The Record Junkies "Greatest TV Theme Songs Ever" Show!

John Ross Bowie and Brendan Smith, aka THE RECORD JUNKIES, celebrate the launch of John's new HBO Max show STUART FAILS TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE with their picks for the GREATEST TV THEME SONGS EVER. With songs by Danny Elfman, The Monkees, Halo Schifrin, and more!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Hello, it's your friend Brendan Smith. And it is your friend John Ross Bowie. Welcome to the Record Junkies.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

I would say it's a very special Record Junkies, John, because we are on the eve as we record this program of uh a fun chapter in your life and hopefully the chapter of American television.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Here's hoping. Yeah. Um this uh on July 23rd. Uh the uh television program Stuart Fails to Save the Universe will begin streaming on HBO Max here in the United States. It will start streaming the following day in the United Kingdom. This is very exciting news for a couple of things. One, it's nice to be working. Uh it is a spinoff of the Big Bang Theory. I am reprising my role as Barry Kripke. This is uh all good news, but the really one of the really exciting things about the show is that we got for our uh theme song composer, the legendary Danny Elfman.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Wa, what?

SPEAKER_01 1:29

To do the Stuart Fails to Save the Universe theme song.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Whoa, what?

SPEAKER_01 1:34

And we are all over the moon excited. I'm a massive, um I'm a massive Boingo Boingo fan. I think you know this about me, Brandon. I'm a massive voingo boingo fan, a little bit of a completist there. Really uh uh have always loved the work, got very excited in the 80s when he transitioned to uh soundtrack work, and I I generally uh think he sets a wonderful singular tone with his work. Um the uh the Stuart Failes song is uh in the tradition of the great Oingo Boingo minor key masterpieces. Um uh I um it's it's just very uh exciting. I should also mention that a composer named Joe Leduca does our scoring throughout the 10 episodes. Um, and uh you might know his work from the television show Spartacus or from the very, very first Evil Dead. He's an old buddy of Sam Raimi's.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Let me just say the Empire that Danny Elfman has constructed, and you can say those of us who saw Oingo Boingo right away via Nightflight on USA Network, or even on MTV, uh when they would play the early Oingo Boingo videos. This is long before Weird Science, they would play uh uh uh little girls, yada yada. Yep, and you would think like, well, this band could uh disappear forever, or the lead, the weird-looking lead singer with the red hair, he is going to go on to construct one of the biggest music empires in the history of recorded music. It bonkers what he has done outside of oingle boingle.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

The reach can't be overstated. Um, you've probably looked if you listen to Record Junkies, you probably don't need to be told this. But starting with Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, uh, he became one of the go-to composers for certainly for Tim Burton, but for no shortage of uh incredible uh directors. Uh other things that he has done with Tim Burton include obviously uh Beetlejuice, um uh obviously um Edward Scissor Hands is is his work, but he's branched off. That's his music in Midnight Run. That, of course, is his theme song in The Simpsons. Uh he it it hold on, time out, timeout. Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

The Simpsons song alone. Right. Probably has uh he bought a secret island in Hawaii. I don't know what he did with that money, but just that one job alone. It doesn't just get you a nice house in Woodland Hills. No, it gets you a super kick-ass enclave.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

No, he might anywhere you want. He might own the island from Lost. I don't really know what he he did with that. He is um he's probably pretty pretty set in that regard. I didn't ask the occasion I'm on the occasion I met him, but I imagine he has been handsomely compensated, but we're not done. The Sam Raimi Raimi Spider-Man films are are his. Um uh The Last Doctor Strange that Sam Raimi uh directed is his. Um, it is a a gorgeous legacy of of film composing. Um my god, we left out the nightmare before Christmas. I mean The Nightmare Before Christmas, where he sings the Jack Skellington role. Chris Durandon does this the talking.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

No, time out. The Nightmare Before Christmas song alone bought him an island off the Dominican Republic. I don't know. I mean, just the money generated, as so many of us struggle. Uh, and we sell used records at Amoeba for extra cash. One gig in Hollywood. That's the carrot that they put in front of us. Just one gig in the Hollywood.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

They really do. They really do the lottery ticket. Yeah. You're only a gig away from the miracle. Maybe. Um, but he had several.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

He's he's hit Super Lotto truly six, seven times.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

I would say, yeah. Yeah. No, it's um uh and what's and the other thing that's interesting though is that all this scoring has taken away from his songwriting a little bit. Um, so this is in uh in some respects a return to form with the uh Stuart Fails to Save the Universe uh theme song. Um when I heard the demo, I almost started weeping. He had come to visit Set just to get a vibe and feel like it figure out if he actually wanted to do it, and uh it worked out, and um I I genuinely love the song and am thrilled it accompanies our opening credits.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Um did you witness, was there a meeting between your friend and my friend Brian Possein and Danny Elfman on Set?

