Happy almost Friday! It’s TMP time! The Thursday Movie Picks blogathon was spearheaded by Wandering Through the Shelves Blog.
The rules are simple simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you’re up to it one of each. This Thursday’s theme is… TMP Television Edition: TV Score and/or Theme Song.
Ok since I just posted about my favorite TV opening credits in 2016 and also in this TMP post from March, this time I’m going to pick iconic Theme SONGS instead of TV Scores. Somehow most of the memorable theme songs are from the 80s and 90s, so once again, let’s walk down memory lane!
CHEERS – Where Everybody Knows Your Name
It’s been ages since I watched Cheers but I can still remember this iconic theme song. Where Everybody Knows Your Name is such a perfect theme song for this series. Per Wiki, it written by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo, and performed by Portnoy in 1982. It was nominated for an Emmy and In 2013, the editors of TV Guide magazine named it the greatest TV theme of all time.
FRASIER – Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs
Ok so I didn’t plan on picking Frasier because it was a spin-off of Cheers, but there you have it. I actually watch Frasier far more regularly than Cheers and it was perhaps my favorite sitcom at the time, yes it even beat Seinfeld for me! It’s rare too that the lead actor actually sang the song and Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs is such an odd title! Per this article, composer Bruce Miller also created the Seattle graphics at the beginning of the show. The general request for the song was something with a jazzy feel, but also eclectic, to reflect the show’s character…so the tossed salads and scrambled eggs was actually metaphor for Frasier’s patients, as in a little “mixed up.” How absolutely perfect and iconic is that!
The Greatest American Hero – Believe it or Not
I actually only watched a few episodes of this 80s superhero comedy series, but it’s my hubby’s favorite! Somehow the theme song still stuck with me and I often still hum it to this day. It’s written by Mike Post, the composer behind other great theme songs such as Law & Order, The A-Team, Magnum P.I., etc and sung by Joey Scarbury.
This song title is perfect for the show about an ordinary school teacher who got a superhero costume from aliens that gives him super powers when he wears it, ahah. But then he lost the instruction manual that comes with it, so hilarity ensues!
Working Girl (TV Series) – Let The River Run
Ok, so I think I only watched a couple of episodes of this series that’s loosely based on the 1988 of the same name. Instead of Melanie Griffith, the series stars Sandra Bullock as Tess McGill. Well, it only ran for one season, well barely as the ratings were so low that it got canceled before all 12 episodes aired in 1990.
Well, the only memorable part for me was the theme song Let The River Run written and sung by Carly Simon, which was also featured in the movie and won an Oscar for Best Original Song in 1989. Well, despite the defunct series, Bullock went on to be a major movie star so perhaps the cancelation proved to be a blessing in disguise for her?
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Great list! I loved the Frasier theme song too!
It’s so catchy and unique isn’t it? Kelsey Grammer’s voice is so perfect for the tune!
I’m binging on Cheers on Peacock right now and it’s as LOL funny now as it was then. I can easily skip the intro but mostly choose not to, not only for the song but also for the creative repurposing of the graphics under the credits. Also love Magnum PI and The Golden Girls.
Oh nice! Cheers is one of those shows I can watch in the background while I’m doing something. Yes the graphics in that intro is wonderful. I talked about The Golden Girls already in the last Thursday Movie Picks about fave tv opening sequences 🙂
Cheers, a great show that also has a great theme song. I wasn’t really into Frasier as much as Cheers but it was a good show and a nice theme. The Greatest American Hero… not a great show but I do like that song. I find myself singing that song whenever I hear it.
The Greatest American Hero is such a silly show, but that song is extremely catchy. VERY hard to get out of your head once you hear even just the first few notes!
Nice picks! I never watched any of these shows but I’ve always enjoyed the Cheers theme.
I feel like I’m showing my age by picking these 80s/90s shows, but somehow they have such catchy tunes back then.
Wonderful choices!!
I am also a bigger fan of Frasier than Cheers. Cheers was a fun and enjoyable show but it never opened up the way Frasier did. Also the characters never evolved to the degree they did on Frasier (plus Cheers never had the absolutely fabulous Harriet Samson Harris as Bebe Glazer). The theme songs of both series fit them so perfectly.
I didn’t watch The Greatest American Hero too often, it was a cute show but on the wrong night in those pre-DVR days, but I know several people who just adore it. The theme song is a total earworm.
