postaday

Just kidding guys, I don’t know how to write a song let alone tell you how to write one. But I do have a lot of thoughts about theme songs. First of all, where have they gone? Did we misplace all of the intro music to our television shows? Is it all just a symptom of the untimely death of the American sitcom? I may not be a person-snob but I am definitely a snob in regards to some pretty niche things. For example Ben Stone was significantly better than Jack McCoy on the original Law & Order and no one can tell me otherwise. But today I want to talk about theme songs. I have some pretty strong feelings, and I’d like to thank the Daily Post for giving me the opportunity to complain to a larger audience about the difficulties facing theme song savants in world in which theme songs are currently disenfranchised. (But everything old is new again, so I think maybe we can hope for a comeback one day).

First of all, let me say this. I would prefer a lack of theme song to a crappy theme song. Let’s just let the credits roll over the opening sequence instead of subjecting ourselves to the theme song from The Nanny yet again. Ugh, even just typing that right now made that song get stuck in my head all over again! Yes, a good theme song tells a story. We want to know a little bit about the plot or over all feeling of the show, but not the entire pilot episode! Alan Thicke (the only accomplished musician in his family as far as I am concerned…) does this really well in The Diff’rent Strokes theme song. And if you are going to tell a little more of the story, then it should be a really great song on it’s own like Hey, Hey, We’re the Monkees or The Ballad of Gilligan’s Island.

Then there’s the problem of a too long theme song (like in Family Ties or the uncut Cheers theme song). Luckily, Full House and Cheers managed to save themselves from the too-long-song fate by cutting down their theme songs midway through their run. Thank goodness for this because yes we all do want to go where everyone knows are name, but we do not need to slowly plod through the reminder of our worldly troubles.

Then there’s the theme song that is not worthy of it’s excellent show. I have to reference Family Ties again here. Don’t beg me wrong, I love Deniece Williams, she totally killed it on Let’s Hear it for the Boy (possibly the best song on the Footloose soundtrack tied with Shalamar’s Dancing in the Sheets). However, someone greatly wronged Deniece Williams by making her sing this totally blah song. It would have been cool if she had gotten to do the duet with BJ Thomas for the Growing Pains theme song because that song was awesome. But you’d have to expect a high quality theme song out of a show involving Alan Thicke.

I’m writing this as the sounds of PYT drift through my mid-morning ear drums. I borrowed a quote from a Huey Lewis song in order to come up with a title. So when asked whether I would use a time machine to travel to the future or to the past, it must be pretty obvious which one I would chose. Well, the subject matter was probably a dead giveaway.

Reasons I would travel to the past instead of the future:

I’m not comfortable with unknowns: What if the future is some weird dystopian bummer land? Or what if everyone has plague? Or what if everyone I like is dead? Ick. I’m cool with dealing with uncertainty as I live my life in the present time and gradually move into the future, but I think that if there is anything we can learn from Back to the Future: Part II, it’s that the future can be pretty grim. No hover board or self-strapping shoe can erase from my mind that is the travesty of seeing Lea Thompson looking like a hot mess.
It’s quite possible that I could be the coolest kid ever in the late 20th Century: I was not a cool kid in the late 90’s. I know, I know. I blog largely about the 90’s so how is this possible? Well, I LOVED pop culture in this gigantic gestalt even then and my classmates could not understand my passion for All in the Family or The Facts of Life when those shows were not “hip” or”relevant.” I listened to disco in the third grade and I was weird. I liked bubble gum 60’s pop while everyone else was listening exclusively to The Offspring. And frankly, while I looooved early/mid 90’s film/media/fashion, I just was not into whatever was happening in the late 90’s. Thus, after much analysis, I think I could have owned the 80’s through early 90’s with my vast knowledge and appreciation for culture and style. Unfortunately, it’s not considered acceptable behavior to take a three year old to a Madonna concert, though there was a plan to take me to see the B-52s when I was two. (My parents thought better of it at the last minute.)
I want to wear Jellies non-ironically. I know they make your feet sweat and create weird blisters where you think it would be impossible to get a blister, but I think these shoes rock. The light pink color is my favorite because it has the leg-elongating effect of a nude shoe (results may vary based on skin color) AND allows you to look like you are so care free and breezy that you do not even have to wear a sensible shoe. “Oh I’m just roaming around, taking life one minute at a time in my leg-elongating, care-free jellies.”