TV Opening Titles

I've mentioned a few times how much I love the Game of Thrones opening, and it had me thinking about how many shows are completely getting rid of openings in favor of just showing a title card to squeeze in as many commercials as possible.  It also had me thinking about TV show openings that I enjoy a lot, the ones that I wouldn't fast forward through because I liked to watch them. I've compiled a list (with video!)  to some of my favorites.

What makes a good opening?  In my opinion, you have to do more than just flash up the title and then show the characters with actors name under them with a catchy tune playing.  Their can be good versions of that, Firefly and The West Wing come to my mind, but those openings to me feel more like obligations than trying to say something about the show.  There are also your tell the origin story openings such as The Brady Bunch or The Beverly Hillbillies. That type has gone out of style, and I can see why, it's almost insulting that the show has to remind you every episode what the basic premise is.  The best openings can be really creative and give you a sense of what this show is about.  More important than anything else, it needs to fit the show.  Here are 15 of my favorites (in no particular order):

Game of Thrones

The opening that started this post is the one to lead it off.  This credit sequence really gives you an idea of the scope of this sprawling epic.  As an added bonus, the locations change depending on where the action of the episode is taking place.  A very nice touch that give you a sense of space when trying to figure out exactly where characters are or how far they've traveled.


Lost

This intro may only be a title card, but it is easily one of my favorites of all time.  The slowly rotating, out of focus titles that come flying at you show you that things are slightly off kilter in the world of this island.  In ways we could have no way to envisioned at the start of the show when we first saw it.  The creepy music only serves to highlight that point.  I can't think of another opening that just fits a show so well.


The Wonder Years

Okay, I said I didn't like this style of opening before, but this is the epitome of that style.  It also does more than just show you who's who.  The looking back on a summer barbecue through an old family film meshes completely with the framing device of an older Kevin reminiscing about his childhood.  You can almost imagine that finding this film in his attic is what started his trip down memory lane in the first place.


Deadwood

Some intro's are all about atmosphere, this is one of those intros.  My favorite type of intro doesn't show you actors or scenes from the show, it conveys to you what this show is about.  The cinematography of this piece is almost like mini-movie with scenes from western life inter-cut with the running horse.  The theme music has an ominous turn at the end, signalling that this is not your parent's western.


True Blood

Another intro full of atmosphere, I said they're my favorite, right?  I enjoyed True Blood as a guilty pleasure through it's first two seasons.  The third season, not so much, but the quality of the opening never changed.  There is something creepy and unsettling about it with its depictions of debauchery juxtaposed with images of southern locales and rituals.


The Wire

The Wire had a perfectly suitable opening credits with scenes of Baltimore and crime. In season two, however, something amazing happened, they changed.  Normally changing the opening can fix a bad one or ruin a good one.  In this case, it added depth.  Each season of The Wire dealt with a different issue in Baltimore, and the titles every year changed to reflect that.  A different version of the song and new scenes highlighting that particular issue.  The one above comes from season 4, which was about the youth and the school system, and what I personally consider the greatest season of television ever.


Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica changed their theme music between season 1 and 2 to what the UK had all along.  The new theme was much more brooding, which was appropriate for a show that, while it had big space battles with robots, was mostly about the human condition and whether we are worthy of survival.  Two particular things make this stand out and were present before the music change, too.  The first is the survivor count which kept track of just how many humans were left and changed depending on what happened episode to episode.  The second was the quick clips of things upcoming in the episode, a quick teaser that very rarely gave anything away.  A novel idea that really excited you for the upcoming episode.


The Pacific

This was a toss up with Band of Brothers.  While I like the music better in the older miniseries, this one just has more style.  The charcoal sketches coming to life and the backdrop of the Japanese flag red sun give this opening more feeling.  I especially love the scene in the rain and the final image of the one soldier carrying the other.


Chuck

Okay, this title sequence is neither artistic or profound, it's just fun.  A fun animated opening to go with a fun show.  So I suppose in that respect it fits perfectly.  The little spy guy comes out of Chuck's nose, c'mon, what's not to like!


Cowboy Bebop

This opening is the reason I even watched this show to begin with.  Seeing this one late night on Cartoon Network, I had to see what came next.  Catchy tune, great visuals, fits the tone, that's the triumvirate in my book.  The opening titles to Archer, which I also like a lot, should give a lot of credit to this.


Dexter

Nothing has ever made getting ready in the morning seem so sinister.  It's a show about a "good guy" serial killer, it fits.


The Venture Bros.

These entries have gotten shorter because it's late and I feel like I'm repeating myself.  I like in the this one how the characters are introduced with their characters' names instead of a voice actor.  Later seasons have cut back dramatically on the number of episodes they use the full intro to fit more story in, not that I'm opposed to that, but I do miss it.


Weeds & Mad Men
Weeds
Mad Men
I stuck these on the end because you can't find a video on Youtube video without the embedding disabled, but they are both quality intros.  Weeds was a show about people rebelling against the uniformity of the suburbs, and the intro completely embodied that uniformity from the song to the sequences of identical people.  Mad Men is a about advertising giant who is lost in his personal life, visually shown by the character falling through skyscrapers of ads.