Greetings, reader!
My dad suggested this blog topic a while back, and I found it very much worth doing - the opening credits sequence of a television series has become a staple of the format, and at its best, an art form of its own.
As people who know me might imagine, I'm one of those annoying people who are downright religiously opposed to the 'Skip intro' feature found on streaming services - mainly because the intro sequence is a solid part of the viewing experience, the names of the people who worked on the show deserve to be seen, and the work of the composers and graphic artists who created the music and visuals for the opening sequence especially deserves to be heard and seen as they worked hard to create a sequence that helps set the specific tone for the series in question. And also because the idea of needing/wanting to skip the intro feeds into the over-stressful climate of today, with people thinking of watching an episode of TV as one more thing they have to hurry through and get out of the way before getting to the next thing, and I find this appalling - an episode of TV is something you should sit down to enjoy, with nothing else on your mind, and it is a treat.
Anyways, I had trouble limiting my favorite intro sequences to just the 10 best ones as so many are worth mentioning, so here's my top twenty!
Here are my honorable mentions: Arrow, Dexter, Gilmore Girls, How I Met Your Mother, The Newsroom.
20. Succession
The theme song of HBO's Succession isn't just one of the catchiest ear-worms in recent memory. It's also a clever metaphor for the show's themes, as the juxtaposition of old-timey piano sounds and a modern electric drum beat feels perfect for a series all about the battle between old and new, with Logan Roy's old-money views of running a media business clashing with his son Kendall wanting to take everything to the modern age.
The images we see in the intro sequence are also a part of this, feeling ancient yet modern, while giving us glimpses of the Roy siblings in their childhood, with the most present force ironically being the loud absence of their father. It's a well-thought-out intro sequence, containing layers of commentary on the show's story and its central characters.
19. Atlanta
Okay, Atlanta doesn't even have an intro sequence, but rather a title card that appears in a unique manner after the first act of each episode. But it's such a cool feature that these well-placed title cards deserve a spot on this list, when you view them as a mini-version of what an intro sequence typically is. It's always fun and cool to spot the show's title, written on a park bench or the side of a building in a transition between the first scenes, usually with an atmospheric hip-hop beat playing in the background.
18. The Walking Dead
There are many little things to love in the Walking Dead intro sequence, chief among the way in which the main string melody often starts to play at the end of an episode's first scene in a teasing manner, before morphing into the actual sequence. My favorite detail has to be the way in which the background looks more and more decomposed each season, symbolizing how the post-apocalypse has gotten further - until we get to season 9, and the themes of slowly rebuilding society are seen as the intro sequence features fresh and bright colors of nature again.
17. Community
The intro sequence to my all-time favorite sitcom is quite simple, with a paper fortune teller showing the names of the main cast and nice little drawings while the song At Least It Was Here by The 88 plays in the background. The main reason for this sequence making it into my top 20 is the ways in which it often varies: I love the trope of changing the opening sequence up for a special episode, and very few do that as well as Community.
For the Halloween episodes in various seasons, the song ends on a ghastly note while the drawings are horror versions of the usual ones. For fantasy episode Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Law&Order parodying episode Basic Lupine Urology, the entire music is re-arranged to the fitting style while the imagery is also a well-thought-out change to fit the themes. We've also had a video game opening, a western opening, a stop-motion animated Christmas version with new lyrics - and, of course, season 4's "This is my show, it's about me, and all my friends, I'm Abed TV".
16. Rick and Morty
This zany opening is cool, as they change it up a bit for each season while keeping some core tenants in the mix. The opening, where Rick abandons Morty while escaping green monsters in the desert, and the ending, where Rick and Morty are being chased by some sort of Lovecraftian creature, are always there - and while these pieces of imagery haven't yet tied into the show's plot, fans have speculated that we'll get to those events eventually, possibly in the show's final episode.
