Grab a blanket, get a cup of tea and practice the Queen’s English, because today we are talking about Downtown Abbey. The show ran from 2010 to 2015 and has established a cult fandom like few others. And the theme tune is inseparable from the show. John Lunn’s score won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding music composition for a series, in 2012 and 2013 so it’s safe to say the tune did pretty well. But what makes it so special, you ask?
Today we’re checking out Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, with House M.D. House is a twist on the classic medical drama TV shows, which aired from 2004 to 2012. Hugh Laurie playing the cynical, inappropriate and stubborn lead who, for all of his flaws, knows his medical stuff. The show is pretty unconventional in comparison to other medical soaps because each episode focuses on one case, and they’re always seemingly impossible. And though House is addicted to pain medication and very fickle minded, he leads a team of diagnosticians (who rarely solve the cases themselves).
Today we’re going all the way back to chalkboards and detentions, with Tim Loane’s very own, Teachers. Channel 4’s series Teachers aired from 2001 to 2004 and follows the lives of a group of teachers, who are quite often drunk, sorely unmotivated and very self-interested.
“Neighbours… everybody needs good neighbours.” we’re taking a trip down under to talk about one of the most iconic, instantly recognisable theme tunes in soap opera history - the theme to Neighbours. Yes, that warm, catchy tune that’s so good, you may have watched twice a day.
Full House is a classic late eighties, early nineties sitcom, it's also got a classic theme track. It centers around Danny Tanner, a recently widowed dad trying to raise his three young daughters in San Francisco. Overwhelmed but determined, he brings in his brother in law Jesse, a rock musician with a rebellious streak, and his childhood best friend Joey, a goofy comedian to help raise the girls. This unconventional trio navigate the throes of bringing up children, friendship, and growing up. Over the course of eight seasons, the opening verse was trimmed here, a line skipped there, but the chorus never faltered. And when Fuller House came along, the spinoff, the song was polished up by Carly Rae Jepsen & Butch Walker, giving it a fresh sound for a new generation, but the soul remained the sam
Today we’re popping over to Scranton, Pennsylvania for one of the most instantly recognisable tunes ever: The Office (US Ed. - cough, cough). The Office, for those who somehow haven't seen it, is a mockumentary about a paper company in Scranton, which ran from 2005 to 2013. It is an awkward, heartfelt show, lasting 9 seasons, which launched the careers of people like John Krasinski and Mindy Kaling.
Today we are shining the spotlight on one of the most beloved shows out there. It is the iconic “howcatchem” detective show: Columbo. But before we get into the music, let’s take a step back and paint a little picture. So, Columbo , for those of you who are unfamiliar, is a classic American detective series from the '70s, starring Peter Falk as the rumpled, cigarchomping Lieutenant Columbo. He’s not your usual flashy TV cop. He wears the same beige raincoat every episode, drives a battered old Peugeot, and constantly plays the fool. But don’t fall for it because he’s quick and witty underneath it all.
We're taking a trip back to the early 90s, with the tune belonging to none other than Saved by the Bell. The theme tune was composed by Scott Gale, an american musician, who came up with the main lyric “It’s alright cause I’m saved by the bell” two minutes after rejecting the offer to write the song for NBC.
Prepare yourself to be humming just the one tune for the rest of the day, "Scooby-Dooby-Doo, Where Are You?" Now this theme, written by David Mook and Ben Raleigh, is a brief but unforgettable tune. Its bouncy guitar riff accompanied with the iconic sound of 60’s vocals, sets the quirky and spooky scene for a mystery solving, potentially troublesome gang, that it introduces. Mook and Raleigh were heavily influenced by surf rock bands such as the Beach Boys and the Ventures, and incorporated elements of the genre into the song.
The insistent arpeggiated bassline, soaring synth leads, and jet-engine-like whooshes don’t just suggest flight - they are flight. Premiering in 1984 on CBS, Airwolf was the ultimate 80s TV cocktail: Cold War espionage, high-tech military gear, a brooding antihero in Jan-Michael Vincent’s Stringfellow Hawke, and most crucially - a helicopter so souped-up it made KITT from Knight Rider look like a rental car.
