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1970s: a golden age for TV show theme songs?


ghost of miles

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I’ve been revisiting some late-1970s sitcoms lately—TaxiOne Day At A TimeWKRP In Cincinnati, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Soap, primarily—and am being reminded of how many great theme songs there were for shows back then—catchy one-minute snippets that established a very specific mood and became a sort of Pavlovian cue for spending half an hour in a favorite fictional setting. In addition to the programs above, here are some other notable show themes—some instrumental, some with lyrics:

The Rockford Files

Sanford and Son

Alice

The Six Million Dollar Man (hello, Oliver Nelson!)

Good Times

Happy Days

All In The Family

Barney Miller

Baretta

S.W.A.T.

... gotta be more, what am I forgetting? 

 

 

Edited by ghost of miles
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2 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

I’ve been revisiting some late-1970s sitcoms lately—TaxiOne Day At A TimeWKRP In Cincinnati, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Soap, primarily—and am being reminded of how many great theme songs there were for shows back then—catchy one-minute snippets that established a very specific mood and became a sort of Pavlovian cue for spending half an hour in a favorite fictional setting. In addition to the programs above, here are some other notable show themes—some instrumental, some with lyrics:

The Rockford Files

Sanford and Son

Alice

The Six Million Dollar Man (hello, Oliver Nelson!)

Good Times

Happy Days

All In The Family

Barney Miller

Baretta

S.W.A.T.

... gotta be more, what am I forgetting? 

 

 

If you broaden the time period a bit, I would throw in The Avengers and Mannix.  

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1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

I am not even sure what all Mike Post wrote but for my money, the GOAT.

Interesting.  For me, Post's arrival marks the end of the classic TV themes era.  Perhaps because the composers of his generation lacked the compositional chops of the classic golden- and silver-age composers who preceded them.  

Here is a partial listing, in no order, of composers of TV themes roughly between Peter Gunn and the arrival of Mike Post:

  • Henry Mancini
  • Pete Rugolo
  • Elmer Bernstein
  • Warren Barker
  • Count Basie
  • George Duning
  • Kenyon Hopkins
  • Nelson Riddle
  • Bernard Herrmann
  • Jerry Goldsmith
  • Dominic Frontiere
  • Alexander Courage
  • John Williams
  • John Barry
  • Lalo Schifrin
  • Ron Grainer
  • Earl Hagen
  • Edwin Astley
  • Laurie Johnson
  • Hugo Montenegro
  • Mort Stevens
  • Dave Grusin
  • Quincy Jones
  • Pat Williams
  • Billy Goldenberg
  • Oliver Nelson
Edited by Teasing the Korean
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2 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Interesting.  For me, Post's arrival marks the end of the classic TV themes era.  Perhaps because the composers of his generation lacked the compositional chops of the classic golden- and silver-age composers who preceded them.  

Here is a partial listing, in no order, of composers of TV themes roughly between Peter Gunn and the arrival of Mike Post:

  • Henry Mancini
  • Pete Rugolo
  • Elmer Bernstein
  • Warren Barker
  • Count Basie
  • George Duning
  • Kenyon Hopkins
  • Nelson Riddle
  • Bernard Herrmann
  • Jerry Goldsmith
  • Dominic Frontiere
  • Alexander Courage
  • John Williams
  • John Barry
  • Lalo Schifrin
  • Ron Grainer
  • Earl Hagen
  • Edwin Astley
  • Laurie Johnson
  • Hugo Montenegro
  • Mort Stevens
  • Dave Grusin
  • Quincy Jones
  • Pat Williams
  • Billy Goldenberg
  • Oliver Nelson

I am not as old as you and whatever themes those cats wrote I don't remotely know them or have interest in hearing them.

I'm talking about the tv themes of my youth, same as GoM is. It's not really subject to debate, its nostalgia pure and simple.

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26 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

I am not as old as you and whatever themes those cats wrote I don't remotely know them or have interest in hearing them.

I'm talking about the tv themes of my youth, same as GoM is. It's not really subject to debate, its nostalgia pure and simple.

Taste is of course subjective, but we can discuss elements of composition and arrangement objectively.  Given that you post regularly on a jazz message board, I would think that the writing of many of "those cats" might be closer to your musical aesthetics.

Also, I like the film and TV music I do for its intrinsic value.  Nostalgia is not a factor.

Edited by Teasing the Korean
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I sure did like Hank Mancini's music for "Peter Gunn", and the first of the two LPs is a favorite of mine.

I have thought a lot about Mike Post and Pete Carpenter's music for many TV series. It is a brand, and templates were created, so that others could write individual scores within the style. At its worst, it is cliché-ridden: the daa, daa, dat-da-daa phrase etc. But I am very fond of Hunter, and I've seen all of them. I began to appreciate their soundtracks. Once you get away from the main theme, there are some nice passages, with an oboe etc. Only a small group was used. They appeared on camera in one episode, which was about a girl singer recording in a studio.

So, I respect that duo and try to listen past the clichéd bits. In any case, I always mute or skip over the opening credits, because I am tired of them.

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13 hours ago, HutchFan said:

The Streets of San Francisco

 

oh yeah. All those title tunes to police films then. And my wife and me like to see such police series and when we talk about our youth, there is so much in common, we both loved "Streets of San Francisco" and above all "Kojak", and those german police series with the "good cops" like "Derrik" "Kommissar" and so. 
And if we watch police series, we always have a ball "shouting" the title melody and often we have to laugh as much that we "forget" the further action. 

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2 hours ago, Shrdlu said:

I like "Kommissar Rex", set in Wien in Österreich.

oh me too ! But mostly the first series with Tobias Moretti. But it´s great and has a lot of Viennese humour in it, 

Maybe you would also like "Kottan". That´s really some typical Viennese scenes of the early 70´s Vienna and that incredible Police President who always has fights with the coffee automat. And I think the oldest one was titled "Mord in der Hartlgasse". That´s really great. That´s how it was when I was a youngster. And when older people still didn´t know how to say to a homosexual . That old woman says about her younger neighbour "he is ,    he is....I think he is...a "Dee Dee Dee".
Once my wife picked up a T-Shirt for me with some more rosé colours and said this is cool, and I said "isn´t that a bit too "dee dee dee" ? :lol:

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Wow, eine 20-jährige Katze!

Ich hatte ein Freund in der Oberschule, deren Mutter Deutsche war. An der Universität hatten wir einen Dozenten aus der Tschechoslowakei, dessen Englisch schlecht war. Er verwirrte die Klasse, indem er Schrift deutsche Buchstaben verwendete. Ich ging zur Mutter meines Freundes um Hilfe. Ich habe hauptsächlich zu Hause Deutsch gelernt. Ich bin in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz gewesen.
 
 
 
 

And, after these messages, back to English, already in progress.

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