Anyone who lived through the 80s will remember the A-Team‘s orchestral instrumental theme song. Think about that, you can probably sing the instrumental melody as well as Star Wars or Superman or Indiana Jones. It had that level of pop culture impact but from the comfort of your living room couch.

It was composed by Pete Carpenter and Mike Post, two names which should be as well known as John Williams for their contribution to society as between them they’ve created the theme songs to Law & Order, NYPD Blue, The Rockford Files, Bewitched, CHiPs, Quantum Leap, Magnum, P.I., and Hill Street Blues.

But lets not forget the video accompaniment. It starts with a 20 second voice over that manages to introduce the whole premise and backstory of the show in that tiny amount of time. Then proceeds to give you a good idea of each character’s personality and ends with an army jeep flying through the air and landing upside down! Pretty sweet for 6 year old Aaron’s eyes.

The show unfortunately doesn’t hold up very well. It’s still fun to watch but more in a “oh look how bad the stunt double is for George Peppard” or “whoa, that was pretty sexist/racist/homophobic” sort of fascination. This short clip of a bar fight will give you an idea of what I mean. It’s definitely one of those shows that was of it’s time.

Inspired by DOOM’s rather wonderful competition to win a DVD and poster signed by the cast of Thunderbirds Are Go we’ve been talking a bit around DOOM Towers about the original 1960s TV show’s amazing theme tune.

In truth, it was a theme in two parts. The show’s now legendary countdown at the very beginning which prompted a short preview of that episode’s highlights and then the big band kicks in with the horns and drums and excitement!

The show came out in 1965, nearly 20 years before I was born, but it is etched into the consciousness of every kid of my generation and more. Thunderbirds‘ quality was so high that it never felt dated to children. The sets, explosions, the ships of both air and sea, they all felt fantastical and still futuristic so many years later.

Thunderbirds follows the heroic action by the team of IR – International Rescue who are comprised of the Tracy family, headed by ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, their scientist Brains (his name is Brains, honest), and their secret agent Lady Penelope. Sometimes they even get dressed up like some dapper mofos.

The show was created by the husband and wife duo of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson (Sylvia even voiced the iconic Lady Penelope). Their puppetry company Supermarionation also produced Stingray, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, and Joe 90 all of whom I will be covering at some point in this column’s future.

The show only ran two seasons but that was less about the show’s popularity but more about it being one of the most expensive TV shows that existed at the time. It’s money well spent though as having watched a couple episodes recently, Thunderbirds still holds up wonderfully and can be a great late night/early morning TV experience.

If you’re fascinated by the making of a puppetry show with all their models and sets as I am then this video is a lovely collection of behind the scene documentaries from the time of production and after.

While Captain Planet & The Planeteers, to give it its full title, was an admirable show morally it does however falls apart when you think about it for too long. We never really questioned the vague locations for the children, as an example. From “Asia…” I mean, what? And if Captain Planet was their powers combined, what was the point of splitting those powers up into rings? Get it together, Gaia. And don’t even get me started on “heart”. Worst power ever.

Did you know that Whoopi Goldberg was the voice of Gaia (essentially Mother Earth) for the first three seasons and then was replaced with Lois Lane herself Margot Kidder for the second three seasons? Or that the Planeteer with the power of earth, Kwame, was voiced by none other than Geordi LaForge himself LeVar Burton! Pretty cool, huh? There are lots of great guest voices too like Tim Curry, Sting, and Jeff Goldblum but that’s where the coolness dies, I’m afraid, because everything after that was dorky as hell.

In fact, the show was so lame that the theme tune we all remember it for is actually the credits music. That’s right, its theme song is at the end of the show not at the beginning. Here is the first ever episode as a shining example:

The show changed a bit over the series but here is something I did not know at all until I researched this article. The original intro explaining everyone’s situation was replaced by a rather odd rap in the final season. This rap was performed by Fred Schneider of the legendary B52s! Check it out in the video below:

California Dreams ran for only 5 seasons but in a number of ways, it’s a miracle it lasted as long as it did with concept changes, cast changes, and competition with the biggest show of that era.

The show was based around a teen band called, unsurprisingly, California Dreams. It was produced by Peter Engel, the same genius behind Saved By The Bell. The shows overlapped as SBTB‘s last two seasons aired at the same time as California Dreams‘ first two. And those first two seasons of California Dreams were rocky.

