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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

More Honorables.

Today's Honorable Mentions for the Best TV Theme Songs of All Time.
More honorable in mind than the first three I mentioned last time, and as we descend on this page,
more and more honorable.

"Peyton Place"

Very similar to the theme of the movie, with a very lush orchestration.
I'm a sucker for lush.

"Hollywood and the Stars"

A documentary series that NBC ran on Monday nights in prime time in the sixties.
It was hosted by Joseph Cotten, and had majestic theme music. The only afterlife it has had is as the play-on music that
Paul Shaffer provides for Martin Short whenever he appears on Letterman.
As it plays, Short can be counted on to say "Thanks for remembering!"

"Happy Days" when they had Bill Haley and the Comets singing "Rock around
the Clock"

What's better than that? Certainly not what replaced it.

"Bonanza"

Whatever you thought of the show, you had to love that theme music.

"The Bill Dana Show"

A sitcom where he played Jose Jimenez as an elveator boy in a swanky hotel.
Great supporting cast. Don Adams, where he broke in a version of "Maxwell Smart,
Gary Crosby, and Jonathan Harris, pre-"Lost In Space", where he played the prissy hotel manager.
The theme music was full out elaborate, terrific, authentic sounding Mariachi music.
Composed by that great Mexican Mariachi composer, Irving Szathmary (actually Dana's
Hungarian Jewish brother). Proving once again that Jews can do anything.

More next time.

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My books ,"Show Runner" and it's sequel,"Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store. Along with the newer ones, "The Man Is Dead", and "Report Cards".
You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
Check them out.
You don't need a Kindle machine to download them.
Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.
The paperback, "Mark Rothman's Essays" is still available for people without Kindle.
I have many readings and signings remaining, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one.
If you'd like one, contact me at macchus999@aol.com.
And now, we've got my reading of my "Laverne & Shirley Movie" screenplay on YouTube.


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1 comment:

  1. I loved that the Bonanza theme had lyrics. And somewhere there is a video of the original cast singing the song.

    ReplyDelete

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Hi. I am, according to my Wikipedia entry,(which I did not create) a noted television writer, playwright, screenwriter, and occasional actor. You can Google me or go to the IMDB to get my credits, and you can come here to get my opinions on things, which I'll try to express eloquently. Hopefully I'll succeed. You can also e-mail me at macchus999@aol.com. Perhaps my biggest claim to fame is being responsible, for about six months in 1975, while Head Writer for the "Happy Days" TV series, for Americans saying to each other "Sit on it."