We’re traveling through space, time, and sound to celebrate the Doctor Who theme - a true sci-fi classic that rewrote the rules of TV music. The story of this theme is almost as out there as the show itself. While it was composed by Ron Grainer, the true architect of its iconic sound was Delia Derbyshire, a pioneering woman in electronic music. Working at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, she created the theme using oscillators, spliced tape, and no synthesizers – NONE. Remember, this was years before commercial synths were a thing.
If you’re a fan of early 2000s TV, chances are you know it: “I’m No Superman” by Lazlo Bane. Short, catchy, and packed with personality - it’s as if the song idled up to the reception and said: ‘how about this?’ - insanely hummable it’s the perfect intro for a show that walked the tightrope between absurd comedy and gut-punching emotional moments.
The chances are, you know most of the lines off by heart and you’ve rapped those lyrics more times than you can count Before The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air even aired in 1990, Will Smith was already making waves in music - part of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. Their clean, feel-good party tracks like “Parents Just Don’t Understand” made them a household name, even earning the first-ever Grammy for Best Rap Performance in 1989.
When Twin Peaks first aired in 1990, it was like nothing else on television. Today, we're taking a walk into the misty pines and uncanny shadows of the Pacific Northwest as we explore the hauntingly beautiful theme from Twin Peaks - a track that has remained one of television’s most evocative and iconic musical moments. Co-created by filmmaker David Lynch (RIP) and writer Mark Frost (also of Hill Street Blues fame), the show brought surrealism, small-town secrets, and a mystery that bordered on metaphysical right into the world’s living rooms.
Who hasn't tried to slide across the bumper or jump in the car window?... Right? RIGHT? First aired in 1979, The Dukes of Hazzard was a wild mix of action, comedy, and rural Americana, following Bo and Luke Duke - two fun-loving cousins running afoul of the corrupt Boss Hogg while outwitting the law in their iconic Dodge Charger, the General Lee. But the theme song? That’s what stuck in your head long after the credits rolled. (image RTL.de archiv)
Jan Hammer’s Miami Vice Theme, a track so influential it didn’t just define a show-it defined an era. And encouraged designer stubble. It did. The Miami Vice theme wasn’t your standard orchestral TV tune of the early '80s. Created by Czech-born composer Jan Hammer, the track broke the mold of the time by using synthesizers, electric drums, and a pulsing, moody atmosphere that was evident throughout the show's stylized crime drama aesthetic - where slo-mos and conveniently stacked fruit carts or cardboard boxes were on every corner.
Gothic horror soap mashup theme track has one helluva bite Jace Everett’s Bad Things is hot, sticky and sweaty. Much like the setting of the HBO TV show it soundtracks. Brilliant in its seedy, sexy undercurrent, this was a theme that nearly never was.
If you arrived here and have not said ‘the words’, there’s nothing more we can do for you. Thundercats is amazing. You knew it then. You know it now. The theme is equally as iconic. This staple from the 80’s/90’s is every bit as iconic as remember. And then some. Thank you Bernie Hoffer. Thank you.
You may need to revisit that magic hour between returning home from school, doing some homework and then arsing about on your bike or climbing some trees.. ....better still ask your folks about this one. Bewitched, a sitcom that aired from 1964 to 1972, starred Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha, a suburban witch trying to live a normal mortal life and Dick York as Darrin Stephens. The show blended domestic comedy with supernatural hi-jinks - and the theme music is unmistakable and unforgettable.
We're tipping our straw hats to one of television’s most instantly recognizable - and oddly comforting - theme tunes: Little House on the Prairie. Ahh, that opening melody - you know the one. The prairie stretches wide, the sun is golden, and little Laura Ingalls is tumbling down the hill like a tiny force of nature. First aired in 1974, the show became a staple of family television throughout the ‘70s and early ‘80s. Based on the beloved books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, it told the story of the Ingalls family’s life on the American frontier. But before the moral lessons and tear-jerking moments wrapped into each week’s episodes, there was that sweeping, melodic, hopeful theme that somehow managed to wrap you in nostalgia, even if you didn’t grow up anywhere near a prairie - or even in the 70s or 80s, come to think of it.