The first season was based around a brother and sister Matt and Jenny Garrison in the band but by season two the line-up started to change, the sister left, new members came in, and eventually the Garrisons left the show entirely. As a result the show evolved quite a bit but luckily, in my opinion, it got better as it went along.

Here is a full episode from season three when they had settled in to their new dynamic. It’s one of those “very special” episodes where the small sweet kid gets into steroids.

Check that smooth pop song though, right? Well, the original was even schmaltzier. The band played some of the cheesiest pop music you’ll ever hear (and not Mormon Death Metal as their wikipedia page claims).

Here you’ll see the band from the first season play the full theme song, when they were a 4 piece instead of 5. Noticeably the two surviving members, on bass and drums, having the least to do.

None of the original cast members have gone on to much, Kelly Packard was probably the most successful as she had a decent run in Baywatch afterwards… as much as you can call being in Baywatch “decent”. Despite this, the show managed to stay relatively strong in pop culture consciousness, even inspiring this song by Fight Like Apes titled after the show’s “Fonzie”, Jake Summers.

The show was narrated by legendary English comedy actor David Jason and he also voiced the eponymous hero. Danger Mouse was a super spy, moulded much in the same vein as James Bond and Sherlock Holmes. He was closely followed everywhere by his assistant Penfold, whose blundering often both caused and cured many of DM’s problems.

The fun in the show was very British with lots of puns and wordplay long with endless breaking of the 4th wall. This sort of anarchic comedy was always my favourite. It makes proceedings both incredibly clever and dumb simultaneously. Something we pride ourselves on here at DOOM Towers. Wink.

The show mirrored and enhanced this aesthetic with its fast and frantic theme song. As a parody of spy adventures, it manages to capture the pulp feel of those tales along with the ridiculous over-hyping of the main character at the same time. To conclude by blowing up the title? C’mon, you might as well be recruiting me.

Here is a full episode. It’s ten minutes long so how could you say no?

Word-up, this is very much a show of it’s time and is possibly not considered 100% PC in places now.

The Wombles is based on a series of books from the 1960s about little creatures who live underground and recycle rubbish that they find in the surrounding areas for their homes and contraptions. Uncle Bulgaria is the patriarch of The Wombles and is joined by the likes of Madame Cholet, Bungo, and Orinoco. It wasn’t long before the books were turned into a stop motion TV show narrated by Bernard Cribbins (that’s right Doctor Who fans, Donna Noble’s Granddad).

The episodes were quite short, only 5 minutes long, but the theme tune is quite memorable due in no small part to the massive popularity of the show and it’s surprising impact on pop culture. Here is a full episode you can watch. Blink, and you’ll miss the one verse theme tune.

You can watch (what looks to be all their episodes) on the Wombles official youtube channel.

The show somehow hit the zeitgeist of the 70s as the movement towards recycling was just starting. It also seemed to hit Britain in the midst of a long period of novelty pop records. We spoke about TV show theme tunes entering the charts in the Minder article and The Wombles is no different. In fact, The Wombles went a step further and had a number of different songs in the charts. Here is arguably their biggest hit “Remember You’re a Womble”.

The footage in the following video isn’t great but it’s worth including for the bizarreness of it all. When Britain hosted the Eurovision in 1974, during the intermission for voting, they introduced The Wombles to the rest of Europe. I love it, if for no other reason than the poor presenter who had to translate The Wombles into French.

They haven’t gone away either. The Wombles played Glastonbury as recently as 2011. We’ll never be able to forget that we’re a Womble now…

Jem’s real name is Jerrica Benton (nope, that’s not a typo, it’s Jerrica) and she’s the owner of her own record label but when she’s not being a pretty boss role model she’s also wearing a pink wig and some crazy glam make-up as the lead-singer of her chart-topping band.

It’s not all good times though, close on her heels is the kinda-punk-looking-but-mostly-pop rivals The Misfits (no relation) who try to upstage Jem and her Holograms but also kinda kill them(?). It’s weird but the line is slightly blurred concerning what their end-game is. They don’t like each other, that’s for sure.

As a side note: I think they missed a trick by not spelling it The Missfits. I’m a sucker for puns.

