Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Classic Film & TV Cafe Presents the Top 25 TV Themes of All Time!

The votes have been tallied. The results have certified by the official Cafe accountants. And now (drum roll, please)...after three weeking of polling...it's time to unveil the Cafe's Top 25 TV Themes of All Time! Remember, these are TV themes only (no lyrics). To build suspense, we'll start with #25 and count our way down to #1:

25. The Untouchables
24. Dragnet
23. Magnum, P.I.
22. Alfred Hitchcock Presents
21. The X Files
20. The Andy Griffith Show
19. The Dick Van Dyke Show
18. The Thorn Birds
17. Taxi
16. Dark Shadows
15. Perry Mason
14. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
13. Miami Vice
12. Hill Street Blues
11. Mannix
10. Route 66
  9. The Rockford Files
  8. Star Trek
  7. The Wild Wild West
  6. M*A*S*H
  5. The Twilight Zone
  4. Mission: Impossible
  3. The Avengers
  2. Hawaii Five-O
  1. Peter Gunn

It's a pretty impressive list and Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn theme is certainly worthy of the prestigious #1 spot--so my hat's off to those individuals who stopped by the Cafe to vote. If you're interested in learning about these classic TV themes, Paul2 will be profiling each of them at the Corner in the Cafe over the next few weeks. Click here to go there and listen to the original versions of the Magnum theme--and learn what famous film composer has his theme rejected for the The Wild Wild West.

Thanks for participating in the creation of this entertaining and informative list!

6 comments:

  1. Rick, even though some of my personal favorites did not make the cut , this is a good list, and was lot of fun working on. My 4 year old son is a bit upset that his favorite Simon & Simon did not make it. I have to run it for him all through the day

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  2. I can understand "Peter Gunn" winning but am surprised "Route 66" is so far down the list...I have theme running thru my head that may be from the TV show "Mr. Lucky" - was that one in contention?

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  3. Eve, yes was but, did not make the cut.

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  4. Eve, I thought ROUTE 66 would land in the Top 5, but at least it made Top 10. As Toto mentioned during the voting, some voters may have been unfamiliar with older TV themes. Paul and I posted YouTube links to some of great oldies in the Corner in the Cafe, but it would have been too cumbersome to do them all.

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  5. Now I have the Dick Van DYke show theme in my head now. Now if I could get someone in my family to trip of our ottoman foot still thing today LoL!!!

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  6. Rick , one theme that I always loved was not even but in the running, andI blame myself for not putting up the Johnny Quest theme. Some of the best big Band Horn Jazz (next to I spy) ever on TV. I'll post it at the Corner.

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