Some one-season wonders, as in “I wonder how that got on,” are remembered, if at all, solely because of their opening songs. Ed,” about a talking horse “The Patty Duke Show,” which introduced viewers to "identical cousins" and “Green Acres,” the wonderfully off-kilter tale of a country-loving husband (“Fresh air”) and cosmopolitan wife (“Times Square”) that might be worth reconsidering with today’s urban/rural divide (keep Arnold Ziffel, the pig who was treated like a human boy, but ditch the husband claiming his right to force the wife to move to a farm. Other shows that laid out an entire fantastical storyline in a theme song include: “Mr. “Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale/a tale of a fateful trip/that started from this tropic port/aboard this tiny ship …” – you know the rest – and you’ll know everything about “Gilligan’s Island” by the end of the opening credits. More: Ken Berry, star of 'F Troop,' 'Mama's Family' and 'Mayberry R.F.D.,' has died at 85 (Theme songs are mostly memories these days, the victims of shows squeezed for time to sell more commercials).
The memory of that goofy theme made me smile and think of the whole genre of ‘60s sitcoms predicated on ideas so nutty – high concept, in today's jargon – that they essentially required directions in the form of theme songs that explained the show's premise.
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As with the series itself, the “F Troop” theme contains the kind of insulting reference to Native Americans that was standard then but unacceptable today, unless it’s the name of an NFL team.) The show is mostly forgettable – except for its self-explanatory theme song. (It's badly dated today. Some '60s TV songs were so good they topped the music charts - think "The Monkees," - or became a folk legend, like the song from "Daniel Boone.When I heard that actor Ken Berry had died this month, I felt sadness for the passing of an actor whose work I had enjoyed over the years.īut that didn’t match the words and music that immediately began playing in my head: “The end of the Civil War was near/When quite accidentally/A hero who sneezed, abruptly seized/Retreat, and reversed it to victory.”įor baby boomers, or any fan of '60s sitcoms, those lyrics are instantly recognizable from the opening theme of “F Troop,” a silly ABC comedy that featured Berry as the inept commander of an incompetent frontier military unit. Sure, they were pleasant, but they didn't worm their way into your brain like many '60s themes. Think back to "Leave It To Beaver," or "Father Knows Best " their theme songs were basic musical affairs with no lyrics. In the '50s, show intros were much simpler. To understand why '60s theme songs were so memorable, however, you not only have to look at the music being made at the time but also how much the television theme song changed from the previous decade. It's no surprise then that this musical genius was also prevalent within the theme songs of TV shows throughout the decade.
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Bands like The Beatles and Rolling Stones pumped out pop and rock hits, Motown dominated R&B, and The Beach Boys were full of good vibrations. The 1960s was a pretty great decade for music. Do you remember which show was only supposed to feature a "three-hour tour," or which series began each episode with "The Ballad of Jed Clampett?" Know which '60s TV theme took viewers along down a set of train tracks to the junction, or introduced them to a creepy and kooky bunch of characters? If so, you might have what it takes to ace this quiz on '60s TV theme songs!