Creative TV title sequences are an integral part of any TV show.
They somehow connect us, the audience, to what we’re about to watch.
Many of these shows are as memorable as the shows themselves, if not more so, because they incorporate elements designed to engage viewers, as shown below.
Early character introductions in TV title sequences
Many early television shows had simple title sequences designed to introduce the characters and actors and nothing more.
“Leave It to Beaver,” “The Donna Reed Show” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show” are all classic TV shows that provide great examples of how today’s title sequences can be short and to the point.
Typically, they will flash the names of characters and actors on the screen, overlaid with images of everyone who comes into view.
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Sometimes the announcer says the names aloud during the opening credits.
One of them was Robert West LeMond Jr., the announcer for “Ozzie and Harriet” and “Leave It to Beaver.”
The other is Colin Male, the announcer for The Andy Griffith Show.
These shows, with or without an announcer, always connect the audience to the characters they are about to watch.
From “Beaver” to Lacey, we know exactly who the characters are and what we can expect from them each week.
It was awesome, but it was also a much simpler time.
Such gentle, mellow introductions rarely attract attention these days.
We usually need more pre-title content to invest in what’s going to happen next.
Creative TV opening and catchy theme song
One element of creative television titles that has remained consistent over the years is the catchy theme song.
We use our five senses almost all the time, but three of them are useless when watching TV.
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We can’t taste, touch or smell what we see on TV, although that might happen if we give technology a few years.
But now, we watch TV with our eyes and listen with our ears, which is why a catchy theme song can determine the memory of a TV show.
When television became popular in the 1950s, TV show creators quickly realized that shows needed a good opening piercing.
There are many ways to use theme songs to engage your audience.
Catchy tunes like The Whistle from The Andy Griffith Show captivate us and quickly become memorable, almost like signatures. However, it’s harder to forget them when their theme song has lyrics.
Three’s Company’s “Come Knock on Our Door” and The Brady Bunch’s “Here’s the Story…” are ingrained in our brains.
Every decade adds some memorable theme songs. You might hear these themes ringing in your head when you read the titles of shows like The Golden Girls, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Michel, or Friends.
Many shows since the mid-to-late 2010s have opted for purely instrumental theme songs but still have memorable music in their opening credits, with Game of Thrones being a prime example.
There are, of course, some wonderful lyrical exceptions, such as “The History of Everything,” written and performed by the Barenaked Ladies for the opening sequence of The Big Bang Theory.
Visual Creative TV Opening Title Sequence
Many of television’s best title sequences are visually appealing and contain memorable features.
For example, I’ll never forget the first time I saw the Enterprise D fly into view during the introduction to StarCraft: The Next Generation.
Another great example is Netflix’s recent series about the British monarchy, The Crown, which ends in 2023.
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Anyone who saw it will remember the image of molten gold turning into a crown in the introduction for years to come.
Similar images easily leave a deep impression on our brains, immediately attracting our attention and creating certain associations in our minds.
It’s often impossible to mentally separate the introductory visuals from the show itself, creating the brain associations that make us want to re-watch certain shows when we see the introductory images.
As for fun features and twists, the creativity in this category is nearly limitless.
For example, the classic show Vertigo used animation in its intro, even though the show itself was a live-action show, as did I Dream of Jeannie.
A similar trend can be seen in some recent or current shows, such as Hulu’s Only Murder in the Building, which also uses animated title sequences, or HBO’s Game of Thrones, which has The map will change based on the location of the scene.
Fans of Murder in the Building know that it went a step further and changed the opening animated sequence to give us all the clues for each episode.
This technology is genius because it fascinates us and ensures we pay intense attention to every detail.
The iconic animated series The Simpsons also mesmerizes us at the beginning of each episode, almost always changing up the couch joke at the end of the intro.
The series Wicked (2019-2024) also offers some interesting and sometimes hilarious opening visuals.
The images shown in the opening credits are unique to each episode.
Items like the bloody pickaxe are displayed on a flowing white background that looks like milk, but that’s not the most memorable part.
The show also teases the audience in its opening credits.
As TV Fanatic editor Carissa Pavlica pointed out in her review of Wicked Season 4 Episode 4, stories like “JENNY PARK IN SUN VALLEY, UTAH ) commented like “I lost all my hair after skipping this introduction.” very funny.
Many fans of the show have commented that reading the silly title sequence information is one of their favorite parts of each episode.
The full storyline of the TV title sequence
An intro doesn’t necessarily have to tell the entire story through lyrics or visuals, but some creative TV titles have done just that over the years.
Many of the most popular classic television shows have particularly great opening story sequences.
Gilligan, Skipper, the millionaire, his wife, the movie star, the professor, and Marianne are all characters in Gilligan’s Island.
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We know this because the visuals and theme song lyrics combine to tell us as much in the title sequence.
We also immediately find out that they have all been caught in a storm and are stranded on an island together.
Just like that, we knew the entire gist of the show before we even watched it.
Sometimes an introduction like this is necessary because there’s a lot of backstory to convey, and this seems like the perfect place to use some exposition.
For example, on “The Brady Bunch,” Carol has three children, all girls. Mike also has three children, but they are all boys. They came together and formed one of the greatest television families of all time.
Ignoring the housekeeper Alice (who appears in the opening credits but is not mentioned in the theme song), all the main characters are described in just over a minute.
Of course, all of this can be explained in the series’ premiere episode, but what if someone missed the premiere episode?
This was a real fear before other options like streaming apps and DVDs came along, and it’s one of the reasons why many early shows in particular tended to adopt this method of introducing the story in the title sequence of each episode.
short and sweet opening title sequence
If there’s one thing we can learn from watching too much television, as many of us TV fanatics tend to do, it’s that sometimes less is more when it comes to conveying certain emotions or ideas.
A short sound bite or visual can provide a wealth of information, so some TV show introductions have adopted this approach over the years.
As a child of the 80s, I was so excited when The Goldbergs (2013-2023) premiered because it was like seeing my childhood through a mirror. The synopsis alone triggered all the nostalgia in me and other 80s kids.
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The theme song plays briefly and images of the actors on the VHS tape are shown. The tape is then put into a VCR, and as the episode begins, we watch as the wonderful TV image filled with static suddenly becomes clear and colorful. The memories evoked by small scenes are magical.
Another great example of this approach is the opening sequence of Stranger Things (2016-present).
The show is only about thirty seconds long and simply highlights the words “Stranger Things” in a red neon sign-like font that screams the 1980s, the decade in which the show is set.
There are many other examples of short and sweet intro sequences that are just as memorable as longer ones.
“Frasier” has an introductory sequence that includes a quick sketch of the Seattle skyline. The reboot of Happy Family (2023-present) is set in Boston, so the sketch is of the Boston skyline, but the style is the same.
The CW’s long-running hit series Supernatural (2005-2020) was another great series with a short title sequence.
The show’s opening usually includes a title card, some action scenes, and a close-up of actors Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles with their names, lasting about 30 seconds.
This combines many of the elements discussed above in that the images showing them fighting monsters tell us a story about our situation.
Additionally, the title cards changed seasonally, sometimes for special episodes, which kept us interested.
As you can see, there have been and continue to be many great ways to attract people to shows using creative TV title sequences.
If I had to pick a favorite, it would be the Gilliganian approach to storytelling, which really had its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Do you have a favorite title sequence element?
How about the all-time favorite show’s title sequence?
Please comment below and let us know.
We’d love to discuss it!
