Mon 10 Dec 2012
TV MYSTERY SERIES: THEMES AND OPENINGS, by MICHAEL SHONK.
Posted by Steve under TV mysteries[47] Comments
by MICHAEL SHONK.
The perfect theme and opening sets the mood, places the viewer in a time and place, and acts as a prologue to the series by establishing premise, characters and plot.
The primary purpose of any theme music is to establish mood. Arguably no one has done that better than PETER GUNN (Henry Mancini) and TWIN PEAKS (“Falling†by Angelo Badalamenti). The music from each are strongly identified with and continue to influence the soundtracks of a subgenre of mystery, PETER GUNN – the private eye
and TWIN PEAKS – the odd mystery with strange characters.
This is television not radio and visual images shown with the music matter. For example, THE WILD WILD WEST opening animation by Ken Mindie works perfectly with the music by Richard Markowitz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu-8W-Sredo
RUBICON opening with the distinctive music by Peter Neshel and clue filled opening titles (Karin Fong, Jeremy Cox, Theodore Daley, and Cara McKenney) prepared viewers for the intelligent spy drama to follow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-tvBjh8z7k
Themes can feature lyrics of an established song such as “Who Are You? (Composer: Pete Townsend, performed by The Who) for CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION
or an original song created for the series such as ZORRO (George Bruns)
Some series have a closing theme such as BAT MASTERSON (Bart Corwin and Havens Wray).
This clip
from KING OF DIAMONDS is a trailer for the ZIV syndicated 1961-62 series starring Broderick Crawford. I believe, but can’t confirm, the song with the unforgettable lyrics was for the end credits. The on screen credit for the “Johnny King Theme†is hard to read but I believe it was William Donati. Here is a clip from the beginning of one episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rVqj0EK3pc
As for the role of the theme and opening to establish premise, characters, and plot, few did it better than REMINGTON STEELE with Henry Mancini’s music and Stephanie Zimbalist’s narration. (Surprisingly, there is no clip of this on YouTube, but you can watch a full episode for free at Hulu.com. I recommend any episode from Season One). Two other examples of this are PERSON OF INTEREST (JJ Abrams).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOnQ8CD3v4g
and PHILIP MARLOWE – PRIVATE EYE (“Marlowe’s Theme†by John Cameron and Samuel Matlovsky, performed by Moe Koffman, with Main Title Design by Maurice Binder).
Comedy mysteries openings often reflect the series comedy style such as THE ASSOCIATES (“Wall Street Blues†by A. Brooks, sung by BB King. A. Brooks is reportedly Albert Brooks)
and SIROTA’S COURT (composer: ?).
The theme and opening is an effective way to reflect a change in style or cast such as the following CHARLIE’S ANGELS from Season One:
Season Two:
and the recent remake:
Perhaps the most innovative example of this is the theme for multi-universe SF Cop show, FRINGE. The series combined JJ Abrams’ theme music with a Main Title Design that uses changes in color and picture to indicate the Universe and time each episode takes place.
It is impossible to write about television series themes without mentioning the man who shaped the sound of TV mystery action series during the last quarter of the Twentieth Century, Mike Post. Sometimes with Pete Carpenter, the prolific Post wrote the theme for countless TV mystery series including THE ROCKFORD FILES, MAGNUM P.I., A-TEAM, NYPD BLUE, MURDER ONE, LAW & ORDER, STINGRAY, and my favorite of his work, HILL STREET BLUES.
Some of my personal favorites include T.H.E. CAT (Lalo Schifrin) (Part 1 of 3 for full episode, theme appears around 5:38)
ELLERY QUEEN (Elmer Bernstein)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8MLfQRJQ40
COWBOY BEBOP (“Tank†by Yoko Kanno)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWk-VpK4hJo
and F/X THE SERIES (Christophe Beck, Season Two)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYK0VfwcekQ
What are your favorite theme and opening from past and present TV series?
SOURCES:
YouTube
Wikipedia
Hulu.com
IMdb.com
Interview with RUBICON Peter Nashel
Review of ZORRO DVD
BAT MASTERSON THEME SONG
December 10th, 2012 at 11:09 am
I was able to embed all but three of Michael’s YouTube videos directly into his article. You’ll have to follow the links to the YouTube site to watch (and listen to) the ones I couldn’t.
One opening theme I regret not being able to include at all is the one for THE AVENGERS, the British import with John Steed and Mrs Peel. Michael mentioned it in an early version of this article, and I can still hear it in my head.
December 10th, 2012 at 11:52 am
Thanks Steve for all your work on this post.
