Massachusetts Favorite TV Show Themes: all it takes is one little trigger and we can hum them in our head. I found a Top 100 list from Rolling Stone. 

But that won’t reflect what Massachusetts loves. So, I took to social media to see what the Northeast says, about our favorite themes from the TV shows we grew up with. Before we unveil the best list ever, let’s take a walk down music memory lane for some facts that you may find fun and…factual.

Did You Know?

• The writer of the theme from Friends, also wrote Earth Wind and Fire’s, September, and Boogie Wonderland?
• Famous TV show host, the iconic Johnny Carson actually co-wrote The Tonight Show theme with singer Paul Anka? Because Johnny was co-writer, he was paid royalties every time it, played on NBC, each night! It added up to about $400 PER NIGHT, for THIRTY years! It reportedly totaled about $3 million!
• Welcome Back Kotter, the show, got it’s name from it’s theme song. The producers needed a name, and was inspired by the theme song Welcome Back, written by John Sebastian. 
• WKRP in Cincinnati, was originally to take place in Cleveland, but it didn’t rhyme for the theme song?
• The Curb Your Enthusiasm theme was inspired from an Italian movie that Larry David heard in a bank commercial?
• The Office theme, was created by 1970’s Thunder Island hitmaker Jay Ferguson?
• The Sopranos theme song was originally inspired by a real murder?
• The Friends theme was inspired by the R.E.M hit “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It?”
• TV’s Happy Days had two theme songs. In 1974, season one was Bill Hailey’s hit “Rock Around The Clock.” By 1976, the show switched to using the end theme, Happy Days, sung by commercial singers Pratt and McClain, and moved it to the beginning.

So now that our heads are BUZZING with themes from our childhood, let’s go find Massachusetts FAVORITE TV Songs! We are listing the top ten off our social media polling! Enjoy!

• 10-Big Bang Theory-Bare Naked Ladies

  Notably missing from this video is former BNL star Stephen Page who sued his former band and and Big Bang producers, claiming he is owed part of the million dollar royalties. I have worked with BNL, and they all are great guys, Stephen included.

• 9-Sopranos-Woke Up This Morning

  This song is not about the mob. It’s about female empowerment. The band that created it, Alabama 3, wrote it about a woman who murdered her abusive husband. Whoa

• 8-The Love Boat-Jack Jones

  Each week, the opening credits were a whos’ who of A, B, and C list of 70’s and 80’s stars. My favorite was pre Back To The Future, Michael J. Fox.  

• 7-Happy Days-Pratt and McClain

  One of the handful of TV themes that actually became hits on the radio!  The same folks that wrote this wrote the theme from Laverne and Shirley!

• 6-Thank You For Being A Friend-Andrew Gold-Golden Girls

  Long before the Golden Girls producers nabbed this for the opening theme for their iconic TV hit, Andrew Gold took it to #25 in 1978. He passed away in 2011, but his wonderful  song lives on in our hearts forever. The TV version is sung by Cynthia Fee.

• 5-The Greatest American Hero-Joey Scarbury

  The song was better than the show. The plot: Aliens give an unlikely teacher a superhero suit with special powers to help mankind, but he loses the instructions on how to use it. What’s better, the feds knows about it.

• 4-Friends-The Rembrandts

  Simply perfect. It could be # 1, but that is reserved.

• 3-Welcome Back-John Sebastian

  The producers were stuck at trying to find the right TV show name about a rough-around-the edges kid, who grows up and comes back to teach, kids like him, at his former high school. When they heard the name of theme song from John Sebastian, that sealed the deal, for Welcome Back Kotter. The song came before the name. 

• 2-WKRP-Steve Carlisle

  They are some true to life similarities between a TV show about a radio station, and a real radio station. Maybe someday I’ll share, over a beer.

• 1-Cheers-Gary Portnoy

  Of course THIS HAS to be NUMBER 1!

  A few years back, I took my wife to the Cheers bar in Boston for the first time. We got lucky and grabbed two seats at the crowded bar, given to us by two kind ladies who were leaving. The place was packed with excited Red Sox fans, as there was a game that day. The bar food was awesome. The beer went down smooth. We stayed for two fun hours. By the time we were saying goodbye, everybody knew our name. True.

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