Sunday, May 4, 2008

Most annoying television theme songs that come to mind:

In the order they occur to me:

1. Everyday A syndicated morning chat show, as I remember, which was utterly forgettable, and had the theme song that should've indicated that--endless repeating of the word "Everyday" in three-note ascending and descending series. Took the composer perhaps five minutes...and they asked the audience to sing along with it at show's close.

2. What's Happening!! Boiing!!! (the second-worst sitcom, at least of any durability, in the US in the 1970s, which probably doesn't help my assessment, any more than does the two, not one nor three exclamation points...but the theme is just offensive.)

3. Three's Company Theme to the worst durable sitcom of the 1970s in the US, it's a fairly innocuous tune, except that it's cloying and a misleading come-on for the horrors to follow.

4. Charles in Charge (original theme) Creepy lyrics ("I want Charles in charge of me!") set to a bad ripoff of the Bangles' "Dover Beach."

5. WKRP in Cincinnati (second theme) Also just a bit cloying, but would also slip by as innocuous if it hadn't supplanted the fine, goofy, incoprehensible original theme, which was preserved as the closing theme.

Remarkable how few truly awful themes we have these days. Perhaps all the bad composers are working, with the good ones, on videogames.

3 comments:

MysterLynch said...

Not sure if I would include WKRP on there. Great? Maybe not, but top five most annoying?

Phillyradiogeek said...

I don't know about most annoying, but the opening to the short-lived sitcom Grand kind of annoyed me. It bothered me that the entire cast would look right into the camera and lip synch the theme, which wasn't all that great anyway. It may be why I never actually watched an episode, despite its critical praise.

Todd Mason said...

Well, you see, the theme itself, MysterLynch, lost most of its points for supplanting the fine goofy gibberish rock theme...an obvious attempt to placate a nervous CBS. Name me a more annoying theme, and I might revise. Certainly, pulling from the mid-level memory, THAT GIRL might do in certain moods.

Brian, I'll admit I liked GRAND's opening sequence. It was a decent-enough show, but the archness of the opening was a factor throughout...you might not've liked it, anyway.