Socially Speaking |
I'm the director of social media for General Motors. These are my thoughts, philosophies and experiences in the social web - along with my love of baseball, Detroit & Michigan, and general pop culture wise assery. These opinons are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer or anyone affiliated with me. |
This post and the series that will follow it have nothing to do with social media. Or anything of consequence. This is a simple little fun thing to do with no redeeming business value, and I make no apologies for that!
A while back, my friend Lish Dorset and I were talking about a particular TV show’s theme song, and got into a discussion of what the top TV theme songs of all time are. It’s taken me several months to revisit the subject, but I think I have my top 100 now. My rankings have nothing to do with the quality of the shows or their historical value. I also didn’t take “iconic” status as the #1 factor - let’s face it, even though we all know the Brady Bunch theme, the thing’s an annoying earworm that would be playing on the elevator to hell - so it won’t make the top 50 despite iconic status.
No, my choices are based on 1) The coolness of the music; 2) the effectiveness of the theme at setting the tone for the show; and 3) iconic, nostalgic or historic status. A song that was a hit before its use as a TV theme is disqualified (I’m talking to you, CSI) because it’s not best known as a TV theme.
I’ll put a few new ones up each chance I get. Here’s the first few:
100. “Leave It To Beaver” — Evocative of the aspirations to suburban conformity that held America during the Eisenhower era. Simply listening to it from beginning to end results in the sprouting of a white picket fence and the gestation of the “.5” of the 2.5 children.
99. “The Dick Van Dyke Show” — Iconic yet an earworm. Don’t believe me? Listen to it now and tell me it’s not in your head all stinking day.
98. “The Jeffersons” —I know, everyone knows Movin’ On Up and cites it whenever a friend moves apartments or houses. But I’m just not a fan of the faux gospel sound.
97. “Silver Spoons” — Can’t you just feel the return to family values in the air? Yknow, because together, we’re going to find our way. One of a series of kind of pablumesque family sitcoms of the early Reagan era, but it did feature Erin Gray, who’s as attractive as I thought she was when I was 14.
96. “Bewitched” — Captures 1960s suburbia as effectively as Beaver’s theme did the 50s.