The Avengers clip Steve mentions features every theme and opening for the series and remake. The title of the clip is The Themes of the Avengers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7lrO3g-snY
I was sad my first pick for Zorro didn’t work as it featured more verses for the song. Its title is Zorro theme song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbPBi77CTtl
As for Rubicon, here is the same clip with I hope better sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJdpSwKemx0
December 10th, 2012 at 11:57 am
As you might note from comment #2, linking to YouTube is hit and miss. But I do recommend you search for the Avengers and Zorro clips by their titles.
December 10th, 2012 at 1:01 pm
I’ll take these in order of their appearance – I won’t cover all of them, just the ones I’m familiar with:
– The Peter Gunn comes from the syndication run, which was handled by Official Films, an outfit that liked to claim credit for things after the fact. That portion of the original creditd, if memory serves, usually was taken by a billboard for the sponsor of the week, mostly Bristol-Myers (makers of Bufferin).
– Twin Peaks occupies a strange niche in my memory:
Loved the music.
Hated the show.
When the writers/producers fall in love with their own quirkiness, to the point that they abandon story sense in favor of “anything goes” – that’s when I generally bail.
But the music was always interesting …
– The Bat Masterson clip is also from syndication.
In its network, Bat had a single sponsor, the Sealtest Ice Cream company. Their logo was all over the opening and closing credits, rendering them unusable afterwards. THe mystery here is why Ziv couldn’t come up with something a bit more … I dunno, interesting, maybe? After all, this wasn’t the only show that had to lose sponsor logos for syndication.
– Thanks for providing the King Of Diamonds clip; I sometimes need proof that (a) this show actually existed, and (b) that that theme song existed.
Channel 9 in Chicago was home to most of the Ziv shows; our family didn’t watch King much, but we usually caught the tail-end when Dad changed channels to the 10 o’clock news, and ch9 always seemed to cut the credits off just at the line
When Johnny King breaks the door down …
And I always wondered how the song ended.
Now I know.
And I am a far better person for knowing.
– The Associates wasn’t a “comedy-mystery”.
Except in the sense that what kind of comedy it was was a mystery – to me at least.
What I remember most about this show was
(a) how much it was hyped before its premiere;
(b) how fast it flopped, taking much of ABC’s Sunday ratings with it.
– If you’ve been playing the imbedded clips, you’ll have noted that many end with links to a plethora of other clips of “related interest”. If Michael is checking these out, we should expect the next entry in this series shortly.
Meantime, I’ll be going over my memory banks, seeing if I can add to the pile.
Happy hunting, one and all!
December 10th, 2012 at 1:33 pm
#4. THE ASSOCIATES was a lawyer show so I snuck it in. Any excuse to play a blues song written by Albert Brooks and sung by BB King is a good one.
Mike, it was written by the same group of comedy writers who wrote for the MTM comedies of the 70s. The theme song tells you why it failed. What is so funny about a bunch of rich successful young lawyers whining about how hard their lives are.
December 10th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
Well, no doubt the opening theme of a tv- series is important, even decisive for success or failure, in some instances .
As for Peter Gunn, the series was never shown in my country, until, as the net tells me, 1997 and 1998.
But the music has been familiar all my conscious life, it has been used to create suspense so often, that I associated it with thrillers for as long as I can think.
The first time I heard of the series, was here on this blog, and my subsequent looks into episodes on the net make it a real find.
But Mancinis music…. known it all my life .
Of course, not every series can get a theme by Mancini, or a song sung by BB King.
(What next ? Mozart writing a theme especially ?)
But the importance of opening theme an clip is undisputed.
Think Mannix, or Maxwell Smart, or….
The Doc
December 10th, 2012 at 4:26 pm
Doc, you reminded me I wanted to make a comment about the recent death of Jazz great Dave Brubeck. Brubeck wrote the theme for TV series MR. BROADWAY. You can hear it on YouTube (lets hope the link works).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p5KOMQMk_4
The theme starts at about 1:29
December 10th, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Yes, Michael, Dave Brubeck musically has been with me all my life, Unsquare Dance, Take Five, Take Five, Take Five, and the Mr.Broadway theme also sounds familiar.
No, I definitely KNOW that I have heard it thousands of times, without knowing it was written for a TV- series.
The first time I CONSCIOUSLY listened to Take Five was in the early Eighties, in Innsbruck.
I learnt the name, and bought the record the next day .
Jazz is always a stepchild for the mainstream.
Brubeck changed that a lot .
May he play music forever in the yonder, he certainly will not die down here .
Just look at the comments of 14 year old kids on Youtube, when they happen to stumble on older music of whatever kind, in search of an original soundtrack of something some new band covers….
The Doc
December 10th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
One of the more interesting things I discovered doing this was how much a role jazz still plays in TV mysteries.
Music changed over the decades. Yet certain sounds connect us to certain emotions and jazz-blues still represent much of mystery. Even the pop sounds of Mike Post has its roots in jazz. One can hear it in the sadness of the theme from HILL STREET BLUES.
