I’m a huge fan of pop culture and consider myself a treasure chest of useless information. I’m the girl you want on your team when playing trivial pursuit
Which is why writing about television theme songs is right up my alley. As a child of the 1970s I was the audience of some of the coolest ‘theme songs’ of all time. The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch, two of my all time favorite shows actually used their theme songs to tell you what their show was about. And memorable they were as when Robert Michael and I shared work space years ago I do believe there were times we bust out the line ‘Cmon Get Happy!”.. then we realized where we were.
But how many times are you able from (another room) these days to say ‘your’ show is on? Not many. Seems that whole ‘theme song’ has been replaced by sound bites. Think of the American Idol start..no song, tones. Seinfeld had a cool thumpy distinct intro, but the true lyrical opening song no longer. Sad. We do hold on to some, like Monday Night Football… thank God. But I believe that has even changed.
But whats become of the true opening song? During this time we got the names of all the actors, producers and studio. The Whistling of The Andy Griffith Show, or the peppy Leave It To Beaver theme. You KNOW those you whistle them. They’re 40 years old. How about M*A*S*H? I remember being stunned it had lyrics an a title. Those of us with some years under our belts have some great songs to look back on, Themes from Alice, One Day At A Time, Gilligan’s Island, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley… all of these are steeped deeply in American Pop Culture. All In The Familys duet between Carol O’Connor and Jean Stapleton are priceless and annoying but you remember it that’s for sure.
And maybe that’s whats missing. Credits are spun at the end of the show. You cant really jump into a program you’ve not seen and depend on the lyrics to give you a brief overview of the plot. Thought provoking topic for a snowy afternoon. Some heavy duty stuff really.