For the other clips in between, each season features a fresh batch, and it always makes for a fun guessing game: there are always a few clips that end up being featured in the episodes, and some that are made just for the opening sequence. My all-time favorite has to be the clip of Morty playing golf and waving in the season 5 opening sequence - it's so low-stakes and odd compared to the other, more action-packed clips, that it's a hilarious addition.
15. Homeland
The chaotic jazz music heard in the Homeland opening sequence is quite the perfect metaphor for what is going on in the head of bipolar protagonist Carrie Matheson (Claire Danes), and it creates quite the mood for the psychologically heavy detective -style approach that the series has to dealing with its story. I also appreciate the audio inserts from relevant, real-life news stories, mixed in with carefully selected and poignant quotes from the show's dialogue.
14. Band of Brothers
This one is just so damn moving. In the opening sequence to HBO's WWII miniseries Band of Brothers, we see imagery of the war and the faces of our main characters, to the backdrop of a deeply sentimental composition by Michael Kamen. Even for a pacifist like me, these images create a deep sense of caring, serving as a reminder of just how humane the young men thrust into the horrors of war always were (and are).
13. F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
It's just a feel-good montage to the backdrop of an awesome song, albeit a young Veikko was utterly devastated to find out that there is no "The One Where They Dance In A Fountain" episode. Also, could the urge to clap four times after "Gonna be this wayyy" BE any stronger?
12. Star Trek: Enterprise
While Enterprise may be one of the overall weaker shows in the Star Trek franchise, the intro goes hard. Faith of the Heart by Rod Stewart may be a cheesy song, but it works here; yet it's the visual imagery that plays the biggest part in the openin sequence's high ranking. We see a montage of the history of humankind's modes of transportation and exploration, from early Polynesian ships and hot air balloons to early airplanes and space shuttles, until it smoothly transitions past our present day into the Star Trek universe's fictional future, with the increasingly sci-fi imagery leading up to the majestic visual of the Starship Enterprise.
I also love the variation for the season 4 episode In a Mirror, Darkly; for the two-parter taking place in the iconic Mirror Universe, we see a switched-up view of history, highlighting just what went wrong and why things for humanity are so different in the Mirror Universe.
11. The Sopranos
This one is just damn cool. The song Woke Up This Morning by Alabama 3, the footage of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) driving around New Jersey, it just oozes a peculiar sort of badassery and class. The vibes are immaculate.
10. The Simpsons
If you watch the Simpsons intro sequence once, it's alright. Once you watch it multiple times, you start to appreciate the ways in which Matt Groening and company keep things fresh with clever switch-ups. The text that Bart is writing on the chalkboard is different every time, with some personal favorites being the ironic "I will not waste chalk", the meta "I will not mess with the opening credits", the objectively hilarious "I will not use guinea pigs as 'guinea pigs' ", and of course, "I won't not use no double negatives".
Similarly, the way the Simpson family finally enters the couch at the end of the sequence is often varied. Most versions are fun and simple, but every now and then, they'll get all ambitious with long-winded concept couch gags (the history-of-the-world one and the out-zooming camera are evergreen favorites).
9. The West Wing
Conceptually, the intro sequence to The West Wing is a typical one that shouldn't really stick out - inspiring music, to the visual of short clips of each main cast member as the names of the corresponding actors are shown and the background aesthetic features American flags, White House locations and other theme-appropriate symbols.
But somehow, The West Wing's intro sequence beats many similar ones in my book. I know that it's likely due to the series being one of my all-time favorites - while this list should be about the best intro sequences specifically, it's impossible to completely separate one's attachment to the whole series from the intro. Naturally, with a series you absolutely love, the opening sequence will cause feelings of nostalgia and warmth, and that is very much what the West Wing intro does with me. Also, the short clips are well-selected and say a lot about the essence of the characters.
8. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It's not the opening sequence per se, but the absolutely genius way in which the cold opens tie into the intro sequence.
