Themes for "Nash Bridges" - several worked well.

More have come to mind . . .Who could forget the theme for the original "Wild Wild West" ? There are two versions available on YouTube (seasons 1-2 and 3-4). The earlier has the better brass arrangement. And Hawaii Five-O anyone? "Streets of San Francisco" with that great clav sound and the French Horn triplets? Mark Snow's theme for "La Femme Nikita" ? "Cherchez La Femme, Dans La Nuit " which translates to " Look For The Woman, In The Night" Theme for "Millenium" was evocative (wait for the arpeggios). Stewart Copeland's "Equalizer" theme takes the hard-driven prize.

First, a brief note bout Jay Ferguson. I prefer to remember his work in Spirit ("Mechanical World" and "Gotta Line on You") than his work scoring in later years. That first album was standout with nuance and arrangement panache.

But as to sound tracks, I also like Mad Men, and that reminded me of the "Six Feet Under" theme (not surprisingly, Thomas Newman), Randy Newman's "It's a Jungle out There" (for "Monk"). The theme for "Cold Case" isn't bad ... listen to the long version on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/TvThemesSongs#p/u/16/addVfIY2pB4.

I like a lot of HBO opening songs like Treme, Game of Thrones and Bored to Death. They match the shows perfectly. Louie also has a nice opening. I've also loved the various renditions of Way Down in the Hole in The Wire.

My personal favorite is the Arrested Development song...lots of ukelele and the Ron Howard voice-over makes it perfect in my book.

Friday Night Lights' theme is perfect for the show. Its composer, W. G. Snuffy Walden (great name, right?) has a spot on record of great TV theme songs, including My So-Called Life and thirtysomething.

In the old school genre, high five for Head of the Class and the long-canceled soap opera Loving. Loving may have been a sappy show but it boasted a very catchy and thematically appropriate theme song: Look into my eyes/I could use a little loving *guitar plucking, synth, early 90s plinging*
Take me in your arms/Take me on to ecstasy
*repeat*

Jerry Goldsmith's theme song to "Dr. Kildare" is still my favorite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhU4TBHCwjM&feature=player_detailpage#t=8s

Paula Cole broke through via TV and Jonatha Brooke tried a similar approach with mixed results. Let us know forget Mr. David Byrne - Big Love, and that "Hymnal" disc of his that followed. I would have not known Sia if it wasn't for the last episode of "six feet under" ... so many others to mention - HBO does this well - how about all the versions of the title of Weeds in seasons 1 and 2 based on a classic song. Genius approach to mix the eyes with the ears.

This is an obscure one, but the opening theme to the Japanese anime Cowboy Beboy is legendary among fans. Incredible music throughout that show.

MAUDE.

Donny Hathaway + Bea Arthur + Norman Lear = 70s Gold

Its a crime that you did not mention the Friday Night Lights theme song by Explosions in the Sky. Also, West Wing theme song was dominant

Game of Thrones
The Borgias
The Big Bang Theory!

Jace Everett Bad Things theme for True Blood...

Buffy the vampire slayer, by the breeders.

Friday Night Lights! Wistful, almost mournful, kind of reminiscent of M*A*S*H*'s theme. Genius.

The original pokemon theme song was really awesome.

POKEMON! Gotta catch em alll!!!

True Blood! I wanna do real bad things to you!

Curb Your Enthusiasm!

Loved 6 feet Under

Miami Vice is the best ever!

Gotta love the True Blood theme song!

The song from Weeds I sing at least once a week. "Little boxes on a hillside..."

And I just told my friend last night that the Game of Thrones is great.

The late Danny Gatton recorded a killer guitar riff of the Simpsons theme.

True Blood's "Bad Things" by Jace Everett, AND it has the freakiest visuals to go with it!

has anyone said the use of "little boxes" and how it changes w/each episode of the show Weeds??? Very brilliant

Modern TV theme songs:

Love "Community" & "How I Met Your Mother"

btw- the Office"theme song's composer-Jay Ferguson- is actually a monor sixties rock hero.He was a member of SPRirit,and later JOJO GUNN.

It's been off the air for a while, but the Sopranos theme song still makes my heart beat faster!

Tween show Pretty Little Liars has a theme song that opens with "Got a Secret, Can you keep it..." and ends with "Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead". Great intro to a story line that focuses on just that...

I love the theme song for Monk, written by Randy Newman, "It's A Jungle Out There."

It's neither an explainer song nor an instrumental. It takes one aspect of the title character's personality and expands it into a treatise on obsessive compulsive disorder that anyone can relate to. It stands on its own as a funny, astute song, and it has a typically Randy Newman-ish honky tonk melody and arrangement that are very catchy.

