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Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Top Six Honorables.

We're getting to the point where we can get numeric, so I will number these from
#6 down to #1. Some of you might think that some of these should be in anyone's
Top Ten, and there were some gut-wrenching decisions along the way.
But these are all better than what has come before, and in my mind at least,
there are ten that are better.
So here we go.

#6. "Bus Stop"

A marvelous lush theme song. Far better than the show deserved. It certainly had more substance than the show did.

#5. "The West Wing"

Majestic like almost nothing else. With just about as much substance as the
show had.

#4. "My Three Sons"

Frank DeVol's wonderfully creative use of "Chopsticks". I always tuned in to see
it. Then the theme ended, and I watched something else.

#3. "The American Experience"

The PBS documentary series. The theme has since deteriorated. But it's original incarnation was glorious, in the same way that "The West Wing" was.

#2. "Peter Gunn"

A lot of you probably think this is an easy top ten choice. It put Henry Mancini
on the map, and was certainly was impressive. But there was another Mancini theme that that I liked better, and will be in my Top Ten. So he will be represented.

#1. "Then Came Bronson"

Very reminiscent of another "open road" series theme, and almost as good.

We'll do numbers 10 to 5 of the Top Ten next time.
Again, please don't anticipate me in the comments section. But you can feel free to discuss these choices.

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.
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You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
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Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.
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And now, we've got my reading of my "Laverne & Shirley Movie" screenplay on YouTube.


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4 comments:

  1. I have seen some of the Peter Gunn episodes on late night TV recently. The music throughout the show is great. I was surprised at the ability of Blake Edwards to be able to tell a detective story in 30 min.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. To jbrown:

    You might be interested to know that years before Peter Gunn, Blake Edwards created and wrote the "Richard Diamond, Private Detective" radio series for Dick Powell. Edwards' half-hour scripts (with Ed Begley Sr. as the police lieutenant) are still entertaining and clever, and I think the programs can be found online.

    (This is a corrected version of the post I deleted.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. If I read your assessment correctly, Mark, you only heard the part of the "My Three Sons" theme that played over the opening credits.

    Does this mean that you never heard the part that played over the end credits?

    The part where it turned into a march?

    This last element became more pronounced in the later years of the show, when the time for the credits was cut down.

    Just asking ...

    ReplyDelete

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About Me

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."