December 10th, 2012 at 5:59 pm
Michael, nice work! I’m so impressed that you remembered Rubicon, which I much admired but got so little love. Very evocative theme song, I concur. The St. Elsewhere theme, but Dave Grusin, was also one of my favorites once upon a time.
One interesting thing happened a few years back during the Paley Center’s annual PaleyFest in Los Angeles. Every year we ask the production team for a CD or digital file with the theme song, so that we can play it as the audience is waiting for the cast and creative team to take the stage after the screening. A few years back, when we first honored Lost, the production office reminded us that there WAS no theme song. That had never happened to us before, and I’m not sure I can think of another show to which it applies.
December 10th, 2012 at 6:39 pm
When the FCC allowed the networks more commercial time during prime time one of the changes was the reduction of time for the theme song.
#10. David, I can think of two other series that did not have an opening theme song and both were on ABC, EYES (2005) and TRAVELER (2007).
December 11th, 2012 at 8:22 am
surprised you left out Jerry Goldsmith’s first-season theme for UNCLE, which still gives me chills after almost fifty years.
December 11th, 2012 at 10:40 am
#12. Clem, I share your opinion of the MAN FROM UNCLE theme, especially the first season. I had to limit myself in the post and hope others mention those I left out.
December 11th, 2012 at 9:52 pm
There are a lot of great theme songs out there but of course you can’t include them all. I love the X-Files theme; perfectly evocative of the mood of the series, though I think Fringe was a great choice too.
You mention the use of an established pop song, like with CSI: I love not only David Simon’s selection of Tom Waits’s Down in the Hole — which addresses the balancing act (or WIRE) that every character had to walk — but also his decision to switch to a different version of the song every season. But to me the most brilliant thing about the music on The Wire was the use of the Pogues’s Body of an American at the BPD “wakes.” “I’m a free-born man of the USA!” Greatest use of a song by a TV Show ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVEwpYt0EwE
December 11th, 2012 at 10:58 pm
#14. David, CBS’ PERSON OF INTEREST uses music brilliantly. When in the final episode of the first season, the government wants the Machine to use for its own evil purpose, everyone is after them, Fitch is kidnapped, and over the scene you hear David Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Americans.”
Here is a clip from an early episode of the series.
http://www.youtube/watch?v=v4nh0Elring
December 11th, 2012 at 11:07 pm
#15. has a typo in the link. The example is from Person of Interest 1 X 10 -Ending
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4nh0Elring
or try
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bDMJirw5xw
December 11th, 2012 at 11:32 pm
Michael
Maybe it’s me and my new computer, but both of these links are dead. Is anyone else able to access either one? Maybe YouTube is taking down videos like these as fast as they’re posted?
Steve
December 11th, 2012 at 11:39 pm
The links may fail me, but the music you’d hear if you visit YouTube is Unkle (feat. Ian Astbury) “When Things Explode.” Search Person of Interest 1X10 – Ending
While I am at it, if anyone visits YouTube, search for MISS FISHER’S MURDER MYSTERIES. Great theme with one of the best traditional mysteries series I have seen in awhile. Based on Kerry Greenwood series of books, set in 1920s Australia.
December 11th, 2012 at 11:42 pm
#17. Thanks, Steve, the links don’t work for me either, but the clips are still up if you can find them at YouTube.
December 12th, 2012 at 2:08 pm
I would like to correct a tiny mistake: the name of the composer of The Who is Pete Townshend.
As far as I can remember, also “Johnny Staccato” had an interesting music.
December 12th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
#20. Thanks, Josef. I always appreciate help getting it right.
JOHNNY STACCATO had a great jazz score, theme by Elmer Bernstein.
The music was inspired by Mancini’s PETER GUNN.
Bernstein did make my personal favorites list with ELLERY QUEEN.
December 12th, 2012 at 8:27 pm
Super-Posting, Michael-that really drew everyone into the discussion !
So it absolutely proves your point- music and opening scenes are very important- and they are remembered longer than the series behind it .
Beats BLOOODY commercials any day !
The Doc
December 12th, 2012 at 8:44 pm
#22. Doc, you are right about the power of themes and openings. A YouTube clip has convinced me to buy more than one series on DVD and when it wasn’t available, forced me to be thankful for the wisdom of collectors who have kept the series alive.
I think that is why the theme song continues today. Music is a shortcut to emotions. With the shrinking of time available for the story, writers need to take advantage of every shortcut the audience will accept.
December 13th, 2012 at 12:43 pm
Looking at all the comments so far, and bearing in mind the usual constituency of this site, I’m frankly astonished that no mention has yet been made of what I always thought was the single best-known combination of music and image in a TV opening title.
Nobody remembers Hawaii Five-O?
