BEST TV THEME SONGS OF ALL TIME
- Nick Digilio
- Feb 19
- 6 min read
The TV theme song. Just saying those words makes me smile. Or sigh. Or get a little pissed off. Or all three at once.
Because once upon a time, the TV theme song mattered. It wasn’t just background noise. It wasn’t something you skipped past so you could shave ten seconds off your binge-watch session.
It was an event. It was a statement. It was mood, tone, personality, storytelling, and sometimes the entire damn plot of the show, delivered in under a minute. And now? It’s pretty much a lost art.
Theme music, historically speaking, has always had a very specific job. It’s a musical composition written specifically for radio programs, television shows, movies, or even video games, usually played during the opening credits, closing credits, or sometimes sprinkled inside the program itself.
The purpose is similar to a leitmotif, something that instantly identifies what you’re watching, where you are emotionally, and what kind of ride you’re about to take. A few notes hit, and you know exactly what world you’ve entered. You don’t need a title card. You don’t need exposition. The music does the work.
The term “theme song” or “signature tune” also goes beyond TV. It can be the song that announces a performer, a personality, a legend.
Walk-on music before walk-on music was a thing. A piece of music so closely associated with someone or something that once you hear it, the image immediately follows. That kind of branding didn’t happen by accident.
From the 1950s on, theme music became big business. Hollywood figured out pretty quickly that this stuff wasn’t just artistic, it was profitable. Theme songs became revenue streams.
Cross-promotion between movies, television, and record labels exploded. One of the earliest and most influential examples was the theme from High Noon in 1952, which proved that a movie theme could live a whole separate life on the radio and on the charts. That door never closed again.
Television embraced theme music from day one. From the earliest broadcasts, shows had opening themes, closing themes, sometimes entirely different pieces of music for each.
Some were adapted from existing tunes, some were written specifically for the show, and a surprising number of them became commercial hits.
Soap operas like The Young and the Restless, Days of Our Lives, and Coronation Street became so tied to their themes that multiple generations could hum them instantly, precisely because the shows never messed with them. Same music. Same arrangement. Decades of repetition. That’s how icons are made.
Sports television took it to another level. In the UK and Ireland, certain sports are practically inseparable from their theme music. Football, cricket, motorsport, tennis, snooker, skiing, Gaelic games, all of them have themes that are as recognizable as the athletes themselves.
In the United States, the same thing happened. Monday Night Football with Johnny Pearson’s “Heavy Action.” The NBA on NBC with John Tesh’s “Roundball Rock.” The Olympics with “Bugler’s Dream.”
Even the NFL on Fox theme became so popular that Fox slapped it on baseball, NASCAR, UFC, boxing, everything. It basically became the network’s anthem.
And in Canada, the Hockey Night in Canada theme became so culturally important that when the CBC lost the rights to it, it caused a national uproar. That’s not hyperbole. That’s real.
Most TV shows had specific, melodic themes, sometimes only a few notes long, but instantly identifiable. The ominous swirl of The Twilight Zone. The ticking stopwatch of 60 Minutes. Even shows that broke the rules still made an impression by doing so.
But now? Many modern shows barely have title sequences at all. No theme song. No credits. Just a logo slapped on screen before cutting to the first scene. Roll episode. Skip intro. Skip credits. On to the next one.
And that’s where my frustration kicks in.
Because part of the joy of watching television when I was growing up was the theme song. Sitting there while the credits rolled, listening to it, letting it wash over you, getting pumped, getting comfortable, getting ready.
Now streaming services practically encourage you to ignore it. They give you a button that literally says “Skip Intro,” like it’s a nuisance. Like it’s disposable. Like no one put any thought, creativity, or love into it.
And commercial television isn’t much better. They barely show credits anymore. They’re too busy squeezing in promos, cutting to commercials, or teasing what’s coming up next.
And every Saturday night, without fail, I get annoyed watching Saturday Night Live. One of the greatest closing themes of all time, Howard Shore’s beautiful, emotional goodnight music, and they cut away from it. Or they shrink it. Or they bury it. It drives me nuts. That music is part of the experience. Always has been.
There was a time when TV shows had both opening and closing themes. Two different pieces of music. Imagine that now. It sounds insane. But it was real. And it was great.
I love theme songs that tell you the entire story of the show right there in the lyrics. Gilligan’s Island. The Brady Bunch. The Flintstones. The Addams Family. You didn’t need to watch the episode to understand the setup. The theme song explained everything.
Characters, premise, tone. Done. That’s efficient storytelling and catchy songwriting rolled into one.
Then there are the themes with no lyrics at all. Pure music. Instrumentals written by brilliant composers, performed by great orchestras or bands, instantly recognizable within seconds.
Everybody knows the Law & Order “dun dun.” Everybody knows the Tonight Show theme from the Johnny Carson era, one of the greatest TV themes ever, permanently fused to those legendary late-night years. You hear it, and you see the curtain, the desk, the skyline, Johnny walking out.
Game shows had killer themes too. Especially in the ’70s and ’80s, when companies like Score Productions employed an army of composers who cranked out funky, weird, joyous, unforgettable music for daytime television. The Price Is Right. The Dating Game. So many of them. And yes, among my top 15 is what I believe is the greatest game show theme of all time.
And let’s not forget the era when TV theme songs became actual pop hits. The theme from S.W.A.T. went top ten. MASH became a hit single. The Rockford Files theme by Mike Post charted. Instrumental TV themes were so cool and so popular that people bought them on 45s and listened to them on the radio. That actually happened. Imagine that now.
Sure, there are modern exceptions. Succession has a great theme. Stranger Things leaned hard into an ’80s synth vibe that deliberately echoed the past. A few recent themes have broken through. But they’re rare. Very rare. Most people skip. Most people don’t care. They just want the next episode. To hell with the theme song.
Well, not me.
I love this stuff. I miss it. And before I get to my personal ranking of the top 15 best TV theme songs of all time, I want to shout out some runners-up.
These are classics. These are themes that stuck with me for decades. Some were hits. Some were instrumental. Some had lyrics. All of them added immeasurably to my enjoyment of the shows they introduced.
Themes like The Flintstones, Green Acres, and WKRP in Cincinnati, and yes, I have to say this, the closing theme of WKRP absolutely rules and is even better than the opening. S.W.A.T., Taxi, The Odd Couple, MASH, Sesame Street, The Golden Girls, Laverne & Shirley, The Addams Family, The Greatest American Hero, One Day at a Time, Good Times, The Rockford Files, Cheers, The Twilight Zone, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and Gilligan’s Island. Just to name a few.
Those themes stayed with me. They’re burned into my brain. They mattered.
So now that we’ve talked about the history, the lost art, my frustrations, my nostalgia, and the runners-up that almost made it, here it is. My personal list. My ranking. The top 15 best TV theme songs of all time, in order of preference. These are the ones I love the most, for very specific reasons, and you’ll know exactly why as we go.
And seriously, take the time to listen to them. Click the videos. Let them play. Don’t skip the intro.
This is my list. Let’s roll.
My Top 15 Favorite TV Theme Songs (in order of preference):
So, there they are....my favorite TV theme songs. What are some of yours? Let me know!
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