Show Tunes

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.