Are TV themes becoming a thing of the past?
Is it the beginning of the end for TV theme tunes?
The A-Team, Knightrider, Cheers, Friends, X-Files - just some of the shows with great classic TV themes that have made a lasting impression on the viewing public. How many people now have them as ringtones, or have helped them chart by buying the singles, or perhaps occasionally find themselves innoculously humming them for no apparent reason during particularly dull and quiet moments of the working day?
Some may be only 30 seconds or so in length but a good theme helps to define a show and people's memories of it. Take St Elsewhere for example. I actually rarely watched it - couldn't tell you a single storyline or character name if my life depended on it. But give me a couple of seconds and I'll be humming the theme tune at you before you know it. (Unless I do my usual trick of getting it mixed up with the LA Law theme tune.)
So, for the sake of future TV nostalgia, and particularly for people like me dull enough to actually make a hobby out of the things, it's worry to see the increasing trend for shows which feel they should do away with their opening themes altogether. Who's going to be looking back in 20 years time, typing into their Web 6.0-powered UberBlog, reminising about the classic opening theme to Lost? And will anyone even remember Ricky Gervais and Extras by then, let alone it's complete absence of an opening sequence?
Fair enough, each of the latter-mentioned shows still has a closing theme - but, frankly, what's the point, other than as background music for the continuity announcer to ramble over or a bit of noise to clash chaotically with the other background music that the techies were meant to dub out of the trailer that's playing for some other show throughout the credits.
As I said in yesterday's post, the theme tune is the one saving grace of the Beeb's new Robin Hood revival. You don't even have that to say about the pending ratings shedder that is Torchwood.
It wouldn't be so bad if the argument for ditching opening themes was to provide more airtime for the show itself, but you can't help but think that the main aim is simply to create more time for cramming in extra ads, idents and sponsorship messages. Just imagine how much less of the bloody 118 118 guys we'd have had to suffer on Channel 4 if Lost had had a decent 60 second opener. (Their likely future absence being the ONLY good thing about the show's move to Sky BTW - don't get me started on that one.)
So come on TV Producers around the World - dust of your old tapes of Airwolf, the Littlest Hobo, the Greatest American Hero and, yes, Jossy's Giants too - and remember what a essential institution the great TV theme tune really is. One of you must still have Mike Post or Ronnie Hazelhurst's phone number, surely.
~~steve~~
www.tellytunes.com
posted by ~~steve~~ at
2:30 pm
The A-Team, Knightrider, Cheers, Friends, X-Files - just some of the shows with great classic TV themes that have made a lasting impression on the viewing public. How many people now have them as ringtones, or have helped them chart by buying the singles, or perhaps occasionally find themselves innoculously humming them for no apparent reason during particularly dull and quiet moments of the working day?
Some may be only 30 seconds or so in length but a good theme helps to define a show and people's memories of it. Take St Elsewhere for example. I actually rarely watched it - couldn't tell you a single storyline or character name if my life depended on it. But give me a couple of seconds and I'll be humming the theme tune at you before you know it. (Unless I do my usual trick of getting it mixed up with the LA Law theme tune.)
So, for the sake of future TV nostalgia, and particularly for people like me dull enough to actually make a hobby out of the things, it's worry to see the increasing trend for shows which feel they should do away with their opening themes altogether. Who's going to be looking back in 20 years time, typing into their Web 6.0-powered UberBlog, reminising about the classic opening theme to Lost? And will anyone even remember Ricky Gervais and Extras by then, let alone it's complete absence of an opening sequence?
Fair enough, each of the latter-mentioned shows still has a closing theme - but, frankly, what's the point, other than as background music for the continuity announcer to ramble over or a bit of noise to clash chaotically with the other background music that the techies were meant to dub out of the trailer that's playing for some other show throughout the credits.
As I said in yesterday's post, the theme tune is the one saving grace of the Beeb's new Robin Hood revival. You don't even have that to say about the pending ratings shedder that is Torchwood.
It wouldn't be so bad if the argument for ditching opening themes was to provide more airtime for the show itself, but you can't help but think that the main aim is simply to create more time for cramming in extra ads, idents and sponsorship messages. Just imagine how much less of the bloody 118 118 guys we'd have had to suffer on Channel 4 if Lost had had a decent 60 second opener. (Their likely future absence being the ONLY good thing about the show's move to Sky BTW - don't get me started on that one.)
So come on TV Producers around the World - dust of your old tapes of Airwolf, the Littlest Hobo, the Greatest American Hero and, yes, Jossy's Giants too - and remember what a essential institution the great TV theme tune really is. One of you must still have Mike Post or Ronnie Hazelhurst's phone number, surely.
~~steve~~
www.tellytunes.com
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home