My favorite Irwin Allen series opening titles (including the music) that I love are:
Lost In Space (Season 3)
Land of the Giants (Season 2)
The Time Tunnel
The TOS Opening Credits/Theme
- Thread starter Spock's Barber
- Start date
Lost In Space (Season 3)
Land of the Giants (Season 2)
The Time Tunnel
Absolutely! John Williams composed some outstanding television themes for Irwin Allen's shows.
I also loved those Irwin Allen opening titles. The Williams stuff were arguably better when he had the second run at them. Lost in Space' first and second season themes (really the same recording) were a little silly and one could be forgiven for thinking the series was a comedy when it first started (the series grew into the theme as it went along). The third season's theme was a huge improvement and really upped the ante in excitement. I wasn't as fond of The Time Tunnel, it was a bit "on the nose" with the tick-tocking. But if it went to a second season, I imagine Irwin would have had Williams back to redo it because that's what he did. Land of the Giants: LOVE the second season theme, and it's among William's best TV themes.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea always had great theme music. Paul Sawtell's lilting seafaring composition is just marvelous. Jerry Goldsmith was hired to provide a new theme for the second year, and it was used only once in the premiere (along with his outstanding background score) before the more appropriate Sawtell theme was restored. I like Jerry's theme a lot, but it's a little too downbeat for such an adventure show. The DVDs incorrectly put the Goldsmith end titles on the following episode as well.
Other fantastic 60's TV themes include:
The Outer Limits
The Rat Patrol
The Wild, Wild West
The Invaders
I Dream of Jeannie (both the Wess and Montenegro versions)
I Spy
The Avengers (Laurie Johnson's stuff)
Doctor Who
and from those great ITC series:
The Saint
Man in a Suitcase
The Champions
Department S
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea always had great theme music. Paul Sawtell's lilting seafaring composition is just marvelous. Jerry Goldsmith was hired to provide a new theme for the second year, and it was used only once in the premiere (along with his outstanding background score) before the more appropriate Sawtell theme was restored. I like Jerry's theme a lot, but it's a little too downbeat for such an adventure show. The DVDs incorrectly put the Goldsmith end titles on the following episode as well.
Other fantastic 60's TV themes include:
The Outer Limits
The Rat Patrol
The Wild, Wild West
The Invaders
I Dream of Jeannie (both the Wess and Montenegro versions)
I Spy
The Avengers (Laurie Johnson's stuff)
Doctor Who
and from those great ITC series:
The Saint
Man in a Suitcase
The Champions
Department S
Williams' Year 2 theme for Land of the Giants also rocks exceptionally hard. It's the cat's meow!
I see others are mentioning LotG-2 as well.A similarly exciting theme: Scott Gilman's main title for Seven Days (1998).
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I'd love a copy of the music without the sound effects. Such a fantastic theme.Williams' Year 2 theme for Land of the Giants also rocks exceptionally hard. It's the cat's meow!
Did the maestro ever perform his TV themes in concert, I wonder.
I don't know, but I do have a decent re recording of it. But it lacks many of the nuances of the original
What album is that on?
It does often seem that OSTs are bravura performances that are hard to match.
The Cult Files: Reopened. A Silva Screen rerecording compilation. Came out in the late 90's. It's on Amazon right now for, like, a dollar.
Also, most rerecordings substitute instruments, and/or use synth in place of actual people. Neil Norman did a pretty good job for his Greatest Science Fiction Hits volt, 3, but he actually added a "meow" himself! Jeez...
Cool opening, but I stopped watching the show when the producers ran out of script ideas and had Steve Austin fighting Bigfoot.
^^^Cool opening, but I stopped watching the show when the producers ran out of script ideas and had Steve Austin fighting Bigfoot.
Steve Austin VS Bigfoot is a classic. Especially when the aliens state: "They're on a peaceful five year survey mission of Earth."
