Memorable TV Theme Songs

Music and television have always been a package deal for me. I can’t have one without the other. For me, a TV series simply isn’t any good without some kind of musical accompaniment – whether it’s an original piece created by a talented composer or a full-fledged song by a singer or band that is either featured as the theme song for the series or played during an important scene. Music and TV are symbiotic; okay so neither one is a biological species, but you get my meaning, right? A TV show just isn’t as good as it can be without musicality.

With that thought in mind, I sat down and went over some of the more memorable theme songs for some of my favorite TV shows; and while I could delve back through time, the choices would be endless and much too voluminous. So, I stuck with a very important time period in my television viewing: the 10 years that the WB (nee the CW) existed.

Regardless of the reputation this network may have garnered over its decade-long existence, the truth of the matter is that the people behind the scenes – specifically those in control of the music choices – really had a knack for picking iconic songs that would stick with the viewer long after the shows ended.

Case in point: The theme songs for shows such as Charmed, Roswell, Dawson’s Creek, Gilmore Girls, Smallville, Popular, One Tree Hill and eventually Veronica Mars have left an indelible mark on the countless fans who watched these shows. If you’re anything like me, when “I Don’t Want to Wait” by Paula Cole comes on my iTunes or iPod, I am transported back to the days of Dawson, Joey, Pacey and Jen on Dawson’s Creek. Every time I hear “Here With Me” by Dido, I relive all those moments between Max and Liz on Roswell. Or when The Dandy Warhols’ song “We Used to Be Friends” comes on, I think about what could have been for Veronica and Logan on Veronica Mars if only the show had gotten that fourth season, but I digress into another subject which needs to be discussed at another time.

NOTE: Please keep in mind I’m only focusing on theme songs that featured lyrics. There are countless shows that featured instrumental theme songs, but that will have to be a discussion for another day.

The same can be said for “How Soon Is Now” – the theme song for Charmed. When that song plays, I think about all the seasons that show was on the air and the ever changing beginning credits for that show – something that isn’t even common place anymore (beginning credits that is). Also, the theme song for the short-lived series Popular – “Supermodels” by Kendall Payne – may not be as memorable to most TV viewers, but re-watching the beginning credits – thanks to You Tube – brought back all of the hilarity that was contained in that little show as well as the realization that nearly all of its cast – who were virtual unknowns at the time – have really made a mark in the TV landscape over the years.

Moving over to other networks for a minute, I’m sure people think about all the zaniness from Friends when they hear The Rembrants’ song “I’ll Be There For You” or folks remember the dancing baby and the crazy storylines on Ally McBeal when Vonda Shepard’s song “Searchin’ My Soul” is played. Or, how about the song “California” by Phantom Planet? That song will forever be connected to the popular FOX drama The O.C.

The same can be said for the remake of “In This Life” by Chantal Kreviazuk, which was used as the theme song for the NBC series Providence, bringing back memories of Dr. Sydney Hansen and all the crazy dreams she would have or even “Somebody Help Me” by the band Full Blown Rose, which was the theme song for the short-lived FOX series Tru Calling, making me remember the time-travel that would take place for Tru every week.

Going back to the WB, the network also specialized in clever promotional ads each year that featured the cavalcade of actors who appeared in the network’s shows. Every year it was a different song and while some of the faces changed over the years, the songs always played an important role in the overall theme of each TV season. The song featured in the network’s first PR effort – “Crawl” by the band Sideways – brings back such memories for me. In fact, I still get chills when I hear that song because that was such a special time for me and for all the viewers of the then fledgling network.

If you would like to take a walk down memory lane with those promotional ads for the WB, please go here, as fellow blogger Vlada from the site Staying In took considerable time to collect all of the videos into one place for those of us who wanted to reminisce.

Lastly, there were two songs that – while not the theme songs for any particular series – were used in shows that were very “important” to me at the time of their airings. Those songs are “Hey Man, Nice Shot” by Filter and “Everything” by Lifehouse. The single by Filter was featured in both the short-lived series Prey as well as the pilot episode of Roswell; meanwhile, the Lifehouse single was featured in both Roswell and the pilot episode of Smallville.

What about you? Is there a particular theme song that has always stuck with you? Are there songs that were featured in any of your favorite shows that bring back memories for you? Please share as we here at NiceGirlsTV would love to hear about them.

Fly Away by Margaret Organ-Kean

Artist’s Spotlight: Margaret Organ-Kean

When Margaret Organ-Kean was fifteen years old, a family friend sent her mother a postcard with a Kay Nielsen illustration from East of the Sun, West of the Moon on it. It was love at first sight.

Margaret had always drawn and painted – usually horses – but now her most important goal was to evoke a sense of magic on paper. A year later, she won a major prize in a national poster contest and, encouraged by her high school art teacher, soon began to sell her watercolors at local art fairs.

Her B.A. and subsequent work in art history from the University of Washington opened her to more influences, including (but not limited to) early Renaissance art, Nihonga, Greek sculpture, and much more. She developed an interest in how different cultures viewed a painting. For instance, some would see a painting as a window into a scene, while others considered a painting to be an array of symbols composed on a flat plane. Margaret began to consider formal problems in a painting at this time, such as color, pattern, and composition.

After college, she worked at clerical and computer jobs, and during this time, she started going to science fiction conventions and showing her work in the conventions’ art shows. This led to jobs working for magazines, gaming companies, and book publishers.

Lately, she has spent more time on her own work, especially her more whimsical watercolors of steampunk penguins, flying frogs, and slightly twisted nursery rhymes, and has begun developing an interest in Pop Surrealism.

Her featured piece is called Fly Away, which is based on the nursery rhyme “Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home”. Margaret wondered what a Lady Bug would look like and whimsy did the rest. The piece did move quite a distance from the poem, as wings transformed into skirts and the bugs became women. The masks are actually a recurring theme in her work; and in this instance, she wanted people to wonder what was behind the mask that completely hides the Lady Bug’s face.

You can contact at margaret@organ-kean.com or visit her website.