Family Guy is not a rip off. It is a parody!

explainer title: "Car 54"
This and "Beverly Hillbillies" sung to my babies helped them fall asleep

Not that anybody here has ever seen it, but the UK panel show QI has the catchiest theme I've ever heard!

The distinction between the word "song" and "music" is completely lost in modern times.

all time greatest-the avengers and secret agent man. i know, a bit off topic, you want new,but who cares...

Loved the cello in Angel as well as Bones. Covert Affairs is good, too.

And after 20 years, I'll never get the Law & Order theme out of my head.

Showtime's Dexter theme song! I can get it out of my head! Everytime I listen to it, puts an little evil smile on my face!

BIG LOVE, now just ended, has a beautiful and evocative theme.

I think the theme song to the NBC show "30 Rock" is perfect. Totally hints at the zaniness that is to come in the show but also makes you see this is a work place show. The past paced nature of the song shows that, I think. Anyway, it's great!

Totally with folks on the HBO shows-- the opening themes for Treme, True Blood, Curb, (didn't love the final Big Love theme), Sopranos, etc., etc. all set the tone for what is to come.

This is a british show, but the great teen sci-fi series "misfits'" themesong is "Echoes" by The Rapture

SO GOOD

Treme on HBO - real NOLA music. Why haven't they put out a CD of that show's soundtrack?

Family Guy is no ripoff - it's a crazy and far reaching homage. And that theme song, along with Seth Macfarlane's other theme songs and musical parodies, carries its own weight while inviting us to imagine that show WITHOUT All in The Family, The Simpsons etc. MacFArlane knows he's part of a continuum.

The theme song (and opening images) for TrueBlood is outstanding. Although I believe it's just an existing song from a country-western-type singer whose name I can't recall, and not a song specifically composed for the TV show.

Also, Mike Post has been cranking out excellent theme songs for TV shows since the Rockford Files days. You could have a whole show just about Mike Post.

Twin Peaks!!!!! The music was just as eerie and weird as the show was, I loved both!

An instrumental version of "Teardrop" serves as the theme song for the American version of House, a medical television series

Never really appreciated House using Massive Attack, it's completely inappropriate.

How 'bout Curb Your Enthusiasm's theme.
It's not the sort of music I like, but it sure gets stuck in my head and really fits the tenor of the show

The Late Late Show theme is great and I like the fact that Craig Ferguson sings it himself.

Why, everyone, in both universes, knows FRINGE is the best theme song there is.

The theme song for the old "Bob Newhart Show" is absolutely infectious. It also makes me do this circular, bobbing thing with my head every time I hear it or have it stuck in my head.

If it makes you dance without thinking about it, it must be a good theme song.

30 Rock theme song is brilliant.

Curb Your Enthusiasm's theme song is great.

30 Rock is wonderful

PBS Mystery!
and that I could humm but can't call in

I refuse to try to sing it, but the theme from Twin Peaks by Angelo Badelamente was classic.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Leonard Cohen theme from "Sopranos." Totally captures the show and is now completely inseparable from it. I'd also throw in Cheers (because it's my fave comedy).

For 30-min comedy, 30 Rock for sure, especially the way that Jeff Richmond continues to weave the same theme into the scoring for the show and "songs" like "Muffintop" and "Wereworlf Bar Mitzvah".

For 60-min format, all Joss Whedon shows have great theme songs: the Nerf Herder track for "Buffy", Darling Violetta violin instrumental for "Angel", the Sonny Rhodes song (almost an explainer) for "Firefly", and even the nursery-themed track by Eric Bazilian for "Dollhouse" captures the mood of the show well.

Big Bang Theory has a great 'explainer' open, the show is about nerds and the theme is all of history starting with the, appropriately enough, Big Bang!

Where You Lead from Gilmore Girls, from Carol King song.

I agree with Jill/Manhattan. Treme theme should have been a nominee.

When Sherwood Schwartz dies the other day, Terry Gross played a clip from an interview where he explained that it was the network who asked for the explanatory theme because they suits thought audiences would be confused.

The Office's theme is one of the most recognizable and actually can be sung! The British Version used a fragment of "Handbags & Gladrags" (an original Rod Stewart song), which also made it a very recognizable theme song.

Hanna Barbarra Flintstones theme. . . . classic

Twilight Zone

Perry Mason

I know it's all classic tv but its the best

How about the 'found' songs that seem to fit the series to a t like the theme for Terriers and True Blood.

The theme music from Treme is so amazing that my husband and I never forward through the intro music--we just listen and smile...

