http://www.tvguide.com/News/Greatest-TV-Theme-Songs-60-1064098.aspx
I would think that The Price Is Right would fit SOMEWHERE in this list...
Doesn\'t appear to be any game shows. Maybe they just weren\'t considered for this list. Good to see Mike Post got several nods, though.
List fails when \"The Streetbeater\" doesn\'t even appear much less place in the top 10, on a list that includes Dawson\'s Creek, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Spongebob. Farking Spongebob.
Yet another list pounded out in fifteen minutes over delivered Jimmy John\'s. This is an excellent example of how TV Guide has shot its legacy to hell.
Utterly worthless list, shame on you for biting on the trollbait and promoting it for them, and shame on me for giving it the clickthrough and wasting three minutes of my life looking at it.
List fails when \"The Streetbeater\" doesn\'t even appear much less place in the top 10, on a list that includes Dawson\'s Creek, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Spongebob. Farking Spongebob.
Yet another list pounded out in fifteen minutes over delivered Jimmy John\'s. This is an excellent example of how TV Guide has shot its legacy to hell.
Utterly worthless list, shame on you for biting on the trollbait and promoting it for them, and shame on me for giving it the clickthrough and wasting three minutes of my life looking at it.
If you go to http://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/, they are currently doing their own poll of the top TV hits of all time (Scroll down to the Friday May 3rd post for the final slate of candidates). Voting is still going on as of this post, so if you want to vote for your 3 faves from the list (including Sanford & Son), do it now!
BTW, for those who get into older music (50s-70s), this website is a daily must read!
Quantum Leap is sadly missing. And they have The Facts of Life, but not Different Strokes.
List fails when \"The Streetbeater\" doesn\'t even appear much less place in the top 10, on a list that includes Dawson\'s Creek, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Spongebob. Farking Spongebob.
Yet another list pounded out in fifteen minutes over delivered Jimmy John\'s. This is an excellent example of how TV Guide has shot its legacy to hell.
Utterly worthless list, shame on you for biting on the trollbait and promoting it for them, and shame on me for giving it the clickthrough and wasting three minutes of my life looking at it.
Curb is the only one I agree about being there, as modern shows go.
Well nothing can be worse than the FREAKIN\' STUDS moment with GSN\'s countdown, can it?
No room for the MST3K theme? Lamesauce.
Curb Your Enthusiasm was stock music, and I don\'t think Paula Cole recorded that tune specifically for Dawson\'s Creek. That\'s all I need to know about this list.
Curb Your Enthusiasm was stock music, and I don\'t think Paula Cole recorded that tune specifically for Dawson\'s Creek. That\'s all I need to know about this list.I don\'t think that being written for a purpose other than being on TV should disqualify a tune from being on a list.
List fails when \"The Streetbeater\" doesn\'t even appear much less place in the top 10, on a list that includes Dawson\'s Creek, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Spongebob. Farking Spongebob.
Yet another list pounded out in fifteen minutes over delivered Jimmy John\'s. This is an excellent example of how TV Guide has shot its legacy to hell.
Utterly worthless list, shame on you for biting on the trollbait and promoting it for them, and shame on me for giving it the clickthrough and wasting three minutes of my life looking at it.
This right here is why I avoided lists by TV Guide in general since 2002.
I have to remind myself that these are the same people who...
You said it best, Mr. Lemon. Worthless.
The Inquisitive One
When we did the GSF 50 I don\'t think I had PYL on the chart at all, so good on TVG for getting something right.
- considered Survivor to be a game show and somehow omitted Press Your Luck from the top 50 greatest game shows list (2001)
I\'ve always said that successful TV shows are those which are still regularly rerun 10+ years after the last first-run episode on non-niche channels.
That would include:
Seinfeld
Cheers
Friends
I Love Lucy
The Honeymooners
M*A*S*H
As far as current first-run \"successful\" shows with syndicated rerun potential well into the 2030\'s:
Big Bang Theory
2-1/2 Men
The Simpsons
As much as I like \"How I Met Your Mother\", I really think it will be a show that will enjoy some rerun miles for a few years after the CBS finale airs, but will fall off the \"syndicated everywhere\" radar soon after...Just like how Mike & Molly, Rules of Engagement and the stable of CSI shows will/are rise & fall in local TV markets.
I never can understand why hour-long shows aren\'t seen in syndication too much in a Monday-Friday strip, yet the stations will double, triple and quadruple-pump 30-minute shows into the ground, usually into hour-long blocks.
\"Success\" is very subjective. Regardless of whether it becomes popular in syndication, I still wouldn\'t sneeze at a show that gets a 6 or 7 season run, but fizzles in reruns (Mad About You comes to mind), or consistently won Emmys. The cast and crew got 7 years out of it and they took home awards, so they did something right.
Honestly, there\'s so many TV options right now that I can\'t even think of a show that aired for several seasons (say 5+), and hasn\'t aired on at least one cable channel within the last decade. It used to be Nick at Nite aired mostly black-and-white shows, and now they air sitcoms that I remember watching brand new 10-20 years ago.
Okay I thought of one...NYPD Blue. Very controversial, but it ran for years and won quite a few Emmys, but I haven\'t seen it in reruns in quite some time. I\'d still consider it a success. For sitcoms, maybe Perfect Strangers?
For sitcoms, maybe Perfect Strangers?
Don\'t be ridiculous.
