Cheesy Sitcom Theme Music

How good is the theme for Car 54 Where Are You? Can’t imagine there’s another sitcom theme that mentions Kruschev either.

I always liked the Cheers theme, could have been a minor hit for someone like Gilbert O'Sullivan.

The best though is the Harry Nilsson-penned/sung theme song from The Courtship of Eddie's Father.

I would say the ne plus ultra of this genre is the theme to Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?, written by Mike Hugg out of Manfred Mann.

I always heard Supergrass' "Alright" as an opening credits sequence of a wacky late 70s sitcom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYBtcuUBEFc

Stand by that original post - both those songs are perfect as sitcom themes and titles. It's a pity I couldn't think of any more!

Cheers Theme w/ opening credits = awesomeness

When the Fiery Furnaces released I'm Going Away (in 2009), Matt Friedberger was going around saying in interviews that songs like "The End Is Near" were supposed to suggest something like the Taxi theme. Or, as he wrote in the press materials:

All rock music is a sort of dramatic music. And since the times are tough, it makes sense to have that “drama” be something more like a version of Taxi than something like a version of Titanic. We like Taxi better than Titanic anyway. So we hope that some of the songs on this record can be used as theme songs to folk's own personal versions of Taxi. Because—ideally—the dramatic setting of the music isn't provided by the story or image of the given act or band. It's provided by the lives of the people who use—listen to—the music. That is pop music's promise and problem, or danger. So be careful and don't get canceled.

(Funny/coincidental use of the term "canceled," before it became a thing...)

the beginning of Van Der Graaf Generator's "Sleepwalkers" always sounds like a 70s game show theme to me

That Friedberger quote makes me want to hear I'm Going Away. I loved the first few Fiery Furnaces albums but checked out around Rehearsing my Choir (though I kept up with Eleanor's solo work) and I fuckin' LOVE Taxi (both the show and Bob James' theme music)

I'm Going Away is great! It's more "straightforward" than the rest of their albums -- but with great songs, and some sarcastic guitar solos by Matt. (You also should hear Widow City, if you haven't -- the 2nd half of that album is my favorite stretch of their stuff.)

"My Life" by Billy Joel was used as the theme song for "Bosom Buddies", and the song is so sit-com-ish it's hard to believe it wasn't actually written for the show.

thanks, morrisp! I just bought a cheap used copy of I'm Going Away on ebay and I'll keep my eyes peeled for Widow City, too. I only remember the video for "Duplexes of the Dead," which I liked, but not enough at the time to go buy the album, I guess

And I actually prefer them in more straightforward mode: the EP of singles is probably my favorite thing of theirs I've heard

sorry for the Fiery Furnaces derail

Someone pointed out on a Hall and Oates thread that "Did It in a Minute" sounds like an early 80s sitcom song and since then I can't stop hearing it that way

They Might Be Giants' "Minimum Wage" could only be the theme music to the imaginary sitcom of the same name. (According to the TMBG Wiki, it was used as theme music for a TV series four years later.)