American Dad, Doctor Who

I don't watch much television these days, so I can't comment on many of the cable shows. However, I absolutely love the 30 Rock theme song, because it's not only catchy, but quick and to the point. It captures the fast-paced New York City life very well.

On the flip side, the Office theme song has a simpler sound. Obviously, Scranton is not as exciting as NYC.

Sticky themes? "Big Bang Theory" "The Simpsons", "Damages" "60 Minutes"

The "Justified" theme really sticks with me, which is saying something, since I generally fast-forward through the credits.

Friday Night Lights - EVERYONE I know talks about that wonderful, wistful, open guitar theme.

My favorites are the theme to The Office and the theme to "How I met your mother"

the theme from SHAMELESS on Showtime
terrific hook, great lyrics--totally in sync with the show's edge.

Great moment in entertainment history--Frederica von Stade sings the Star Trek theme for William Shatner at the 2005 Emmy awards.

"Justified"--great theme. Recent past:
"Deadwood" one of the best all time opening credit sequences and music.
"Rome"--ditto
"True Blood" ditto

"Bad Things" from True Blood, is a great one. Gets stuck in my head!!! Love it!!

Dexter.

2 and a half men. Not because it's good but because you saw the show ten times in a day in different channels

The Treme theme song, combined with the opening visual sequence, does any excellent job of sacheting the viewer in the N'awlins state of mind.

The Mad Men theme is brilliant and the music in Treme, theme and otherwise is outstanding.

Game of Thrones, by far. I love the low cello or bass solo and it's so sweeping and epic sounding. I'll admit- I've rewatched episodes just for the opening.

True blood theme! Not usually my cup of tea but i love the dark and southern bluesy theme - it fits the location and mood of the show perfectly.

The Venture Brothers theme is amazing. It's a very modern/ retro theme.

Family Guy's theme song is as irritating and grating as the show itself. But true to form, it's a rip off of All In The Family just as Family Guys is a rip off of every piece of pop culture that came before it.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Leonard Cohen theme from "Sopranos." Totally captures the show and is now completely inseparable from it. I'd also throw in Cheers (because it's my fave comedy).

i am watching back episodes of COMMUNITY. that song will not leave my head. still can't get the words.....

LOST. lush movie music.

Monday Night Football! Long live Bocephus.

I have always loved the tone setting themes of supernatural shows like The Twilight Zone, X-Files, and Tales from the Crypt.

And who can forget the opening of the first two Star Trek series?

a agree with mission impossible theme. wonderful prominent bongo work[that's bongos,not congas folks]. where have we heard that sort of percussion work, on any tv theme of late? please don't say, sex in the city. it does not have the punch, that the MI theme had,no way,not even close.

The theme song from Psych gets stuck in my head all the time and it totally fits with the show's premise.

The problem with so much music today is the terror composers have of being simple and innocent. Everything has to be "hip" and "tough" and "cutting edge" and "dark" and all the rest of the BS. Nobody wants that crap. They want a great song that they can delight in hearing.

Big Bang Theory!

I also love the title theme for HBO's "Game Of Thrones", great theme

Family Guy has a very decent theme song!

The thing that was so cool about Mission Impossible is that it was in 5/4 time. Would love to hear the guest talk about that.

Down in the TREME!
Catchy as anything!

Mission Impossible had a great classic theme song

most of todays theme songs are melodically challenged. they don't linger,but then again, mercifully, that can also make them, much more "ear-worm" proof.

These are all so great. They're basically giant jingles, aren't they? I miss both.

My vote: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Loved the Show, loved the theme music.

X-Files is also up there

The thing that was so cool about Mission Impossible is that it was in 5/4 time. Would love to hear the guest talk about that.

I was going to comment on Mad Men, because it's perfect, but you already beat me to it. Love the Muppet Show that you played on the preview too! Those who saw Firefly, the ill fated Joss Whedon show, will agree that not just the theme, but the whole soundtrack is fantastic.

The Futurama main theme! Which, of course, you can't mention without mentioning the Simpsons theme.

Classics: Sanford & Son and All In The Family.

And I hate to say it, I have to give an honorary mention to Spongebob Squarepants.

I don't have any favorite modern-day TV themes. I'd rather listen to The Flintstones theme any day than to the non-song over-electronic soundscapes that substitutes for a pathetic inability to write a melody that we are subjected to today. Digital laziness has killed the composition of classic TV themes.

I still love the title theme to the "X-Files"

oh and the Bear McCreary theme for the modern updated revamped "Battlestar Galactica" series was also great (and I also have to admit liking the theme to the older cornier original series too)