The original theme for the Transformers animated series was written by Ford Kinder and Anne Bryant.
The line “More than meets the eye” is a line that I will use to this day. The theme was adjusted and changed over the different iterations of the franchise, but “Robots in Disguise” found its way into most of them.
The original theme also gave us the Transform sound that would become iconic in the world of entertainment. When you hear the sound, you know what it is. It is like the starting up of a light saber. Everyone knows what that sound means.
Entitled “Angela”, it was originally intended as background music for episode three and a character named Angela. It was so liked by the producers that it became the shows permanent theme.
The song was jazz-fusion and used Rhodes electric piano, a soft, high-pitched recorder (or flute/oboe) lead melody, and a smooth rhythm section.
Theme Song: “A Smile and a Ribbon” by Patience and Prudence (1956).
The song was written by Mark McIntyre and Robert Wells.
The song originally served as a B-side to Patience and Prudence’s smash hit “Tonight You Belong to Me.”
The song is the most recent additions to the list as IT: Welcome to Derry has just aired on HBO Max, finishing its 8-episode season. The theme was so weird the first week, but grew on me as each week progressed. It is so creepy and odd for this sweet, little song to be placed on this horror series with images of Derry’s dark history behind it. The use of this theme is genius and this is an example of a theme that, if I redid this list in a year or two, would be way higher than it is now.
Composed by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter. Arranged by Paul Murta.
The voice over that started the theme off was spoken by John Ashley.
According to Google, the them was “known for its military-inspired, lighthearted tone, the theme was designed to reflect the show’s action-comedy nature rather than pure reality. “
The A-Team was fun and the beginning worked to get the viewer into the show. I was always the biggest fan of Murdock, as I felt he was the most original character around.
The Hawaii Five-O theme song was composed by Morton Stevens.
Originally performed by the Ventures.
The theme spent 14 weeks in the Billboard Top 100 chart, reaching as high as #4.
This is an example of a show that I never watched, but a show that had a theme song that I knew and enjoyed. The theme is as iconic of a TV show theme as you will find.
Originally written as a theme for a movie, “Maybe” was a hit in Europe. It spent nine weeks in the number one spot on the charts in Germany in 1979/1980.
The opening is one of the most memorable parts of the series. The beginning narration by the character Mad Jack, played by Denver Pyle, added that little bit to the theme and it worked so well with the song.
Known as the “Hogan’s Heroes March” this theme was composed by Jerry Fielding.
It is one of the most remembered instrumental themes of all time. Who would guess that a TV COMEDY about a prison camp in Nazi Germany would work? Portraying the Nazis as bumbling idiots helped, I guess. Still….
The theme outlasted the show, as it has been used and performed many times over the years. And you cannot deny the catchiness of the tune.
Theme originally written by César Dávila-Irizarry and then reworked by former Nine Inch Nails keyboardist Charlie Clouser.
The theme of AHS was extremely creepy and fit right into the tone that the show was going for. The iconic movie Se7en was an inspiration for the theme and what creator Ryan Murphy wanted to get across.
Theme written and composed by Shuki Levy and Haim Saban.
Performance often credited to the Towenda Choir Orchestra
Here is an interesting tidbit for this theme. I never watched this show. I bet you could count the number of Inspector Gadget episodes I watched on one hand. Yet, the theme song has entered the zeitgeist enough for it to be in my Top 100 TV Theme Songs list. Wild.
There are other TV shows on this list that would not be considered my favorite TV shows, or even something that I would like. The only qualification for this list is the theme song, and Inspector Gadget’s theme is fun and entertaining.
This is the first animated series to appear in the Top 100 TV Show Themes list. There are 21 total animated programs in the list, 21% of the list. Animated shows have had some great themes and this one, with the “Turtle Power” line is one of the tops.
written by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, members of the Austin-based synth band S U R V I V E.
Stranger Things is one of the biggest hits from Netflix, and the music is part of the reason. Set in the 1980s, the show featured this theme, recorded with the heavy use of analog synthesizers.
Dixon and Stein won an Emmy for the main title theme.
Performed by Andrew Gold; Anita Baker performed a version later in the show’s run.
Written by Paul Reiser and Don Was
The first song to kick off the new Daily Countdown is from NBC’s long running show, Mad About You, starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt.
Interestingly enough, the first song on this new list is from a TV Show that did not appear in the Top 100 TV Shows list. There are several others that will be on the theme song list but would fall short of the Top 100 TV Shows.
So we have come to the end of our journey that started on the first day of September. We have reached the number one show of all time according to EYG, and, if you knew me at all, this would have been the least dramatic reveal of a number one ever.
LOST is, far and away, my favorite show ever. I remember the feeling I had when it came to an end: an emptiness in my gut that took several years to fill.
Some claim that LOST had one of the worst endings of any show, and I respectfully disagree. I found the LOST finale to be perfect. It focused on the characters that I had come to love for the previous six seasons.
LOST ran for six seasons on ABC, giving us 121 episodes of awesomeness.
A group of people, who were from all walks of life, boarded Oceanic flight 815 in Sydney, Australia for Los Angeles. That flight did not make it to LAX. Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, the plane came across some major problems and crashed on an island. Almost immeditaely, you learned that this island was unlike anywhere else. As Charlie said…
“Guys, where are we?”
The Island was a character all its own, with a mythology and mysteries for the audeicne to chew upon. That was one of the criticisms of the show: they did not reveal the secrets of the Island. Again, I think there were plenty of mysteries revealed. It may not have spoon-fed you the answers you wanted, but if you paid attention, you could make educated answers to everything on the show.
The Island had a polar bear, a smoke monster, a group of Others, healing properties allowing a crippled man to walk again among other things.
The ensemble cast was brillaint. Led by Matthew Fox, the cast included Terry O’Quinn, Naveen Andrews, Jorge Garcia, Josh Halloway, Maggie Grace, Emilie de Raven, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Evangeline Lilly, Malcolm David Kelley, Dominic Monaghan, Harold Perrineau, Michael Emerson, Ian Somerhalder, Henry Ian Cusick, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Cynthia Watros, Elizabeth Mitchell, Nestor Carbonell, Jeff Fahey, Sonya Walger, Sam Anderson, L. Scott Caldwell, Jeremy Davies, Ken Leung, and Rebecca Mader.
Some of these actors will forever be their characters to me. Many have gone on to do other major roles (Evangeline Lilly was Wasp in the MCU, Terry O’ Quinn and Michael Emerson have had plenty of other roles), but my first thought will always be that they are their characters from LOST.
4 8 15 16 23 42
“See ya in anothe rlife, brother“
“You guys got any milk?”
“We got to go back!”
The greatest show of all time in the opinion of EYG… LOST.
That wraps up the first Daily Countdown. It was quite the undertaking, but we are far from done. Tomorrow we start the next Daily Countdown. It was actually a harder list to compile than the TV one. Tomorrow we start TV THEME SONGS.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 