The only one I never saw was Working Girl though I loved the movie. I heard about it and was curious about it but again it was on the wrong night. Before I could get around to it the show was gone. I’m not a big fan of Let the River Run, that’s not to say I’m not a Carly Simon fan-if we were talking about You’re So Vain, You Belong to Me or That’s the Way I Always Hear It Should Be it would be a whole other story.
So many choices! I narrowed by going all 70’s with three enormous hits all with instantly recognizable openings.
Laverne & Shirley (1976-1983)-Two wacky single gals work in a brewery and look for love in Milwaukee.
Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!
(Just an FYI according to an old Yiddish saying “A schlemiel is somebody who often spills his soup, and a schlimazel is the person it lands on.” Hasenpfeffer is a German stew.)
The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977)-Spunky, independent single woman moves to Minneapolis to start a new life. Lands as Associate Producer of the news at tiny WJM station. Spends the next seven years surrounded by classic characters.
Who can turn the world on with her smile?
Who can take a nothing day
And suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?
The Jeffersons (1975-1985)-Prosperous dry cleaner George Jefferson & his often exasperated wife Louise move into a ritzy apartment on Manhattan’s East Side. Thanks to George’s cocky brashness endless humorous troubles befall the pair.
Well, we’re moving on upppp
To the East side
To a deluxe apartment in the sky-y-y
Moving on up to the East side
We finally got a piece of the pie!
Hello Joel! Glad to see you’re a Frasier fan, too! Sooo many wonderful characters, though I have such a soft spot for Nile who’s just so hilarious & adorable.
I actually don’t know much of Carly Simon’s songs, though of course my fave is Nobody Does It Better as I’m a Bond fan.
Ohhh man, I was thisclose to picking The Jeffersons, I love that show and that opening tune always makes me smile. George’s cocky brashness is one of the best and funniest part about him! 😀
I love Cheers opening song, reminded me of when my family and I first arrived in the States and I watched that show every night. I had no clue that there was a TV version of Working Girl and it starred Sandra Bullock!! Ha ha.
My other favorite opening “song” is for Quantum Leap, it’s just music but every time I see it, I thought of my younger years of TV watching.
I don’t think many people knew about the Working Girl TV show, let alone watch it. Somehow I happen to stumble upon it when it was still on air, but it just wasn’t very good.
I watched a couple of eps of Quantum Leap but somehow can’t remember what the opening tune sounds like.
Here’s Quantum Leap’s opening theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwZ6tfwiMzo
I never watched any of these shows but Cheers has such a catchy song!
It is indeed, one of the most iconic theme songs ever I believe.
Great list! I still often go around singing The Greatest American Hero theme. 😁
Yeah, that tune is sooo catchy, and impossible to get out of your head once it gets there 😀
We match with Cheers which is such a great comedy but, like you, my heart belongs to Frazier. My hubby and I are actually watching every episode right now as we own the box set. Every single episode we laugh out loud at something. I love Niles and Roz. Do you know everyone was nominated for n Emmy except for Peri Gilpin? I wonder why because she is excellent. I watch Greatest American Hero when it was on and really enjoyed this show…so did my mom. I had no idea they made a tv show from this movie”Working Girl” and that it starred Sandra Bullock.
Hey Birgit! Frasier is awesome indeed, that’s cool that both you and your hubby love that show. My hubby loves it too and we both love Niles. I’m surprised Peri Gilpin hasn’t been nominated, you are right she is excellent and hilarious!
That Working Girl show was only on briefly and canceled before the first season ended, so yeah, blink and you missed it, ahahaha.
How did I not know that Sandra Bullock starred in a Working Girl tv series??? OMG! I need to dive into this asap and find out everything lol
great picks!! Especially Frasier. I watched the whole series a while back and it’s such an underrated theme. So fun and catchy.
Wish I could tell you where to watch it, not even sure it’s available to stream now. I like Sandra Bullock so it was a cute show, too bad it had low ratings.
Frasier theme is so unique and I enjoy hearing it every time I watch each ep. It captures the whimsy of the show I think, with Kelsey Grammer’s iconic voice.
I’ve never really seen Cheers fully just bits of it…it was a bit before my time.
Frasier I do watch several episodes here and there, it was funny. And yes I do think the opening song is fitting and I always thought that it was the opening of Frasier’s radio show.