The Friday 5×2: TV Themes, Part Whatever…

The Friday Five 2 Minutes

It’s been a long while since I did a TV Themes post. I had to go back through the playlists I created (which you can find here, here, here, and here, and there are probably others hanging around I just haven’t found). Over time, some of the videos I chose have dropped off YouTube (or were pulled off), so as I went through the themes I had, I thought of ones that weren’t there, and put them in.

  1. Danger Man In the US, this was Secret Agent, starring Patrick McGoohan as John Drake, and the theme was different.
  2. The Honeymooners Jackie Gleason, who was an immensely talented man, and an immense man in general, wrote this one as “You’re My Greatest Love.”
  3. The Jackie Gleason Show Another Gleason composition called “Melancholy Serenade” served as theme song for his 1960’s variety show. We would watch this with Dad on Saturday nights.
  4. The Munsters This is a version with the rarely-heard lyrics.
  5. Rawhide We talked about Frankie Laine the other day on Two for Tuesday.
  6. MAS*H I could have sworn this was on one of the playlists, which means it was probably eliminated when someone deleted their account. Anyway, the song is “Suicide Is Painless” from the original movie.
  7. The Avengers The original theme for this show, when it was in black-and-white and starred Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackmon. It was written and performed by Johnny Dankworth. Earlier this year, I pitted this theme against the one used during the Diana Rigg and Linda Thorson years in a Battle of the Bands, and this one didn’t win. Nevertheless, I like this one.
  8. Hawaii Five-O Another one that must have been deleted since I built the playlists, because I can’t imagine I would have left it off.
  9. Alfred Hitchcock Presents Composed by Charles Gounod as “Funeral For A Marionette.”
  10. The Tonight Show Theme The one played by Doc Severinsen and the NBC Orchestra during the Johnny Carson years. Written by Paul Anka as “Toot Sweet,” it’s also called “Here’s Johnny!”

I’ve come to the conclusion that I really need to rebuild these lists, or at least figure out what I have before I try another one of these. If you want to suggest more themes, be sure and look through the ones I have first.

And that’s the Friday 5×2 for November 10, 2017.

Published by John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

Published

14 thoughts on “The Friday 5×2: TV Themes, Part Whatever…”

  1. Pingback: A Mid-November Week That Was – The Sound of One Hand Typing

    1. Thanks! Good TV themes are mini-masterpieces, I think. There are some composers that specialize in them. John Williams (who conducted the Boston Pops for several years) got his start writing TV themes for Irwin Allen shows. They’ve put a lot of food on Mike Post’s table, too.

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  3. I absolutely adore The Munsters, Hawaii Five-O, and Alfred Hitchcock themes! A recent tv theme I really enjoy is The High Strung’s “The Luck You Got,” the theme from the U.S. version of Shameless. I’m not sure if it’s different in the U.K. version.

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  6. Love some of these theme songs but I couldn’t play pastSecret Agent. You used the original theme song from this excellent show. I love Secret Agent Man which was also used for this show,

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    1. Do you mean none of the other videos would play? That’s weird. Did you get a country restriction on any of them?

      “Secret Agent Man” is a great song, and it’s easy to play…

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