Fave TV Show Theme Songs

[Zzzptm]

Not wanting to step on toes, I'll refrain from snagging the themes for Top Gear and The Grand Tour... 

But I still get a car for my first theme song pick! The tune is "The Streetbeater" by Quincy Jones, but everyone of a certain age in the USA knows it as the theme for Sanford and Son:

It's a great tune for rollin' down the street with the windows down, for sure!

[Charger]

I have so so so many favourite TV show themes I'm going to need some time to compile a list I can feel comfortable with....and I know I'm still gonna be missing 20 great ones!

[Zzzptm]

I say we keep the list open after our first 10 choices, but we just start a new actual top 10 list once we've got 10 entries from everyone here.

Because I got a lot, too.

EDIT: And I think Vyn and me are gonna be dukin' it out on a bunch of them!

[Vyn]

Streetbeater was my first one, you bastage!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I'm pretty sure that Sandford and Son was based on the British sitcom Steptoe and Son...

Pick #1 is the theme from Steptoe and Son. 

[Vyn]

I think 90% of USA TV shows were based on some previous British TV show.

My numero uno pick is the Theme from The Monkees (yeah, they had a TV show and it's a catchy song):

[Charger]

My first pick is one of my childhood favourites...and I still love both the show AND the theme to bits!

Agatha Christie's...POIROT!

[Zzzptm]

Streetbeater was my first one, you bastage!

Muhuhahahahahahaha!!!

I'm pretty sure that Sandford and Son was based on the British sitcom Steptoe and Son...

That's why I didn't want to "step on any toes" there.

Love the Monkees tune, great to sing along with and Poirot's theme is another classic.

Time to hop into the Pontiac and do a bootlegger reverse!

Mike Post could sure write a great theme, and that's what we got with The Rockford Files. This is from season 1, although I prefer the theme from season 2 and after. But it's got the opening montage that practically told a story in and of itself. It also released as a single on MGM in 1974, which was not uncommon for really great teevee theme songs back then.

[Charger]

Oh I remember Rockford Files with James Garner! It aired here in the early 90s...


I'm going full on 80s vibe for my second one! This was not just another action show it was also a fashion statement and an ICON of the 80s..


Jan Hammer presenting MIAMI VICE theme!

[Vyn]

Welcome Back by John Sebastian, theme song to Welcome Back, Kotter.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Pick number 2. I don;t know if Thunderbirds ever made it across the pond but it is one of the best theme tunes ever!

The Theme from Thunderbirds

[Zzzptm]

Somehow the Thunderbirds toys made it over here, but not the show. Go figure.

Vyn took Kotter... I must move swiftly and take S.W.A.T.!!! (theme done by Rhythm Heritage)

[Charger]

Oh I remember Thunderbirds from back in the day...I think it aired here in the early 90s...on Saturday afternoons....I watched it occationally. It was sort of fun...surely not among my favourites.


Good loooord with that SWAT intro! That's so corny and cheesy and cliché it's absolutely brilliant!

We never had that show here...atleast I can't remember it and it looks like the kind of show I would have watched for sure!


Never even heard of Welcome Back Kotter either...


I'm going back to the 60s with my third one!

This (again) was one of my childhood favourites. Aired here in saturday evenings if memory serves me right...

This the legend JERRY GOLDSMITH and THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
I think by the 1990s Thunderbirds may have looked quite dated compared to it's debut in the 1960s. BUT the theme tune still holds up in my opinion.

For my 3rd pick I'm going with something gentle...

The theme from Inspector Morse by Barrington Pheloung...

I can't rule out there being another John Thaw show later!

[Zzzptm]

"Barney Miller" theme song. Made millions of kids want to play the bass with that killer intro.