Spotlighting the great themes from mystery/crime TV shows ...
BONES
Inspired by real-life forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs (a thriller novelist in her own right), forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel) teams up with FBI Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) to solve a series of unsolved crimes by identifying the long-dead bodies of missing persons by their bone structure. The series airs on FOX.
Spotlighting the great opening themes from mystery/crime TV shows ...
THE ROCKFORD FILES Hailed by Thrilling Detective as "the best private eye series to ever grace the television screen, and arguably one of the greatest private eyes of all time," The Rockford Files (1974-1980) starred James Garner as private investigator Jim Rockford, who preferred to talk, rather than slug, his way out of a tight spot.
The breezy, whimsical theme to this classic series was a Top 10 hit co-written by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter. The duo first partnered in the late 1960s, and began working for producer Stephen J. Cannell when they wrote the theme to his cop show Toma in 1973. Their big breakthrough, the theme to The Rockford Files, won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement in 1975. Post, of course, has since been awarded four more Grammys, and created many singable themes, from Hill Street Blues to Greatest American Hero (a No. 1 hit) and Newsradio.
Watch episodes of THE ROCKFORD FILES free online at Hulu
Spotlighting the great themes from mystery/crime TV shows ...
ALIAS (2001-2004 arrangement) (2004-2006 arrangement) The minimalist but energizing theme to the "spy-fi" series Alias (2001-2006) was written by series creator J. J. Abrams. The show starred Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, a CIA agent caught up in counter-espionage (and, apparently, counter-counter-espionage), wearing colorful disguises while working undercover assignments all over the world. Abrams' other TV credits include Felicity, Lost, What About Brian, and Six Degrees. He directed the recent Mission: Impossible III and is currently developing a reboot of the Star Trek film franchise.
Spotlighting the great opening themes from mystery/crime TV shows ...
THE NBC MYSTERY MOVIE While The NBC Mystery Movie was not the first series to employ the "wheel" format, rotating several different series in the same slot, it is certainly one of the best-remembered. The haunting theme music was composed by Henry Mancini (1924-1994), Academy Award-winning American composer, conductor and arranger. His film work ranged from The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Touch of Evil to the Pink Panther films. He was nominated for an amazing 72 Grammys (winning 20), and nominated for 18 Oscars (winning four). He won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for two Emmys.
The NBC Mystery Movie aired 1971-1977, anchored by three main series: The most popular of these, the multiple Emmy-winning Columbo, featured Peter Falk as the disarming yet brilliant LAPD homicide detective. McCloud starred Dennis Weaver as a modern-day western Marshal transplanted from New Mexico to the streets of New York City. McMillan and Wife starred Rock Hudson and Susan St. James as a San Francisco Police Commissioner and his wife.
In subsequent seasons, the wheel grew to include other sleuths to varying success, including Hec Ramsey, starring Richard Boone as a turn-of-the-century Western crime fighter, and Quincy, M.E., starring Jack Klugman as a Los Angeles medical examiner. Quincy, in fact, spun off in early 1977 as a regular weekly series, to have a successful run of its own on NBC.
Even after the cancellation of The NBC Mystery Movie, Falk resumed the role of Columbo several more times over the following 25 years.
Spotlighting the great themes from mystery/crime TV shows ...
GET SMART This classic spy sitcom (1965-70) starred Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, and Barbara Feldon as Agent 99. It is hard to find much information about arranger, songwriter and conductor Irving Szathmary, whose memorable theme to Get Smart adroitly captured the flavor and tone of the popular spy parody. The brother of comedian and actor Bill Dana (who actually appeared in a few episodes of Get Smart), the Composers and Lyricists Database says Szathmary's specialty was called "symphonic swing," and he created instrumental arrangements in the 1940s for Muzak.
BONES