Of course things are a lot more complicated than my description of the show. It was a cartoon from the late 80s, they’re all mad as hell. It ran for 3 seasons which is better than some of the other cartoons we’ve covered here so it had plenty of time to really get weird in those 65 episodes. There was orphans and futuristic technology and kidnappings… Katy Perry doesn’t have to deal with that!

To be honest the premise of Jem is rife for use again today so I’m kinda shocked it has taken Hollywood this long to reboot it. I just hope they somehow keep this cracker of a tune…

The late 70s/early 80s was a golden time for TV show theme tunes. They always managed to get something catchy to match the show-encompasing montages at the start of every episode. Take Minder for an example. Over a minute of every episode was dedicated to this sequence and while most TV producers would think that’s time wasting these days, it helped ingrain the show into the minds of everyone who watched it.

In fact, the show’s theme was so popular it even became a chart hit! Which is no mean feat in the days before downloading. The record reached No.3 in the UK charts in November 1980 and was sung by the show’s eponymous character Dennis Waterman! Its like if the end-of-show credits theme to Frasier made it into the Top 10 and you had Kelsey Grammer singing it on all the chart shows.

The show itself was about a dodgy business man who dealt with a lot of stolen goods and his ex-professional boxer turned ex-con minder. It was a very common theme to a lot of TV shows of that time in England as it was a period of tough working class issues in real life.

Minder ran for ten seasons and was immensely popular. It certainly shows it’s age now as it’s almost a time-capsule to that era but the show still has its high points, although a re-watch might be only for the more nostalgic fans. In fact, the show is probably more remembered now for comedy sketch show Little Britain‘s piss-take of Dennis Waterman.

This is one I’ve been planning to cover for a long time. I sing this to myself far more than a man of my age should. I recognize that there was more than one intro song for the show but this is the one that always stuck with me.

Garfield and Friends as a show was split into two halves. There would be stories from the eponymous cat but also from Orson’s Farm (which, I’m just finding out now was a strip called U.S. Acres in America… huh) and the title sequence represented that beautifully by having the two teams battle it out for the attention of you, the viewer.

The lyrics and visuals perfectly compliment each other. The fast pace and manic scene changes also give an insight to the type of anarchic humour in the show, which would often break the 4th wall. Plus, you can’t beat an old-timey radio announcer introduction.

The show itself totally holds up today despite it now being 20 years old (20? Holy fuck I’m old). There are a lot of cheesy jokes but it’s mixed in with a knowing wink and nod from writers who were really writing for a wide age demographic. G&F doesn’t really feel like a show aimed at kids, despite it’s habit of giving a life lesson on a regular basis.

Take for example, the character Sheldon:

Sheldon is the twin brother of the chicken Booker but he decided the moment he was hatched that he didn’t like the outside world so he chose to stay in his shell. It’s a funny visual but it’s also a wonderful representation of people who are naturally shy, withdrawn, and put up a barrier to the outside world. Add to that the premise that he had all sorts of impossible things inside the shell (it acted very much like a TARDIS where he has rooms and possessions inside) and you get the idea of how much fun the writers were having.

The Golden Girls is a true classic of sitcom television. One of the few shows to be based solely on 4 women, and women of retirement age, it bucked a lot of trends on TV. None of the actors were particular stars, although Bea Arthur and Betty White were both well respected actors and comedians. To say that this show would be lucky to see the light of day now, in a industry obsessed with “young and sexy” talent, would be a major understatement.

Despite all that, or perhaps to spite it, The Golden Girls became a huge hit and it’s down to some great comic writing (that stands up to this day) and wonderful performances from the whole cast. In fact, the girls are so good on the show that whenever they have other performers guesting, you can see a real gulf in the quality between the stars and the guests. A lot of the men, who pop up from time to time, are often cringe-worthy in comparison.

The song’s lyrics sum up one of the core aspects of the show and that’s the security and love found within a solid friendship. This is something that women especially excell in more than men. I don’t think any kind of “bromance” really offers the same amount of support that women give to their best friends. And the whole premise of The Golden Girls is that at the end of the day the only people you can rely on are your friends and it nails this message in each episode to the point where I wish I was hanging out with these 60 year old women in Florida.

The song is one of those “must sing-a-long” sort of tunes. The melody is delightful and the lyrics are so easy that even after 20 odd years I’ve never forgotten them. In fact I’ve sung them to friends on many a drunken excursion.

If you haven’t revisited the show in years I advise you to do it. It holds up perfectly and can make some great day-off viewing.