Favorite TV Show Opening Credits


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I think I will... However I won't number mine I will just have two categories

Category 1. Enjoy both the Show and the opening

Cowboy Bebop

The Vision of Esaflowne

My little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Italian)

Black Jack (Season 1)

Fist of the North Star (Season 1)

Category 2. Openings I love better than the show.

Dot Hack

Tenchi Muyo (OVA)

Fushigi Yugi

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Most of Bleach and to be fair, most Anime. Those guys really know how to get you hyped for a show.

Dexter- just the right blend of playful and thematic.

Masters of Sex- so blatant they're hilarious.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

The Raccoons (end theme)

Star Trek Enterprise series 3 and 4. Oh wait, no they're the WORST.

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Most of Bleach and to be fair, most Anime. Those guys really know how to get you hyped for a show.

Dexter- just the right blend of playful and thematic.

Masters of Sex- so blatant they're hilarious.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

The Raccoons (end theme)

Star Trek Enterprise series 3 and 4. Oh wait, no they're the WORST.

Now that you mentioned Buck Rogers and Star Trek let me add in Firefly.

And I have to agree with you on the anime part.

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Dexter (I don`t even like the show, but those are great credits)

The Rockford Files (perfection)

The Venture Brothers

Metalocalypse

Freaks and Geeks (they're ALL high, right?)

Hilarious House of Frightenstein

Person of Interest (the ENTIRE premise of the show delivered stylistically and beautifully)

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Most of Bleach and to be fair, most Anime. Those guys really know how to get you hyped for a show.

100% agreed! To that end I name these anime titles as pools of awesome:

Cowboy Bebop intro - goes without saying

Fullmetal Alchemist - ALL intros and outros, esp the one with Winry singing with the dog

Outlaw Star - Intro is space-shooting fun and both outros kick serious ass

Trigun Intro

Azumanga Daioh - tell me your head doesn't nod

Dragonball Z - guilty pleasures

Naruto - "We are fighting dreamers"

Bleach outro "Thank You" - Beautiful

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Most of Bleach and to be fair, most Anime. Those guys really know how to get you hyped for a show.

100% agreed! To that end I name these anime titles as pools of awesome:

Cowboy Bebop intro - goes without saying

Fullmetal Alchemist - ALL intros and outros, esp the one with Winry singing with the dog

Outlaw Star - Intro is space-shooting fun and both outros kick serious ass

Trigun Intro

Azumanga Daioh - tell me your head doesn't nod

Dragonball Z - guilty pleasures

Naruto - "We are fighting dreamers"

Bleach outro "Thank You" - Beautiful

Okay, my head does nod. Whenever I cannot put into words what makes it so catchy but it does.

I agree on DBZ. I listen to the Japanese intro and "Ai wi torimodose" from Fist of the North Star intro whenever I work out.

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Doing this in categoties (and excluding Saturday Morning Cartoons since, well, that is a future TV 101 topic.)

Anime

10) Black Cat (Fairly standard "Here's the cast" opening but I like the song.)

9) Samurai Champloo (I love the visuals. Song leaves a little to be desired but it works with the opening.)

8).hack//sign (Great theme song, good visuals.)

7)Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Such a bait and switch!)

6) Attack on Titan (It's just so over the top insane. Seriously!)

5) Neon Genesis Evangelion (They hide so many things about the series in the titles. Plus, more symbolism than you can shake a phallic object at!)

4) Tenchi Universe (I am a mark for the Tenchi franchise. While I prefer the OVAs, Universe had a better opening sequence and opening song, a rare good dubbed opening I might add.)

3) The Slayers (You learn about your main character and the theme song has something to do with the series.)

2) Cowboy Bebop (I use "3, 2, 1, Let's Jam rather often in my everyday life.)

1) Nerima Daikon Brothers (The premise is all there. One of the few times that the dub version of the opening theme is pretty awesome. Plus, it's pretty fucking hilarious.)

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Live Action (Comedy)

10. Family Matters (Putting this here mainly since it comes from a specific school of how to do your opening sequence. Song, establishing shots, have an image of each cast member doing something in character then they look and smile at the camera. I hate that. However, this is one of the better instances of it so ehh, it evens out.)

9. How I Met Your Mother (Gets across stuff about the cast without having to resort to the usual stock footage)

8. The Muppet Show (Totally captures the feel of vaudeville/variety shows.)

7. Green Acres (I love when they put effort into the opening theme song.)

6.Community (Love how they can describe the cast without even showing a picture of a single person.)

5.The Golden Girls (Classic song, good choice of clips)

4. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (All the background is put out there for you, even a couple of chuckle moments.)

3. Cheers (Take a barely known showtune, add some still photos, make something beautiful.)

2. Police Squad! (I love how the guest star always gets killed in the opening sequence and that the episode title and what the narrator say are never the same.)

1. The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Such an iconic final shot. A marriage of good music and some good choice of clips and original footage.)

Live Action (Drama)

10. Dynasty (I love how nearly all the men have phallic imagery in the background of their intro part.)

9. House M.d. (It's just cool really.)

8.Desperate Housewives (Yeah, the show sucked but the way they reused classic art for their titles is still commendable.)

7. Murder She Wrote (First off, how funny is it that the German title translates to "Murder is her hobby"? Moving on though, we have a show we know is about murder but the clips are of the star going through her everyday life which helps to drive home what her hobby is.)

6. Law and Order (The beats and the images that go with it. Major credits for the still photos and use of police sirens at the end.)

5. In The Heat of the Night (I will always remember this playing on TNT and, while I didn't care for the show as a kid, I remembered it for years after.)

4. Dexter (Such a sinister way to look at the start of a person's day, especially when you know that, unlike Jessica Fletcher {probably}, this is a serial killer.)

3. Veronica Mars (Mostly season 1 and 2. The song is a good fit for the show and, yeah, it's more of a clip show but its still a good use of clips.)

2. Freaks and Geeks (Takes the cast candid opening sequence and turns it on it's head.)

1. The Sopranos (This is how you do it.)

Live Action (Fantasy/Sci-fi/Horror)

Note, doing this separate from drama because there's so much more expected from opening titles from this genre.

10. American Horror Story: Coven (Each season's opening is disturbing but Coven's is just the right mix of it.)

9. Battlestar Galactica (The reimagining's open titles. Sets up the ground situation, has something for the people who watch from week to week. Good)

8. True Blood (I like the song and the sequence just captures the feel of small town Louisiana, both the good and sleazy.)

7. Dead Like Me (HA! Funny and macabre. So perfect!)

6. The Six Million Dollar Man (Wow. It's totally 80s but in a good way.)

5. Fringe (There are so many great versions of this one but, sadly, my favorites are all filled with spoilers. The flashback ones are cool and the final seasons is just chilling.)

4. Twin Peaks (Debated where to put this but the haunting theme is just so awesome and the focus on the town itself is perfect.)

3. The Twilight Zone (Strange and wonderful, no one version of the opening seems better so they all tie for 3rd.)

2. Game of Thrones (So epic and it gives a great idea of the scope of the series.)

1. Mystery Science Theater 3000 (I love Season 5's version the most, wether that's Dr. Forester and Frank singing the "La la" or just the other revisions with the change over to the Mike era. Anyway you slice it, wonderful. Honorable mentions for every other season though.)

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