(The original from 1968 – you know, the good one?)
The combination of Morton Stevens’s music and Reza Badiyi’s images still plays somewhere every day. That the makers of the “reboot/knockoff” felt that they had to sort-of-copy it speaks volumes.
Oh, and I meant what I said about the original being “the good one”.
If they wanted to do a new Five-O, OK, but don’t use the old character names as if they’d never been there.
When you say ‘Steve McGarrett’ to me, I expect that guy on the beach with the blue suit and the wrought-iron hair. Anything “modern” – meh.
Reza Badiyi’s openers were ’60s-’70s icons in themselves. Get Smart and Mannix have already been mentioned, and Mission: Impossible has also been ignored, so there too.
The unfortunate trend of today – one or two bars of “music” and a flashcard title – regrettably continues, paired with credits that compete with dialogue for your attention at the beginning, and speed by, tiny and all but illegible, at the end.
Here in Chicago, MeTV has made a selling point out of “credit where it’s due”, meaning that you can actually read the names and hear the music – and people who’ve seen this are praising them to the skies for this practice.
Somehow, I feel that the minimal themes and invisible main titles of today aren’t helping make their shows as memorable as the ones we grew up with.
End of rant.
December 13th, 2012 at 1:42 pm
#24. Mike, I share your surprise that it has taken this long to name HAWAII FIVE-O and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. But it may be because they are too obvious.
I tried to use the best example I could find at YouTube and then go with the most forgotten series of those examples. I hoped it would encourage more to add their favorites.
I missed GET SMART. It would have been a good fit in the comedy section,
I don’t mind the short opening themes. Those still can establish mood and setting. It is what commercial TV does to the closing credits that is where I begin to rant.
As for those shows not being as memorable as the ones we grew up with, remember LOST had no theme.
December 13th, 2012 at 4:58 pm
25.
Don’t get me started on Lost, unless you’re looking for a replay of the old Moonlighting flaplet from a while back.
I hate shows that try to bluff viewers into believing that they’re going somewhere,building to some kind of “big finish” … while they keep throwing in artificial “twists” designed solely to call for the order of more episodes.
When Patrick McGoohan did The Prisoner back in ’68, he made it clear to ITC and CBS that it was a finite series: the thirteen episodes and no more. I’ve heard (can’t confirm) that both Sir Lew Grade (ITC) and Mike Dann (CBS) tried to talk McGoohan into finding some way of keeping The Prisoner going (all the great notices that it got, plus better-than-average summer numbers in the USA, figured in this), but McGoohan was firm – the series, once completed, was over with.
Lost was another story – of the genus “shaggy dog”.
There comes a point where you can tell when they’re just making it up as they go along, purely to stretch things out. For me, Lost reached that point about midway through the first season. Ultimately,lots of the remaining audience came to feel much the same; they only stuck it out for the same reason that some people keep doing anything that has come to bore them silly – they feel that after all that time, there has to be some kind of payoff, or the whole thing is a waste.
You’ll note that Lost has had very few imitators, and those have been mainly short-lived. Audiences aren’t quite as easy to con as they have been (critics, however, are another matter …)
December 13th, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Mike- most ””critics”’ nowadays are paid lobbyists, which puts them in the vicinity of an other profession.
Look at media in general- mainstream means TV and newspapers right out of the former Soviet Union .
And to top it off- commercial for every big bovine souvenir .
The Doc
December 13th, 2012 at 7:44 pm
#26. What does quality have to do with memorable? Some of the worst TV series ever made are the ones we loved as a kid and remember today.
I never got the appeal of the series LOST, but I have spent most of my life rejecting shows beloved by the masses (AMERICAN IDOL) or critics (LOUIE). LOST will be remembered forever, not for ratings or quality but for becoming part of people’s lives.
There have been an endless list of LOST imitators since it went off. This season alone we have, to name just two, the successful REVOLUTION and the failure LAST RESORT. And LOST was not original, it was just GILLIGAN’S ISLAND with paranormal deus ex machina.
December 13th, 2012 at 11:00 pm
Over at Lee Goldberg’s blog he has posted a interesting look at the stages of development the theme song to COBRA went through.
http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2012/12/evolution-of-a-theme.html
December 15th, 2012 at 7:33 am
Yeah, like this discussion needs more posts, but I gotta put my vote in for MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, a show I hardly ever watched, but the combination of burning fuse and driving rhythm under the titles always promised a lot….
And can you identify this opening theme (without googling it?)
“Lady Godiva was a freedom rider,
She didn’t care if the whole world looked…”
December 15th, 2012 at 10:41 am
#31. Dan, there never can be too many comments here.
No, I could not identify the theme without googling it. But I did know it was a comedy. With that huge clue, I wonder if anyone else can match theme with series?
