Master Index of Archived Threads


Themes from a Desert Island

1. "NYPD Blue" Theme

0 votes

2. "Doogie Howser, M.D." Theme

1 votes

3. "Hardcastle and McCormick" Theme (with Stephen Geyer)

0 votes

4. "Hill Street Blues" Theme

4 votes

5. "Hunter" Theme (with Pete Carpenter)

0 votes

6. "L.A. Law" Theme

1 votes

7. "Law and Order" Theme

2 votes

8. "Magnum, P.I." Theme (with Pete Carpenter)

1 votes

9. "Quantum Leap" Theme

1 votes

10. "Riptide" Theme (with Pete Carpenter)

0 votes

11. "The Rockford Files" Theme

5 votes

12. "Tales of the Gold Monkey" Theme (huh?) (with Pete Carpenter)

0 votes

13. "The White Shadow" Theme (with Pete Carpenter)

0 votes

14. "Wiseguy" Theme

0 votes

15. "The A-Team" Theme (with Pete Carpenter)

1 votes

16. "The Greatest American Hero" Theme (with Stephen Geyer)

2 votes

17. "CHiPs" Theme

0 votes

18. "Silk Stalkings" Theme

0 votes

19. "NewsRadio" Theme

0 votes

20. "The Commish" Theme

0 votes

Edgy DC Jun 29 2010 12:50 PM

You're on a desert island. It's beautiful, but lonely and boring. To pass the time, you recall old TV shows you can no longer watch. And the soundtrack behind them is filled with sweet, sweet Mike Post themes. But only one of these songs makes it onto your mix tape. Which is it? (Bonus trivia: Mike Post got his start as a member of Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. He is also the credited producer for such easy-list'nin' classicks as "Classical Gas" and "I've Got You, Babe.")

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jun 29 2010 12:53 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

I might have to think about this one for a week or two. Kee-rist.

Edgy DC Jun 29 2010 12:54 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

Comes down to Magnum, Rockford, and White Shadow for me. Hill Street was iconic, but it literally is just a theme, with a chord change on piano and a little guitar and sax riffing off of it.

metsguyinmichigan Jun 29 2010 01:09 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

Torn between Hill Street and Blue. Like them both!

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jun 29 2010 01:11 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

But Hill Street just kinda sends a perfect, melancholy tingle down my spine. Maybe that just makes it a great jingle. Magnum and Doogie's farty, oh-so-brain-sticky keyboard melody are in the mix for me. Greatest American Hero, too. But Rockford's maybe my favorite theme of all-time, up there with Sanford and Son, Andy Griffith, Good Times and One Day at a Time (sue me)... and Rockford it is.

Edgy DC Jun 29 2010 01:12 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

This just in. The CHiPs theme he composed is not the CHiPs theme you know.

Edgy DC Jun 29 2010 01:21 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

[quote="LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr"]But Hill Street just kinda sends a perfect, melancholy tingle down my spine. Maybe that just makes it a great jingle.

Oh, sure, it's perfect in that regard. Just a few chord changes but it elegantly captures the nobility and the melancholy of the lifestyle of cops workin' the slums. I just don't know if it has enough stuff in there to carry me through my Desert Island listenin'.

Besides, I may need the funky viagra of Magnum or Rockford or White Shadow just to keep going on the island. It shocks me to think that there were a handful of episodes of Magnum before that theme was adopted. The character and the theme are one. I imagine the director saying, "Cut! Tom! I need more... cock swagger from you here! Damn it, man, this here --- somebody get my boombox --- this here is your theme song! Ya feelin' that, right? That's your theme, my friend! Now... ACTION!"

Chad Ochoseis Jun 29 2010 01:34 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

[quote="LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr"]But Rockford's maybe my favorite theme of all-time, up there with Sanford and Son, Andy Griffith, Good Times and One Day at a Time (sue me)... and Rockford it is.

This, more or less. Except that the "sue me" theme song that I like would be John Sebastian's Welcome Back, Kotter. And Meet The Flintstones has to be on this list somewhere. And, though I like the Rockford Files theme, I've got to write in Sanford and Son as the one I'd put on the mix tape.


on edit...just decided to actually read the initial Post. OK, so this isn't about John Sebastian, Quincy Jones, or anyone but Mike Post, whom I hadn't heard of until about 30 seconds ago. So among the Post themes, Rockford Files wins.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jun 29 2010 01:43 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

[quote="Edgy DC"]This just in. The CHiPs theme he composed is not the CHiPs theme you know.

where can we hear all these themes?

Edgy DC Jun 29 2010 01:44 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

My friend, I need to demonstrate at least some productivity during the day.

Edgy DC Jun 29 2010 01:48 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

[quote="Chad Ochoseis"]on edit...just decided to actually read the initial Post. OK, so this isn't about John Sebastian, Quincy Jones, or anyone but Mike Post, whom I hadn't heard of until about 30 seconds ago. So among the Post themes, Rockford Files wins.

Yeah, because if this was a universal theme song quiz, I really would have include "Silk Stalkings" and not "Lost in Space." What do you think me?

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jun 29 2010 01:48 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

[quote="Edgy DC"][quote="LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr"]But Hill Street just kinda sends a perfect, melancholy tingle down my spine. Maybe that just makes it a great jingle.

Oh, sure, it's perfect in that regard. Just a few chord changes but it elegantly captures the nobility and the melancholy of the lifestyle of cops workin' the slums. I just don't know if it has enough stuff in there to carry me through my Desert Island listenin'.

