network makes its money, but how much is too much? Interesting, about British TV, I wonder how those networks make their money with less advertisements?

[LUNCH]

Originally Posted by Brian Damage

Don't get me wrong, I understand that commercials are the main way a network makes its money, but how much is too much? Interesting, about British TV, I wonder how those networks make their money with less advertisements?

It's simple really.They do not need to show that many commercials to make money,and alot of money.It just like like American television.For many years American television made alot of money when commercial time was limited to 4 or 5 minutes of ads per half hour. It's all really a con-game Brian put out by the networks and the only thing they care about nowadays--the advertising industry.

[Brian Damage]

Originally Posted by LUNCH

It's simple really.They do not need to show that many commercials to make money,and alot of money.It just like like American television.For many years American television made alot of money when commercial time was limited to 4 or 5 minutes of ads per half hour. It's all really a con-game Brian put out by the networks and the only thing they care about nowadays--the advertising industry.

Wow, I never thought of that. So basically, it is the networks and the advertisers being greedy essentially.

[LUNCH]

Yes.Even worse than greedy,I call it criminal.And the worse part about it is they are allowed to get away with it because there are no more regulatory mesures controlling the amount of advertisements on American television anymore. Did you know for example that in many other countries,not only the UK, when you watch a re-run of older American tv shows they run totally un-edited.I started a whole thread about this topic because I wanted to point out what a joke American television has become.

[Brian Damage]

Originally Posted by LUNCH

Yes.Even worse than greedy,I call it criminal.And the worse part about it is they are allowed to get away with it because there are no more regulatory mesures controlling the amount of advertisements on American television anymore. Did you know for example that in many other countries,not only the UK, when you watch a re-run of older American tv shows they run totally un-edited.I started a whole thread about this topic because I wanted to point out what a joke American television has become.

You mean to say that nobody has ever brought this up to Congress? Yet, they complain about commercials being too loud?

[LUNCH]

I can't tell if you're joking or serious.lol.

[Brian Damage]

Originally Posted by LUNCH

I can't tell if you're joking or serious.lol.

Sorry, I am just a little ticked that Congress can go into session about loud commercials (Which is a bit of a problem) but don't investigate what these networks and advertisers are doing? I guess we need a classic tv lover in Washington!