The days of great TV theme songs are long gone. For the past decade television producers have been taking pop songs by a normal bands and slapping them on shows. But in the 80’s and 90’s TV theme songs were composed by professionals who wrote theme music all day long. Using cheesy vocals and a ton of synth, these carefully crafted masterpieces are the forgotten gems of 80’s/90’s. Here’s my top ten:
1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES heroes in a half shell TURTLE POWER! They’re the world’s most fearsome fighting team….they’re heroes in a half-shell and they’re green. When the evil Shredder attacks, them turtle boys don’t cut him no slack!
Honestly, I could keep going.
2. Fraggle Rock
The Fraggle Rock theme is great to sing (and clap) along to. Sorry this video is from the cartoon version, but the song’s the same.
3. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Fresh Prince theme is another one I can sing along with from start to finish, I thought I was so cool when I was a kid.
4. Duck Tales
Duck Tales is the king when it comes to super peppy theme songs, and these guys do a pretty nice dance to it. Woo-ooo-oooo!
5. Doogie Howser
You’re the man Doog! Neil Patrick Harris was awesome as the innocent Doogie Howser, and he’s also pretty nice as a creepy adult, with a hilarious cameo in Harold and Kumar and a great portrayal of Dr. Horrible.
6. Captain Planet
This one’s a little weird because it’s actually the closing theme song as opposed to the opener. They really thought outside the box with Captain Planet, which is especially apparent because he’s the first gay superhero.
7. Knight Rider
Knight rider had a totally bad-ass theme song and the in-show music was really nice too. It was later sampled by Busta Rhymes in the 90’s.
8. Inspector Gadget
DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN INSPECTOR GADGET!
9. MacGyver
You gotta love MacGyver, he can pretty much do anything. This one’s ESPECIALLY good on yoooouuuutuuuube:
10. Super Mario Brothers (The Show)
Oh man this one has a special place in my heart, I for one was definitely “hooked on the brothers”.
It’s pretty embarrassing but I remember dancing along with the song in the ending credits:
You’re almost totally right.
My gripes. The order is totally screwed up. I don’t know what the right one would be, but TMNT definitely does not top the list. Also, the MacGuyver theme? That theme is worse than jackhammer next to a machine gun. Also Doogie Howser is weak. I know this is your opinion, I just wanted to correct it with facts.
Here are ones that I would include.
Perfect Strangers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdFhmRdBtno
Star Trek: TNG (AKA the theme from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msK3jSkx3VE
and Pokemon, perhaps the greatest TV theme of all time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHlWNu5j05A
Of course, there’s always Family Matters, Full House, Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers, Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and Baywatch, but your selections are still pretty good. Still, the ones I just liked to should definitely be in the top ten.