this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2026
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Recently started watching old 90s and 80s shows just for the fun of it, because I'm bored with all of the new stuff that's coming out, and I fell into Knight Rider.

My review of the show so far aside, it's got straight up the most banger theme music I have heard in a TV show in a very long time.

https://youtu.be/lxhWxv_5bQ0

It got me wondering what other TV shows have really great theme songs?

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[–] cantankerous_cashew@lemmy.world 1 points 55 minutes ago
[–] eyesonthetoad@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 hours ago

Pink Panther!

[–] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago

Enterprise. It's been a long time.

[–] necrobius@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 hours ago

How I met your mother had a banger of an opening IMO. For anime it's Dan DA Dan season 1. But 321 Contact and the Fraggle Rock themes are the best.

[–] Donebrach@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago

Tank! by the Seatbelts for Cowboy Bebop is probably one of the best openers of all time for anything.

[–] quinkin@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

The Goodies

Monkey Magic

Babylon 5

Trapdoor

[–] Squibbles@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 hours ago

The littlest hobo for sure

[–] mondomon@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago

Cowboy Bebop. TANK! by The Seatbelts is peak.

[–] MrRubik@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Not the best tv show theme, but Voyager has the best ST theme out of all of ST.

[–] Donebrach@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

Jerry Goldsmith was a genius

[–] SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Obviously Pokemon season 1. I want to be the very best, like no one ever was.

[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 6 hours ago

Oo, fuck yeah. But you gotta specify the North American 4Kids censor/cover, and not the original Japanese one.... Which was very different.

Wikipedia, on the development of the song, just because it's interesting:

John Siegler and John Loeffler wrote the lyrics to the song. Siegler produced the track, also playing keyboards, bass, and programming drum machines. David Rolfe, the vocalist for later themes of the series, played the guitar while Jason Paige provided the vocals.[3] Kati Mac, Loeffler, Ken Cummings and Louis Cortelezzi provided background vocals.[5] The song was written in G minor.[6] Siegler initially felt the show's concept was "incomprehensible" but decided it had potential after viewing its debut episode.[7] Jason Paige recorded the original theme song in four hours.[8] Paige initially received a "standard, three-figure flat fee" for the recording, but did not receive any royalties from the song. He received a one-time payment "in the mid-five figures" for the song in 2000.[8][9] Paige claimed that he "didn’t really know much about Pokémon" when he did the demo, other than a scene in the animated series that caused bouts of epileptic seizures in Japan.[8] The theme song premiered on the debut episode "Pokémon, I Choose You!" on September 8, 1998. In 1999, Paige recorded an extended version of the theme song for the album Pokémon 2.B.A. Master.[3]

According to Norman Grossfeld, the then-president of 4Kids Productions, the line "Gotta catch 'em all!" was created as a "tagline for marketing purposes that would also be included in the theme song". It is derived from the Japanese tagline "(ポケモンGETだぜ!, Pokémon getto da ze!)". One other contender for the tagline was "Catch 'em if you can", which was used in an earlier version of the theme song.[7]

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Theme

Another interesting aside, is that 4Kids also notoriously and routinely butchered anime, famously, One Piece. So that they somehow turned out the Pokemon theme makes no sense, but that they did it by what seems like basically pure luck and taking advantage of artists, makes a lot of sense.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AyhK7yxZPiU

[–] SirMaple__@lemmy.ca 3 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Can't pick just one.

MAS*H, The Sopranos, Lilyhammer, Berlin Station, Bosch, The Newsroom, Shameless

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 4 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

I like a lot of the themes from the 70s.

Taxi, Hawaii 5-o, Benson, MASH, etc.

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

The rare Benson shout out.

Good show.

[–] stretch2m@infosec.pub 1 points 7 hours ago

Hawaii 5-0 gets my vote.

[–] CaptainBlinky@lemmy.myserv.one 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

321 Countdown or Sesame Street. Let's be real

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 1 points 7 hours ago

Honestly if no one's done a techno remix of your theme it shouldn't count.

[–] Modest_Toxic@feddit.uk 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 3 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

I was a fan of Alabama 3 back in the late 90s. Small band, in the UK. I used to go to as many of their gigs as I could, usually in small clubs, pubs, side-stages at festivals. They released this fantastic album: 'Exile on Coldharbour Lane' (which is still on my rotation a quarter of a century later). Hoping they do well, because they're awesome.

Then I got a contract gig in early 2000, in the US. Started figuring out US TV. There's this new show, called the Sopranos which I've heard good things about. Put it on. Fucking hell, that opening theme tune! It's the same band i used to see in venues that could barely hold 50 people! Mind blown, but so happy that they'll have earned a shitton of money!

[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 8 points 12 hours ago (1 children)
[–] CaptainBlinky@lemmy.myserv.one 2 points 9 hours ago

LMAO well played.

[–] rhubarb@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] robsteranium@lemmy.world 1 points 7 minutes ago

Haha I always loved this tune but I'd never seen the video.

Were drum braziers really common on the streets of the US in the 80s/90s or is this just a TV trope?!

[–] Echolynx@lemmy.zip 4 points 11 hours ago

Anything by Ramin Djawadi. Raised by Wolves also has a fantastic theme for both visual and audio. You can tell I've got a preference...

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 12 points 15 hours ago (4 children)

It's objectively The X-Men Animated Series theme. All other answers are invalid.

[–] SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

I always think about this song.

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[–] lunarwire@lemmy.world 5 points 12 hours ago

The 80s had amazing TV show theme songs. If I only had to pick one it would be Miami Vice.

[–] SaraTonin@lemmy.world 8 points 14 hours ago

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

[–] MojoMcJojo@lemmy.world 5 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Raised by Wolves. Not a banger as much as a haunting memory you didn't know you had.

[–] Echolynx@lemmy.zip 4 points 11 hours ago

Just what I came here to post. Forever sad we don't have a full version.

[–] Tinks@lemmy.world 6 points 14 hours ago (1 children)
[–] kinther@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

Came here to say that. Nothing beats a hurdy gurdy

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 6 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

My two favorites are Psych and Alphas.

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[–] YeahIgotskills2@lemmy.world 5 points 14 hours ago

Airwolf for the win.

[–] backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 19 points 19 hours ago (1 children)
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[–] Manjushri@piefed.social 6 points 15 hours ago

Greatest American Hero - Great theme song but the show hasn't aged so well IMO. I would love to see this rebooted.

WKRP in Cincinnati - Great song and really great show.

Dukes of Hazzard - Another great theme song whose show hasn't aged so well.

[–] jrTug_2T@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)
[–] khannie@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

Oh Jayce and the wheeled warriors brings me back to that Saturday morning goodness.

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