A lot of what I think might be viable syndicated shows are relegated to overnight in my market. Seinfeld, The Office, Old Christine, 30 Rock, shown twice every overnight on the Fox affiliate. 6p-8p, they show Big Bang and 2 and a Half Men twice.
I\'ve always said that successful TV shows are those which are still regularly rerun 10+ years after the last first-run episode on non-niche channels.
Seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Chris Le. - Well played. :-)
Chris P. - True on Mad About You...IIRC, in my market, it aired at 6:30 pm or so. When the show was canceled in 1999, the reruns moved to a late night time slot, then fell off altogether. Similar thing happened to 3rd Rock From the Sun.
I also remember Unhappily Ever After going into syndication, then immediately falling off like you said. Around 1999 or 2000 there were a bunch of mid-90s WB/UPN sitcoms with 100 episodes, and they all got thrown into syndication. The only two I can think of that still get any airplay nowadays are Moesha and The Jamie Foxx Show. IIRC, even as late as 2000, there were still markets without WB or UPN affiliates, so I wonder how many people saw those sitcoms for the first time, wondered what the hell they were watching, and turned to Judge Judy instead?
ETA: I\'d like to add Brett Butler\'s Grace Under Fire to the list. I remember it being in syndication for a split-second, but I don\'t think that one has aired anywhere in about 15 years, and that was an ABC show.
I don\'t think that being written for a purpose other than being on TV should disqualify a tune from being on a list.
It seems like a cheap way to qualify. By this standard, any show could take a current pop hit the editors happen to like and qualify. That diminishes the quality of the list.
I was thinking of the right way to phrase it, but Mark summed it up. When I think \"theme song\", I think of a tune specifically composed for the show, and usually runs about :30-1:30. Not just an edit or rendition of a pop single...unfortunately, it eliminates a few songs (in general, not from TV Guide); The Golden Girls, The Wonder Years, any of the CSI franchises, or Mad Men. For the former two, that used to be the exception rather than the rule.
Nowadays, since most theme songs rarely exceed :30, it\'s the norm to play the chorus of someone else\'s hit single. Meh. That doesn\'t mean they aren\'t great songs on their own, but I don\'t consider them as \"theme songs\" in the traditional sense either.
(looks at list) Okay, it\'s not as bad as I thought, although Dallas goes in the top 5 for me. IMO, it seems like the writers simply yelled out shows with popular themes, with no idea as to whether or not the song already existed.
It seems like a cheap way to qualify. By this standard, any show could take a current pop hit the editors happen to like and qualify. That diminishes the quality of the list.You are certainly free to create and publish your own list. I eagerly await same.
I don\'t think that being written for a purpose other than being on TV should disqualify a tune from being on a list.It seems like a cheap way to qualify. By this standard, any show could take a current pop hit the editors happen to like and qualify. That diminishes the quality of the list.
Yes, because the first thing on every showrunner\'s mind is, \"How can we completely redo our opening sequence with a pop hit on which we\'ll spend tens of thousands just for the rights, so that we can officially qualify for a meaningless TV Guide list that\'s already been published?\"
It seems like a cheap way to qualify. By this standard, any show could take a current pop hit the editors happen to like and qualify. That diminishes the quality of the list.
You are certainly free to create and publish your own list. I eagerly await same.
I\'ve got far better things to do with my time.
[Yes, because the first thing on every showrunner\'s mind is, \"How can we completely redo our opening sequence with a pop hit on which we\'ll spend tens of thousands just for the rights, so that we can officially qualify for a meaningless TV Guide list that\'s already been published?\"Forgive my poor wording; I simply meant that a shows producers could use a pop song and qualify, not that they would specifically do so to qualify for the list.
Forgive my poor wording; I simply meant that a shows producers could use a pop song and qualify, not that they would specifically do so to qualify for the list.So what? If somebody decides to use a recognizable, hummable song that neatly sums up the idea for a television show, and some hacky writer on a deadline says \"hey, I think that song should be on the list because I like it and it meets the criteria set forth,\" there\'s nothing to be done about it. All that\'s left to do is complain and you\'ve put down dibs on complaining in perpetuity, so I shrug and go about my day.
In my opinion, the theme from \"The Ropers\" is the greatest theme ever written.
Discuss.
How \"Married With Children\" on the then-newbie FOX network managed to grab a Frank Sinatra tune for it\'s theme song (\"Love & Marriage\"), without giving credit to Frank in the closing credits until near the end of the run (however the composer always got credited) has to be one of the bigger mysteries in TV theme music history.
Too bad the theme was replaced in the home video/DVD circuit.
How \"Married With Children\" on the then-newbie FOX network managed to grab a Frank Sinatra tune for it\'s theme song (\"Love & Marriage\"), without giving credit to Frank in the closing credits until near the end of the run (however the composer always got credited) has to be one of the bigger mysteries in TV theme music history.
Too bad the theme was replaced in the home video/DVD circuit.
Composer(S), being Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn. If you had to be told it was Sinatra, you have no soul.
What I believe to be the DEFINITIVE list of the top 20+ TV themes has now been released. I say definitive because nearly 18,000 votes were cast, according to Kent Kotal\'s Forgotten Hits website.
Check out the top 20, hear the tunes and see what came close but missed here: http://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/, and start at the 5/9 blog.
/The #1 song won in a landslide, and the original Match Game theme (Swingin\' Safari) was the only game show theme that garnered enough votes for a mention.