You see, the opening sequence always begins with a title card showing the episode's name as the lovely theme music starts to play. And in most episodes, especially in the earlier seasons, the series repeats the clever and imaginative gag where the opening scene ends in a line of dialogue that ties into the episode's title in a humorous way. These are always a blast, and it makes the opening sequence's beginning into a delightful experience every time.
7. Lost
Sometimes, simplicity works. The intro sequence to TV's finest adventure-mystery-thriller-fantasy-science-fiction-romance-action-drama is dead-simple, yet it says it all - nothing would feel as much like Lost as the word Lost written in white, floating in a black background, to the audio of a creepy but intriguing soundscape as short as it is sweet. This one did a kick-ass job of setting the mood every time.
6. Doctor Who
This one in itself might not quite be all-time top 10 material, but when you add the delightful evolution of the sequence over the years to the admittedly neat music and visual premise, it becomes quite legendary. Across the show's 60-year life span, the intro sequence has been updated countless times to fit each era of the series, with both the music having many iconic versions of the arrangement while the visual landscape has seen multiple cool aesthetic directions.
My favorite one has to be the one belonging to the Matt Smith era - the dramatic Murray Gold arrangement, the stormy visuals, that's peak Doctor Who right there. And who among us didn't shed a tear when the 50th anniversary episode The Day of the Doctor opened with the original 1963 version of the sequence?
5. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
I don't care how many Oscars he wins, this rap will always be Will Smith's career highlight for me. It's just so damn catchy and fun. The lyrics are memorable, and the beat slaps harder than - well - damn, the metaphor escapes me...
4. Futurama
This might not be the most critically acclaimed opening sequence, but dammit, it's just so funky and fun! The massively nostalgic soundtrack gives off the vibe of "What if Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit was upbeat and sci-fi?", and the zany visuals introduce the show's futuristic setting in a colorful fashion. Also, Matt Groening's "let's do something different each time" humor is even better here than it is in The Simpsons, as the text below the "FUTURAMA" title is different every time - here are just a few of my favorites:
"In color"
"Put on 2-D glasses now"
"Loading..."
"Filmed on location"
"Based on a true story"
"As foretold by Nostradamus"
"Painstakingly drawn before a live audience"
"Last known transmission of the Hubble telescope"
"Featuring a new invisible character who doesn't speak"
"Not sure if new episode or just rerun of episode I watched drunk"
3. Game of Thrones
Ramin Djawadi's score is one for the ages, and the visuals are so incredibly cool - the intricate map of Westeros comes to life through some expert animation work, and I love the attention to detail. The locations showed on the map vary from episode to episode based on where the main characters are at the moment, and I remember how neat it felt when watching the series whenever a new location was seen in the opening credits for the first time. An appropriately epic intro sequence for an epic series.
2. Twin Peaks
This one just soothes me. The vibes are unparalleled - Angelo Badalamenti's sense-melting score, the beautiful shots of the fictional Washington town, even details like credit font, it all comes together to form a truly artistic tapestry that sets the mood with perfection and makes the heart of this fan swell every time. *chef's kiss*
1. Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation
Mark my words, no television opening sequence will ever come close to this one. As the timeless outer space visuals and the magnificent and otherworldly sountrack draw you in, the words "Space - the final frontier" hit indescribably hard, with the rest of the opening monologue filling you with a sense of curiosity, idealism, exploration and adventure.
As great as the original series' version is, with William Shatner delivering the monologue and Alexander Courage's original version of the main theme creating a sense of wonder, I must say that the Next Generation version is the definitive one for me. Jerry Goldsmith's take on the theme is even more grandiose, Sir Patrick Stewart is the only human alive who could outdo the epicness of Shatner's narration, and the change from "Where no man has gone before" to the gender-neutral "Where no one has gone before" way back in 1987 proves how much ahead of its time this franchise has always been.
I've watched a ton of Star Trek, and this opening sequence gives me the chills every time. Perfection.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for my 2024 Oscar predictions!
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