December 15th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
I probably shouldn’t do this, but … I believe you guys are seriously undervaluing Lost, not just because of my own admiration for it but also because it was a critically acclaimed show that was commercially popular, resonated with the zeitgeist, influenced the TV landscape, and may have been one of the last network shows of its kind.
I think that saying Lost is not original but merely a deviation on Gilligan’s Island is hugely unfair. There are only so many ideas in the universe of ideas, and thus you can say almost no TV show is original anymore (if in fact one ever was). Is Breaking Bad simply a variation of Run for Your Life, which was just a variation of DOA? (Most people, by the way, would be more inclined to point out the similarities between Lost and The New People, rather than Gilligan’s Island). Anyway, Lost was more than just a show about people stranded on an island, and it was the way it developed that central idea that made it interesting and successful. The writing and casting were, in my opinion, superb. The bond between viewers and the characters was deep and real, and millions of viewers became obsessively caught up in the mysteries and conundrums it depicted. Not many shows can claim that.
Also, to say that Lost inspired many imitators, but that those imitators all failed, is to me an argument FOR Lost rather than AGAINST it. It’s hard to make a TV show that is both commercially successful and artistically admired. Lost was just that, thanks to a combination of strong writing, casting, and acting.
Give me a moment to brace for the feedback.
December 15th, 2012 at 7:19 pm
#32. David, I wrote the GILLIGAN’S ISLAND comment with tongue firmly in cheek.
My true reaction to LOST is indifference. I never spent much time on it because it was apparent to me they were making it up as they went. I got into FRINGE when I learned it had an ending planned from the beginning. I like JUSTIFIED because each season is planned. And nothing else really drew me into LOST.
I do think fans are unfair to LOST’s ending. It is not humanly possible to create an ending to satisfy millions who had their own endings in their head. Much like a book, LOST’s fans had become so involved in the mysteries, each viewer saw the story in his or her own way.
The arc show is nothing new, The 70s called them miniseries. And they owe much to the soap opera structure. Perhaps my favorite arc series was BABYLON 5, one of the first TV series to be structured like a novel.
As for disagreeing with me, I like that. If I want to hear how right I am, I’ll talk to a mirror. I understand how you and others enjoyed LOST and am happy you have defended it. I didn’t see the same show but it is ok, I suspect you can say the same for many of my favorites.
As long as we stay away from discussing AMC’s THE KILLING, we’ll be ok. (To the rest of you out there, David is a fan of THE KILLING Season One and I try not to tell him I think that was one of the worst TV series in the history of TV. AMC’s THE KILLING Season One angers me more then MOONLIGHTING does Mike D. So don’t tell David.)
December 16th, 2012 at 9:11 am
Michael, I appreciate your willingness to engage. One point about The Killing: I WAS a fan of season one, you are right, but what really got my goat about it was all the critics who screamed bloody murder when the killer wasn’t revealed in the season finale. They seemed to think that the showrunner had made some sort of complied commitment to end their curiosity not when she chose to do so, but when they (the critics) demanded it. As much as these critics disavow the connection, this was absolutely no different from what critics did with Twin Peaks — the same critics who then complained that the show wasn’t the same once Laura’s killer was identified.
So I guess one thing we do agree on is that MOST television critics (although not all) are essentially without value. I THINK we agree on that anyway.
December 16th, 2012 at 11:41 am
I hated THE KILLING from episode two. While I didn’t mind the ending, I was not surprised by the audience (not just critics) reaction. They had ignored the lessons of TWIN PEAKS, the audience is only so patient. The showrunner’s ego driven response to the reaction really made it worse.
Critics are like any other profession, some are bad, some are good, and some are brilliant. Perhaps the biggest risk for any critic is to forget his or hers audience. People who work 40+ hours a week want different things from their entertainment than the critic who spends his/her 40+ hours a week watching entertainment. Imagine taking you car to the shop, all you want is it to run and get you where you are going, but the mechanic sees the details and is interested in much more than will the car move.
Today’s audience is much different than my age group (the abandoned over 50s). The internet has involved the viewer more with the process than ever before. I enjoy the new form of criticism known as the recap, where the critic reviews last night’s episode of a series and the viewers join in the discussion in the comments. My favorites are over at iO9 and their look at PERSON OF INTEREST and ARROW (the recap is better than the show).
Over at YouTube the composer of the theme for HOMELAND mentions how hard he had work to match the music to the visuals. That if you watch and listen, you will notice the highest note in the theme hits with the picture of 9/11 attack. A critic would notice it. The viewer would claim not to care, but would subconsciously feel it.
Odd, still no shout out to themes such as PERRY MASON and LAW AND ORDER’s three notes.
Question, is PERRY MASON good music or a great theme? Does PERRY MASON’s theme make you think of lawyers? If so, is it because of the music or because you have heard that music while watching a great lawyer show?
