TV theme songs – part 4 of 4

Part 4

Cosby Show (seven versions all in one video)

Some of these I hadn’t seen in a long time, as I only own the first two seasons on DVD, and I do not have cable.

It’s Your Move

In case you never got to see what happened after the cliffhanger-ending of the “Dregs of Humanity” episode, I’ll explain. First of all, a real life speech by President Reagan caused the followup episode to be postponed. Then after that, NBC switched the day and time that the show was on, which is why so many people never got to see it. In the next episode, Matt had a car drive off a cliff into the ocean, “killing” all the non-existent members of his fake band, with the tide carrying their “bodies” out to sea. That was a great episode. In the episode after that, Matt’s mother discovered that he had been pulling schemes on her and everyone else all along. This caused a huge “jump the shark” to happen to the series, and the four episodes that followed were as dull, bland, boring, and routine as any show could possibly be, which is why it never got renewed for a second season. Other than those last four episodes, this was a brilliant, excellently done sitcom, and it’s a shame that it’s never been released on DVD.

Golden Girls

The song is pretty good.

Growing Pains

This is the version of the song that includes Jennifer Warnes, which is my favorite version.

MacGyver

Before the action hero turned into a social worker, this was a pretty fun show to watch.

Roseanne

This is my generation’s version of “All in the Family.”

Degrassi High

A show where an unwanted pregnancy actually results in an abortion, instead of the “convenient miscarriage” or the “I was never really pregnant after all” that usually happens on TV. After her abortion, the teenage girl seemed to be fine – but her twin sister started having nightmares about it. That was a great idea on the writers’ part. That was just one of many well thought out plot lines in this very intelligent show.

Seinfeld

Remember that episode where they spent the entire show looking for their car in the parking garage, and when they finally found it, it wouldn’t start? They should have saved that episode for the end of the series. That would have been a far more appropriate way to end the show than the horrible finale that we actually got.

Simpsons

This is the longest version of the opening, and was created during season 4 when one of the episodes was running a little short. It was only used a few times, and then they decided to just add more commercials instead.

My So-Called Life

I watched every episode of this stunningly beautiful show during its original broadcast. Since then, I’ve seen the series in its entirety four more times, and yet I still can’t believe how good it is.

Freaks and Geeks

Joan Jett gives us the only song on this list that has any curse words. The screenshots of Asteroids were not the Atari 2600 version. And the silver boxes for the cartridges that they showed in the store did not become available until after the time that the series took place in. This is one of the best TV shows ever made.

Gilmore Girls

The first season of this is magic – and is as good as any season of any TV show has ever been. Seasons 2 and 3 are almost as good. But after that, it went downhill. Whereas the early years had Rory innocently, absentmindedly shoplifting a box of cornstarch from the supermarket after she was startled by receiving her first kiss from the store’s boxboy, the later seasons had her deliberately stealing a multi-million dollar yacht, which the “real”‘ Rory would never do. The “real” Rory would also never have sex with someone else’s husband, would never consider dropping out of college, and would never go months without talking to her mother. It was sad to see such an awe-inspiring, enlightening show turn into something so wretchedly putrid.

Alias

The first season is the biggest adrenaline rush that TV has ever produced. The second season is quite good. After that, it got much worse. But I absolutely love what happened to Sloane in the last episode.

Monk (two versions)

This actually feels like it was made decades earlier, back when camera shots lasted long enough so that you could actually see what was on the screen. This is a warm, modest, charming, old fashioned kind of detective show – and I love it.