Mystery TV Themes: NBC MYSTERY MOVIE

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.


OPENING MAIN TITLES


Listen to the Mystery Movie Theme at TV Theme Tunes Online
NBC Mystery Movie profile at Museum of Broadcast Communications
All sorts of Columbo info at The Ultimate Lieutenant Columbo Site

Watch episodes free online at Netflix:
COLUMBO (Seasons 1-7)
MCCLOUD (Seasons 1-7)
MCMILLAN AND WIFE (Seasons 1-6)
QUINCY (Seasons 1-8)




More themes:
Mystery TV Themes: GET SMART
Mystery TV Themes: KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER
Mystery TV Themes: DRAGNET
Mystery TV Themes: MONK
Mystery TV Themes: IT TAKES A THIEF

Mystery TV Themes: GET SMART

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.

Get Smart opening theme courtesy Mark Little's MyThemes.TV.
Complete Get Smart now on DVD at Amazon.
Episode guide and show info at the fan site The Get Smart Page.

TV LAND: THE CONE OF SILENCE


OPENING TITLES


More themes:
Mystery TV Themes: KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER
Mystery TV Themes: DRAGNET
Mystery TV Themes: MONK
Mystery TV Themes: IT TAKES A THIEF
Mystery TV Themes: SWAT

Mystery TV Themes: KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER

Spotlighting the great themes from mystery/crime TV shows ...

KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER
This short-lived televison series starred the great Darren McGavin (1922-2006) as rumpled newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak, a man who kept stumbing onto stories his paper could never possibly print. While it may not have fulfilled the promise of the two original TV movies, The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973), the series had one distinct advantage over its predecessors: That haunting, almost disturbing opening theme by composer Gil Melle (1931-2004). A man of many talents, Melle was also a jazz/fusion and classical musician and recording artist, painter and inventor. (Bios at his official website GilMelle.com, Jazz House and Wikipedia.) He wrote some 125 scores for motion pictures and such television projects as Columbo, Night Gallery and the original Six Million Dollar Man telefilm.

Kolchak opening theme courtesy Mark Little's MyThemes.TV.
Series overview, episode guides and downloads at SciFi.com.

Related links:
Mystery TV Themes: DRAGNET
Mystery TV Themes: MONK
Mystery TV Themes: IT TAKES A THIEF
Mystery TV Themes: SWAT

Munsters marathon on TV Land

TV Land celebrates Halloween this weekend with a 25-hour marathon of The Munsters starting tomorrow morning (Saturday, Oct. 28). Things kick-off 6 a.m. (Eastern) with the classic "Rock-a-Buy Munster," where Herman eavesdrops on one of Lilly's conversations and gets the idea she's pregnant. (Hijinks ensue.)
Hear the theme song here

Related link: LAW & ORDER: MUNSTERS

Mystery TV Themes: DRAGNET

Spotlighting the great themes from mystery/crime TV shows ...

DRAGNET
The "Dragnet March" ("Danger Ahead") by composer Walter Schumann (1913-1958) is one of the most recognizable themes in history. During World War 2, Schumann was musical director of the Armed Forces Radio Service; after the war, he returned to L.A., where he was a conductor and arranger for the motion picture and television studios. (He wrote stock music for several Abbott & Costello films.) Schumann also recorded several albums of choral music. His 1954 theme for Dragnet won him a 1955 Emmy Award.

Dragnet started as a radio drama (1949-1957), which Jack Webb created after he had a small role in the semi-documentary film noir He Walked by Night (1948). Like the film, the radio series kept the low-key, documentary style, made use of actual police cases, and even had the same L.A.P.D. technical advisor. The success of the radio show led to the first Dragnet TV series (1952-1959, 263 episodes), starring Webb and several partners. A top 10 hit during its first run, the show was also a feature film in 1954. The show was brought back for another 100 episodes (and a TV movie) in 1967-1970, again starring Webb, with partner Harry Morgan. Webb died in 1982, but the show was revived twice more -- as a syndicated TV series (1989-90) and as the short-lived 2003-2004 ABC series starring Ed O'Neill (also called L.A. Dragnet). This most recent version had a spiffy new theme by Mike Post that riffed off Schumann's original march.

Three versions of the theme at Mark Little's MyThemes.TV

More about composer Walter Schumann:
Space Age Pop Music
IMDB

More about Dragnet:
Badge 714
TV.com

50s opening


2003 opening


Related links:
Mystery TV Themes: MONK
Mystery TV Themes: IT TAKES A THIEF
Mystery TV Themes: SWAT

Mystery TV Themes: MONK

Spotlighting the great themes from mystery/crime TV shows ...

MONK
Airing on the USA Network since 2002, Monk has the distinction of having two completely different Emmy-winning theme songs. Composer Jeff Beal's original, boppy instrumental piece won the 2003 Emmy for outstanding main title theme music. The second opening theme, "It's a Jungle Out There" by Randy Newman, won the 2004 award for outstanding main title theme music. The popular series—one of the highest-rated original scripted series in basic cable history—stars multiple-Emmy-winner Tony Shalhoub as sleuth Adrian Monk, who battles his intense phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder to solve impossible crimes as a consultant for the San Francisco Police Department.

Listen to both themes online courtesy of the USA Network. Listen to additional pieces of the original score at Jeff Beal's official site. Find lots more about Monk—including an episode guide, exclusive webisodes, games, and info about the novels—at USANetwork.com.





More opening credits:
IT TAKES A THIEF
JUDD, FOR THE DEFENSE
KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER
THE LONE RANGER
THE MAGICIAN

Worst. Themes. Ever.

In researching my new weekly salute to "Mystery TV Themes" (so far, we have highlighted "S.W.A.T." and "It Takes a Thief"), I have started to come across some truly awful stuff. For example, this original theme to "Magnum" is a mess. And why, oh, why did producer Glen Larson write this ridiculous theme for the "Six Million Dollar Man"?

(But it is cool to watch Steve Austin fight a robot.)