Great tv theme tunes

[johncorrigan]

Champion the Wonder Horse - though Rebel the dog seemed to do most of the hard work as I recall.

I still find myself singing it from time to time as I'm walking along the road, Barbirolians - that and 'Casey Jones' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig3GcDBjQN4

In similar vein, someone's probably mentioned Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs' fantastic theme to the 'Beverly Hillbillies' - with the great line: 'Oil, that is! Black Gold, Texas Tea!'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwzaxUF0k18

[Serial_Apologist]

Bergerac - George Fenton:

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...c+theme+Fenton

I used to watch Bergerac as much for Ray Russell's backing music to the action as for the fact of having my first-ever colour TV. Going back to watch some of the repeats in moments of false memory recently, the music survives, if not the story lines, but I always fancied Lindsay Duncan as Bugger Off's girlfriend!

[Serial_Apologist]

I still cannot find the late 1950s or early 1960s TV crime series announced every episode with a police car being driven down a rainswept Embankment past the old Scotland Yard towards the viewer at night, despite googling for titles for such programmes from that era. It had a jazzy theme tune reminiscent of the agitated central section of Stravinsky's Ebony Concerto.

[Historian]

The Flashing Blade was a good one too. Or so it seemed at the time.......

Link posted above ts (post 33). My son enjoyed it on DVD a few years ago, so hopefully it still 'works' as a children's programme.

[LMcD]

I still cannot find the late 1950s or early 1960s TV crime series announced every episode with a police car being driven down a rainswept Embankment past the old Scotland Yard towards the viewer at night, despite googling for titles for such programmes from that era. It had a jazzy theme tune reminiscent of the agitated central section of Stravinsky's Ebony Concerto.

'Fabian Of The Yard'?
Max Harris's 'Eurocrat' was used as theme tune for 'New Scotland Yard', but that dates from the early 1970s.

[gurnemanz]

Alfred Hitchcock Presents. (The Funeral March of a Marionette by Charles Gounod).

[eighthobstruction]

....Whirlybirds....https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...ow+theme+song+

Boots and Saddles....https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...les+theme+song

Bronco ....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LW0fZuEI08

Bonanza....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjdRgBAY278

Rawhide,,,,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKC8pSFg1Vw


....Ed: tried to find the proper theme tune to Hiram Holiday to no avail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V_KomqNtKY

[zola]

It's getting quite a long thread now but has anyone mentioned Hawaii Five-O yet ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd6GyJoWPq8

[Serial_Apologist]

'Fabian Of The Yard'?
Max Harris's 'Eurocrat' was used as theme tune for 'New Scotland Yard', but that dates from the early 1970s.

No, this definitely had opening credits over an approaching police car of the time on a glistening rainswept Embankment at night, with alarm loudly ringing, and that minor keyed theme, which I distinctly remember. I'l do a bit more research.

[MrGongGong]

Edward Williams music for Life on Earth is a wonderful thing
and a wonderful man, greatly missed

[Serial_Apologist]

No, this definitely had opening credits over an approaching police car of the time on a glistening rainswept Embankment at night, with alarm loudly ringing, and that minor keyed theme, which I distinctly remember. I'l do a bit more research.

Got it! "The Cheaters" - a series from 1963 featuring John Ireland as intrepid investigator Johnny Hunter - whose title I had completely forgotten.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm3_VF21mz0

If I'm not mistaken, the bass player, Spike Heatley, who was a regular at Ronnie Scott's, later moved to the States and worked with Stevie Wonder

[Serial_Apologist]

I remember the late 50s/early 60s as a fantastic time for genuinely stirring TV themes that seemed to announce the adult world of urgent modernity and progress waiting out there after enduring the mundane regimentations of school. This was Francis Chagrin's theme for The Four Just Men: Rawsthorne crossed with Copland. You don't find harmonic sophistication to match this in today's retrostyled movie themes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtRs-h5Z1uY

[Stanfordian]

I've always rather admired the style of Mike Post's themes to the American tv series especially:

'Hill Street Blues'
'Law & Order'

[eighthobstruction]

The Defenders,,,,,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrOWiVv0KAM

Hilarious meldramatic start to Dr Kildare....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cngAbboOQz8

[Serial_Apologist]

The Defenders,,,,,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrOWiVv0KAM

Hilarious meldramatic start to Dr Kildare....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cngAbboOQz8

Thanks eighth for finding The Defenders theme - another bit of pretend Copland, and for me a fantastic nostalgia trigger. My dad would always thump the table in time with the "der-dum!"

America seemed so much more inviting back then - of course we who had been raised on John Wayne homilies and Cowboys 'n' Injuns knew and appreciated nothing about American history and the race situation.