Besides, I may need the funky viagra of Magnum or Rockford or White Shadow just to keep going on the island. It shocks me to think that there were a handful of episodes before that theme was adopted. The character and the theme are one. I imagine the director saying, "Cut! Tom! I need more... cock swagger from you here! Damn it, man, this here --- somebody get my boombox --- this here is your theme song! Ya feelin' that, right? That's your theme, my friend! Now... ACTION!"

"Your performance... it's got a hole in it. And there's only one thing that can fill that hole-- more cockswagger."

Conversely, Hill Street-- both thematically and simplicity-wise-- would probably make me want to kill myself after a couple of months.

cooby Jun 29 2010 08:21 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

Rockford Files for me, happy happy I can still picture him and Rocky in the opening credits

The Second Spitter Jun 29 2010 11:13 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

Why do you hate the Hawaii Five-O theme? [quote="John Cougar Lunchbucket":1szk9872] where can we hear all these themes?[/quote:1szk9872] Youtube.

Edgy DC Jun 30 2010 05:35 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

I adore it. But Morton Stevens wrote it.

The Second Spitter Jun 30 2010 06:20 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

Shit, I didn't know that - I was convinced it was Post. There you go. Just goes to show what I know.

Edgy DC Jun 30 2010 07:33 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

Top Ten Shows Set in Hawaii [list=1][*]Magnum, P.I. (1980-1988)[/*:m] [*]Hawaii, Five-O (1968-1980)[/*:m] [*]The Little People/The Brian Keith Show (1972-1974)[/*:m] [*]Fantasy Island (1978-1984, 1998, never to my knowledge, explictly stated to be part of the Hawaiian chain, but the opening sequence sure looked Hawiian, as did the native staffers)[/*:m] [*]The Brady Bunch (1972, for three glorious episodes)[/*:m] [*]Hawaiian Eye (1959-1963)[/*:m] [*]Baywatch Hawaii (1999-2001)[/*:m] [*]Hawaii (2004)[/*:m] [*]The Real World: Hawaii (1999)[/*:m] [*]Celebrity Mole: Hawaii (2003)[/*:m][/list:o]

Willets Point Jun 30 2010 09:15 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

Dude, if you're going to include three episodes of The Brady Bunch then you must include the unforgettable 6-episode story arc of Sesame Street with the search for Mount Snuffleupagus in 1978. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6GWJgpx-ts [/youtube]

Edgy DC Jun 30 2010 09:23 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

It's really one and two and then everything else, isn't it?

Willets Point Jun 30 2010 09:24 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

Believe me "The Search for Mount Snuffleupagus" was a big moment in TV history if you happened to be 3-4 years old in 1978. My wife and I still talk about these episodes.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jun 30 2010 09:31 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jun 30 2010 09:34 AM

I always thought of "Fantasy Island" as taking place on an actual Fantasy Island... like Brigadoon: the Resort. Also... no Magnum votes... but an A-Team and a Quantum Leap vote? I have to admit, I'm a little flummoxed by that one-- Magnum's like better versions of both in one theme.

MFS62 Jun 30 2010 09:34 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

[quote="Edgy DC"] Yeah, because if this was a universal theme song quiz, I really would have include "Silk Stalkings" and not "Lost in Space." What do you think me?

I would think very highly of you. It means that you had a crush on Mitzi Kapture, just like I did.
But I'm still a Law and Order kind of guy.

Later

metsguyinmichigan Jun 30 2010 10:12 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

[quote="MFS62"][quote="Edgy DC"] Yeah, because if this was a universal theme song quiz, I really would have include "Silk Stalkings" and not "Lost in Space." What do you think me?

I would think very highly of you. It means that you had a crush on Mitzi Kapture, just like I did.
But I'm still a Law and Order kind of guy.

Later

Yea! on Mitzi Kapture. Not even sure what that show was about. Just something about Mitzi running around and doing stuff. That was enough.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jun 30 2010 10:15 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

Whereever those people were cops-- Miami? LA? Slutsburgh?-- folks sure did find a lot of dead bodies in garter belts. I thank you, producers, on behalf of 12-year-old me.

Willets Point Jun 30 2010 11:02 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

Was that the show about the nurses who always wore sexy lingerie under the nurse uniforms (and the aforementioned uniforms frequently came off)?

Edgy DC Jun 30 2010 11:08 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

No, it was a strange show seemingly in perpetual syndication, about cops who only seemed to investigate crimes of glamourous beautiful people betraying glamourous beautiful people. [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssN9cLnlahk

Willets Point Jun 30 2010 11:08 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

Never mind, that was Nightingales.

Edgy DC Jun 30 2010 11:10 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

Not a popular show when you work at the American Journal of Nursing.

Edgy DC Jun 30 2010 11:16 AM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

[quote="John Cougar Lunchbucket"][quote="Edgy DC"]This just in. The CHiPs theme he composed is not the CHiPs theme you know.

where can we hear all these themes?
POW! http://www.televisiontunes.com/

dgwphotography Jun 30 2010 05:08 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

I was torn between Magnum, Rockford, and Greatest American Hero. I finally chose Magnum...

dgwphotography Jun 30 2010 06:13 PM Re: Themes from a Desert Island

I love George's version of Greatest American Hero: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caoYdiq3kak