Recently, I came across a Watch Mojo list of the the Top 30 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. While I agreed with some of them, many I did not. So I decided to make my own list. As hard as I tried, I just couldn’t go with the Top 30. There were too many great themes that fell in the 50-31 range. That being said, I decided to count down my Top 50 Greatest TV Themes of All Time.
When I get to #30, I will post my #30 along with the Watch Mojo #30, and so on. For now, sit back and enjoy 20 themes that “bubbled under” the Top 30.
Coming in at #44 on my list, the theme from The Munsters.
The theme was composed by Jack Marshall, an American jazz guitarist, composer, arranger, and record producer. Google offers up this description: An upbeat blend of surf-rock, big band jazz, and spooky-sounding monster motifs (featuring prominent surf guitar and a heavy dance beat).
Two distinct arrangements were used during the series’ original run, with an additional variation appearing in the unaired pilot. While the classic television opening was strictly instrumental, official lyrics were written by show co-producer Bob Mosher for special tie-in albums like At Home with the Munsters. It’s actually slower and sung by children. It’s not that great.
The song would have life on the pop charts in 2015, as the group Fall Out Boy sampled the theme for their Top 25 song, Uma Thurmond. The theme has been widely covered, adapted, and sampled by numerous artists.
From season one:
This one didn’t make the Mojo list, which is a shame. It’s so catchy and fun.
Next week, we’ll look at #43 and the opening four notes that make it instantly recognizable!
It starts with the theme song (I love that description, BTW) but The Munsters was superior to The Addams Family in pretty much every way. Fred Gwynne’s dorky Frankenstein was comedy gold!
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I agree! Fred and Al Lewis were both amazing on the show!
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The sports guy in me has a special place for Al Lewis. When he wasn’t acting, he was also known as a passionate basketball fan who acted as an unofficial scout for several NBA team. The word is he attended roughly 200 high-school basketball games per year, and legend has it he was the one who discovered at NY’s Power High School a phenom named Lew Alcindor…who later became Kareem-Abdul Jabbar.
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interesting bit of music. It seems very ’60s and also to fit the show. I wasn’t really familiar with it, when I saw the title a piece of music popped into my mind, but it was the ‘Addams Family’ instead
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