By Craig Byrne
One of my favorite elements of TV, ever since I was a young kid, would be the opening title sequence. It was one of those familiar things — for instance, I always knew The Dukes of Hazzard intro would end with a “yee-haw” and a jump over a ducking Sheriff Rosco.
Now, more and more shows are getting away from that. It seems Hawaii Five-0 will have new titles that are based on the classic opening, which makes me very happy. But for a lot of shows, they’re just… gone.
Sure. We sometimes get a short thing without any faces or names, like the surreal (and kind of stupid) new 90210 intro. But you know what? When I think of 90210 opening titles, I think of actors turning around and pouting at the camera, with their parents doing silly nod things. To not have that would almost be like doing Happy Days without the jukebox.
Fortunately, some shows like Smallville have kept the opening theme tradition continuing, though it’s a dying breed, and even there they need to change the “glamour poses” of Tom Welling and Erica Durance already, as they’ve used the same ones since Season 5.
There’s an argument that opening titles give viewers a chance to walk away from the TV. I know for me, it’s the opposite. To hear a theme song makes me think “Oh! [That show] is on!” and I’d rush into the room to see it. It’s almost like an excuse to gather. Hear the theme music for Buffy and you’re ready to Scooby with them all. On the flip side, tune in to Reaper and get… a name tag?!?
One of my favorite recent shows to launch is The Vampire Diaries. It hearkens back to the great old WB days of Buffy and Smallville. But does it have opening titles? Nope. That hasn’t stopped some fans from making some great creations, like this one created by “Spike Darko” for http://www.vampirediaries.it. I love the design though I’m not sold on the music:
And while we’re on the subject, I think the show that has done the best job with opening titles in recent years is Canada’s Degrassi, which currently airs here in the U.S. on TeenNick. Since Season 3, aside from a two-year excursion to bland 90210-style titles, the show has maintained the same general look while swapping characters in and out. Here’s the Season 10 opening:
Here’s hoping the whole opening titles thing is a trend that will pick up again. And to the Vampire Diaries producers especially… think about it.
7 Comments
I really, really agree with you on this! I love openings in shows. But for some shows [like Supernatural] a title sequence just works. But then again you have shows like One Tree Hill, who had an opening [and a great one at that one an amazing song] only to take it off when they decided to give their show a “fresh, new look”. Needless to say, I haven’t tuned in since. I don’t know if it was the missing opening that turned me off but I do know that season 5 of One Tree Hill looked and felt nothing like seasons 1-4 of One Tree Hill. The show lost its magic. Maybe their opening sequence was that magical thing it had all those years. Well, that and the focus being on the two brothers. But hey, who am I to judge.
I agree with you, Craig. Though, I don’t think that every show needs one. One example: Supernatural. Their scary title sequences are extremely effective. Especially the one they used for Season 5, which is my favorite.
“There’s an argument that opening titles give viewers a chance to walk away from the TV. I know for me, it’s the opposite. ”
I completely agree with you. Well said, man. What’s so great about Opening Credits is that the show get’s a theme song. Sure they can get an unofficial theme song without having Opening Credits, like Supernatural with “Carry On My Wayward Son” by Kansas, which they play in every “The Road So Far” used in the Season Finales. But I think that’s rare. But with Opening Credits there is always a song, and whenever you are going to hear that song you will immediately think about that show. Take Friends for example, it is impossible to hear The Rembrandts’s “I’ll Be There For You” without thinking about Friends. The same thing goes for Alabama 3’s “Woke Up This Morning” (Sopranos) and Remy Zero’s “Save Me” (Smallville).
Let’s hope that Opening Credits will never die!
Agree 100%, I love opening titles. At least they’re not entirely dead; shows like How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory still have some good ones.
They’re not being phased out as much over here in the UK. For example, the BBC’s new Sherlock series has a great opening theme/title sequence.
I have no problem with opening credits if they use footage from an episode to introduce the actors, what I don’t like are “poses” in the credits. I’ve always had this issue with Smallville, it makes the show seem cheesy.
I love the opening titles. I was and am a hugh stargate fan. I would love when SG1 started those titles told me it was time to go :)
Although there are some shows that can make do without, I do like a good title sequence (and theme tune). British drama “Agatha Christie’s Poirot” used to have the following Art Deco-style animated titles for the one-hour episodes based on the Hercule Poirot short stories.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3A8z0hbJXg
Sadly, when the producers moved on to adapting the novels as two-hour TV movies, they dropped the title sequence in favour of superimposing credits over one of the early scenes. However, they do show how good opening titles can not only set the mood, but be a thing of beauty in themselves.
They can also fill in some of the backround about the series format and characters – and not simple with a “Space. The Final Frontier…” or “My name is Sam Tyler…” voiceover. Want to watch an old episode of “Ironside” and don’t know why Raymond Burr is in a wheelchair? A neat combination of half-tone images and rotoscope animation illustrate how an assassin’s bullet means that Chief Ironside spends his days rolling rather than walking. Go forward about a decade and a pan across a desk, a message left on an answering machine and a montage of photographs gives you a portrait of “The Rockford Files” Jim Rockford in less than two minutes. Go back to about 1971, and “The Persuaders” title sequence compares and contrasts the upringing and rise to wealth playboydom of main characters Danny Wilde and Lord Brett Sinclair by placing archive footage, photos and newspaper clippings either side of a split screen.
However, for my money, if you want to see how opening titles can set up the backround to a series, the best example is the 1980s British series “Minder”. Ostensibly, it is aone-minute silent movie showing the two lead characters, Terry McCann and Arthur Daley, as Terry is deciding whether to buy a second-hand car from Arthur, but it actually tells the viewer about Terry’s backround and a bit about his relationship with Arthur. Deceptively simple, it puts a lot of “cut and paste footage from episodes”-type titles to shame.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN9XzC6ChuE&feature=fvw
Great piece, I so agree. Opening titles help define a show’s character, and it’s surely better to have credits on a non-narrative sequence than over a scene.