December 17th, 2012 at 12:58 pm
#28:
“Memorable” doesn’t get decided for quite a few years yet.
Lost is mainly remembered now by the two camps: the hardcore fans who wrote term papers about its “significance”, and the others (like me) who were saying “Well, there’s a bald guy and a fat guy and a Chinese guy and a bunch of numbers and an Army Surplus shelter and a bear or something and I don’t know what-all…”
That’s the status today; what it will be like in 10-20 years, who knows.
As craftwork, Lost was impeccable technically. I have no problems with performance before and behind the camera.
But “it wasn’t on the page”, to paraphrase the old theatrical saw.
#33:
Were the fans “fair” to Lost‘s ending?
The question should be: was Lost‘s ending fair to the fans?
When you keep adding on bogus “complications” and changing your ground rules to fit them, you forfeit all rights to cry “foul” if your audience rises up and says “Hey, wait a minute! what about …”
The mystery, in most of its forms, is a kind of contract with the reader/listener/viewer: the story should be completed in a way that the r/l/v is satisfied of its solution.
Put another way: the payoff has to make sense – by the story’s own terms.
Alfred Hitchcock once spoke in an interview of what he called “refrigerator moments” – those scenes that you realized afterward (when you were at the fridge) made no sense, or contradicted each other, or were just, plain WRONG.
Lost was a regular Maytag showroom.
#35:
“… is Perry Mason good music or a great theme?”
Both, actually.
But not because it “makes you think of lawyers.”
Because it makes you think of Perry Mason.
Just as the Gilligan’s Island song makes you think of that show.
Same thing with the Law & Order signatures (and the ching-ching!), and just about all the other themes that we have mentioned or will mention all through these comments.
Given years to think about, Lost‘s lack of a memorable theme (and title visuals to go with it) may prove its ultimate undoing in the “memorability” department.
December 17th, 2012 at 2:00 pm
#36. Any theme will make you think of the series if you had heard it with the series for years, in PERRY MASON case – decades.
It is theme music version of what came first, the chicken or the egg.
For example, the first moment I heard Bernstein’s ELLERY QUEEN theme music I was in the 40s. Before the first episode began the opening titles and music told me what would follow would be a mystery set in the forties, it took place in New York (Stork Club object), and it would be a traditional whodunit with clues (chess board). That is a great theme, a perfect blend of music and visuals.
But the first time the viewer heard PERRY MASON what did they learn. The visual told them it was set in the courtroom and Raymond Burr was the star, and the credits for the rest of the cast (in later openings the supporting cast was pictured). This is a good theme because of the visuals, but what does the music add? Today, the music is a shortcut to our memories of the series, but in the beginning it was just cool music.
December 17th, 2012 at 6:22 pm
I’m not sure exactly what point you’re trying to make here.
Your history is reversed: in the first two-and-a-half Mason seasons, the supporting cast was shown; this stopped abruptly when Bill Talman was suspended after his arrest. By the time of his reinstatement, the Burr-only credits were in place; after season 4 (I think) the Burr-in-the-courtroom titles (2 versions) were used. Throughout, the Fred Steiner theme never changed (unless you count altered arrangements).
As to the theme itself, I’ve read that it wasn’t even composed for the Mason series: its original title is “New York Blues” (the Mason series is based in Los Angeles), and it was apparently part of CBS’s music library for at least a couple of years (my details are fuzzy; correction welcomed).
All of this brings us to Lud Gluskin, who was CBS’s music supervisor for decades, in both radio and TV. Gluskin was the man who matched up composers and their themes with CBS series; often, he mix-and-matched, with music for one series turning up in others(how often have you heard Perry Mason music turning up in episodes of Rawhide or Twilight Zone – or vice versa?).
Other TV companies had their own music directors, functioning as A&R men do in the record business. Once the right guy with the right sound was found, the show was home free.
The stories have been written up in many places, if you’re inclined to look them up.
December 17th, 2012 at 7:18 pm
#38. The point is the visual does all the work in the opening of PERRY MASON so I consider it lessens the music value as theme music compared to something such as ELLERY QUEEN theme that adds information preparing the viewer for what they will see.
I am happy to see you name some of the studio’s music supervisors. It is a job that seems to be disappearing as more TV series are produced by the networks instead of the movie studios.
NBC MYSTERY MOVIES all use Universal stock background music. I’ve heard the ALIAS SMITH AND JONES music in other series. It takes me out of the story every time, its like I am suddenly playing Name That Tune.
December 19th, 2012 at 11:36 am
Just a few more comments about music in TV series, generally:
– I remember when the Ellery Queen pilot (Jim Hutton Version) was first shown on the NBC Mystery Movie.
It was the Elmer Bernstein bluesy theme, but the visuals were totally different: a magnifying glass on a pad of paper, with some odd objects here and there.
On the DVD set, the Bernstein theme was inexplicably replaced by Henry Mancini’s NBCMM theme (I always think of it as “The Mancini Siren”).
Those ’40s images that you love so much were dreamed up for the series itself; had EQ gone to a second season, I’m guessing that a new title, featuring visuals of Hutton and Wayne (and maybe also Tom Reese) might have been developed.
At least, that’s what I would have done – that other title seemed kind of generic to me; I believe that opening titles on TV ought to show the stars.
– I’m not sure that I go along with your assertionthat the Mystery Movies used “Universal stock background music” in the same way that CBS shows did under Lud Gluskin.
The various series under the NBCMM umbrella each had their own themes, which served as a basis for the underscoring; they were hardly interchangeable. Similarly, other UTV series would reuse music within their own limits, but I don’t believe that “mix-n-match” between shows was happening.
What is true is that Universal used many of the same composers, who had thematic and instrumental styles that they would reuse from show to show – not exactly the same, but if you have a sharp ear you can tell if Oliver Nelson did the music on one show or Billy Goldenberg did another or Leonard Rosenman did the other one – long before you see the credits.
Those three I just named were the ones who came to mind as I was writing: each of them had certain pet musical phrases that they favored (Rosenman’s crescendoes), or instruments that they liked to write for (Mancini’s French horns), or other such stylistic quirks that pop up frequently in their TV scores. Given time, I could come up with many others, and not just at Universal.
*Fun project for your spare time: Listen to the themes of Cannon, Chips, and Trapper John MD, and see if you can figure out what (or who) they have in common. 😉
– Mentioning underscoring leads to to observe that it’s almost never done any more.
L&O:SVU still does it, sort of – a droning chord held endlessly through a dramatic scene, so softly that you can hardly hear it (which may be the idea).
About the only music you hear on series any more is pop songs used to set mood, period, or both. This has always struck me as “the easy way out” as opposed to hiring a composer to come up with something specific to the show. I miss the days when movies and TV shows had musical scores rather than playlists.
This practice can backfire: Cold Case, one of my favorite series of recent times, can’t get a DVD release despite its long run and demonstrable popularity. The music clearances for the episodes would bankrupt a small nation.
– The ideal in this business would be the perfect match between music and visual, and what we’ve been looking at here are the instances where the two have come closest (excepting Bat Masterson, a lapse on Ziv’s part I still don’t understand).
We have our DVDs, our VHSs, our YouTubes, and most of all our memories.
At long last, what else is there?
December 19th, 2012 at 2:21 pm
#40. I agree about the second season of ELLERY QUEEN intro featuring the stars as it is common practice to do so. F/X THE SERIES, theme music is much better to listen to as a song in Season One, but by Season Two the cast and premise was better understood and that was reflected in the theme opening.
When I watched COOL MILLION, I heard the same background music cues common in BANACEK and other NBC MYSTERY MOVIES.
TV series from major studios tended to have a look, sound and feel unique to the studio for the reasons we have discussed (same behind the line people). Independents such as ZIV, Spelling and QM also had a style to them.
Today, the networks have the control over production the studios used to, and there is a style that fits each, but I don’t hear the same soundtracks that I do in 70s TV.
PERSON OF INTEREST uses both original music and outside (adult alternative). The series’ soundtrack is out and available at iTunes (without the outside songs). ITunes lets you sample without buying, so I recommend you give it a listen (I happily own the album).
Pop music (or outside source music) is not totally to blame for COLD CASE not on DVD. Its the cost of the music (among other things) that caused Warners to wait so long before releasing HARRY O, and it did not use any outside music.
I am too lazy to check, but one of TV’s classic 60s series was released with alternate music (I think it was THE FUGITIVE –WKRP IN CINCINNATI was just the most famous of this practice). So the change in ELLERY QUEEN pilot does not surprise me,
So what is the purpose of the theme music and opening? Does the music need to be original? Does the music have to do more than set the mood? What is the purpose of the visuals, to act as a prologue or introduced the cast? What is the perfect theme music?
Is the best soundtrack the music you don’t notice but feel?
December 19th, 2012 at 5:21 pm
Still going strong, that topic.
michael touched a nerve there .
The Doc
December 19th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Cool Million (I have the Baancek DVDs), so I’ll go this far: the music most likely sounds the same; whether it’s note-by-note would require an expert.
I am aware of instances where Universal lifted old scores from other properties and inserted them into newer ones, but they tended to wait a while before doing that.
Two examples I can call to mind:
– Kolchak: The Night Stalker‘s theme was “borrowed” from Gil Melle’s score for Questor, an unsuccessful Gene Roddenberry pilot from a few years before; Melle expanded it into a longer version that was used for the series.
– (sub) the Kolchak series also used a Jerry Fielding theme from the failed Ellery Queen/Peter Lawford pilot, and I seem to have proved your point over mine, haven’t I? Ah well …
– I said there were two, didn’t I?
Universal made a Sherlock Holmes pilot in the ’70s, whose music was lifted from William Castle’s 1964 feature The Night Walker. Composer Vic Mizzy wasn’t given credit on the TV show (reasons unknown).
What I’ve cited above are specific lifts of music from other sources, all owned by Universal-MCA and therefore presumably fair game for such use.
– Just thought of this as I was writing:
When Night Gallery went into syndication, and episodes of The Sixth Sense were added in to the package, the multiple music scores from both properties were scrambled together, often reassigned and doubled up (along with the footage) – another masterpiece from Tatelman’s Bargain Basement at MCA!
All told, I guess this means you win this one, Shonk …
… ’til next time …
December 20th, 2012 at 1:18 am
#43. About time I finally “won” one. My losing streak was getting embarrassing.
December 21st, 2012 at 10:36 am
One last shot (maybe):
In re your observation than it’s the networks rather than the studios that seem to control things:
The networks are the studios.
(And vice versa.)
Look at the logos:
NBC/Universal
CBS/Paramount
ABC/Disney
Fox/Fox
Time-Warner and just about everybody else
Thanks to the merger mania of the last twenty years (give or take), the entertainment industry is as super-conglomerated as any other.
They’re even conglomerating with each other:
Criminal Minds, to give one example, is essentially co-produced by CBS and ABC (how the swag is split I don’t know, but you can’t argue with two logos).
I think that you can trace the loss of distinctive production styles to this.
Broadcasting has always been less artistically concerned than filmmaking, and now the economic control is on the broadcasting side (cable counts as broadcasting for purposes of this discussion).
We could also mention the increasing incursion of the multimedia interests into book publishing, but that might be a whole other thread, so let that go for now.
The overall point being that in the 21st century, all of entertainment – books, movies, music, TV – it’s all come together into a huge, almost interchangeable mass, with E-technology becoming the catalyst.
I don’t have E-book capability yet, but it’s probably only a matter of time.
I also thought that I’d never give up my vinyl records for CDs …
… or my VHS tapes for DVDs …
… or my good old 4:3 TV sets for 16:9 ones …
… you know, just waiting for the next obsolescence has becoming my principal occupation in life.
Some fun, hey?
December 21st, 2012 at 2:03 pm
#45. Mike, you are right. And look at cable TV. Universal-NBC is owned by Comcast Cable and has several cable networks. ABC-Disney own ESPN. Fox and CBS are interesting cases. You have Fox Movie Studio, Fox Entertainment, and Fox News; all equal and separate. CBS is under Viacom which owns Paramount. While Showtime and CW is under CBS group but Paramount is separate from CBS in ways only a corporate lawyer would understand.
CBS studio produces only for CBS group. While Paramount finances movies usually using outside producers (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER recently did a long look at why movie studios no longer make movies). Other networks will sell their shows to the other networks.
Don’t forget the internet when NBC and Fox own a part of Hulu.
Only one of the Big Six publishers is connected to a TV network group (CBS and I think Simon & Schuster). But much of the book publishing is centered with the huge corporate businesses that own the publishers (Random House is the biggest and about to merge with other Big Six Penguin).
Many blame the newspapers fall to giant corporations such as Tribune buying up local papers (in reality newspapers died for a variety of reasons but mostly because they refuse to change with the times).
I do own over a thousand e-books. So how the container changes does not bother me except financially. I do worry about the change in content.
Films today are blockbusters or tiny independent films. We have lost the medium budget films and at a time where much of TV has abandoned the TV Movie.
TV will be the next big change. Will Apple or Google TV succeed? Will the Media giants keep the status quo or will the delivery system change? Will we still buy cable as a service, paying for networks we never watch or will we get to pick and choose what networks we want or don’t (and kill most of the small narrow casted networks)? Will TV go the way of books (I heard Gene Roddenberry predict this in 1973) and you order programs like you would order books from a book club or like TV from Netflix?
And the most important change for the future is how to get your program to an audience that demands its entertainment and information to be instant, mobile, and available to them at all times.
Amazon has just announced its new TV series in which viewers can comment and help shape the programs (they have done this with a few movies). Hulu and Netflix offer original series.
Today, I watch more TV on my Mac or my DVD player than on my TV set. Change is coming, I only hope it opens up content to where programs can exist without the 18-49 audience approval.
December 21st, 2012 at 4:39 pm
The most important change is underway, anyway :
Big Brother owns everything, and hauls manure out of every distribution channel.
Ministry of Truth .
The Doc