SPEAKER_01 6:33

There was, and and Possein geeked out maybe even harder than I did. Um I I did the embarrassing thing of telling him that I would put wild sex in the working class on mixtapes for girls, um, which is I can't be the only one who's ever said that to him, but um, I am one of the people who said that to him. And yeah, Possein went pretty hard uh as well. Possein is known for his uh his metallurgy, he's known for his love of metal, but he's far more eclectic than that. Yeah uh and he's also a massive Boingo fan. So the two of us were really flipping out and were in incredibly, incredibly excited to have him involved with the project. And all of this leads us to the theme of today's episode.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

Uh it's we're just gonna do classic TV theme songs because we have to. Because we have to be go and subverda, be go and subida, bico and subida, La Braya Tarpitts, Tarpitz. That's a deep Danny Elfman pre-ongo boigo cut. Just had to throw that out there.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Is that did he is that from Forbidden Zone or is that uh yeah, okay. Wow, yeah, yeah, it is. Yes. Wow, that's really awesome. Nice touch.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

It's my favorite Danny Elfman composition. It just it just goes boonk, it just hits me so so damn hard. I love weird science. I'm a sucker for weird science because weird science is great.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Weird science is and it's dismissed by Owen Go Boingo fans because it was the big hit, you know, and everyone's like, oh, excuse me, all the gatekeepers were like, oh, come on, that's not even his best song. Come on, where's you know, nothing bad ever happens to me. Come on, man. Um, but it's it's a banger, it's great fun.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Um Weird Science gets you a house in uh Woodland Hills. Let's just put it that way.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Weird Science gets you a house in Woodland Hills, Simpsons gets you an invisible island off the coast of that no one, not even the Coast Guard, can find.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Right. And your plane has to hit the has to hit the runway at a special frequency, so you go through the portal and end up in your your lair that your empire gave you. Um unbelievable. Okay, John. Just I mean, I hope this song goes on to have its own life. I wish you guys nothing but success. Thank you. Um, if you ever need a featured extra who looks like the big Lebowski, let me know for season two.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you know Jeff Bridges? I'm kidding. Um, yes, I absolutely will. Um, don't leave me. Don't don't underhand toss like that to me, dude. I'm sorry. I have a job to do over here. I um I'm sorry. I don't feel great about that. I really don't feel great about that.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Um, although I I did have a very big Lebowski audition this morning for one of the betting apps. And yo, phenomenal. That's oh wow. One of my lines was, I see things early. Okay. Um give me your first TV theme song that means something to you.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Last year we lost the great um film composer Lalo Schifrin, um, who uh is responsible for a bunch of incredible stuff and some non-film, non-cinematic uh um jazz albums that are really fun. Um, but obviously his greatest theme song would have to be Mission Impossible. He created the iconic theme from the 60s television show that has been repurposed for the franchise of the 90s up through the 2020s. Um it has just the most delirious sense of urgency as as a piece of composition. It just tells you exactly what the show is, tells you exactly what to expect, and gets you really pumped up for it. Uh, and it fittingly uh began with the visual, you'll recall, of the lit fuse, um, which uh sort of you know set uh set the the incredible theme uh uh pulsing forward. So here's an amazing bit of trivia that I learned recently. He had been hired to write the theme song for uh Mission Impossible, and he was stuck a little bit. He had a little bit of writer's block. And he was thinking, like, okay, I gotta write a show about spies. Um, it's gonna be a theme song for a show about spies. It's gotta have suspense, it's gotta have energy. Uh what else do spies uh have? Spies use codes. Spies use codes, codes, morse code. This the following little cadence bump bump bump bump bump bump bump bump is morse code for M I M I. I did not know that. It's absolutely true. Look it up. Bump bump bump bump. Dash dash dot dot dash dash dot dot. That is Morse code for M I M I. Lalo Shaffrin was working on a whole other level. Lalo Shiffrin, rather, excuse me. Um uh there's a ton of I actually have a killer, maybe I'll I'll post it. I have a killer playlist of his themes. Um he did a ton of great move work for the movies, including uh the Dirty Harry movies, the early Dirty Harry movies, um, with this great like electric piano and real badass stuff. That's him uh doing the the theme music for Enter the Dragon. Um he really he he had a wonderful, wonderful career, but the the one that led his obituary was absolutely uh Mission Impossible, which is just an all-timer.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Were you a fan of the original Mission Impossible show on 70s, 80s UHF local New York television?

SPEAKER_01 12:07

I was. It was it was funny because I I um I I didn't get it all the time, you know. A lot of it was was over my head, which is funny because you watch it now and like it's all like it's it's very like they get into buildings very easily. It's there's a lot of plot holes on on the old admission impossible, but it's delightful, and uh the music holds up and the dryness of the performances uh holds up. Um, but yeah, it is um I was absolutely a fan growing up, and I couldn't believe how exciting it's probably not just one of my favorite TV theme songs, it's probably my first favorite TV theme song, if I think about it. I mean, maybe maybe Electric Company, but you know, I I for the most part, Mission Impossible was on a lot in the house. My parents loved it. Wow, and uh yeah, were you a fan of the original?

SPEAKER_00 12:57

I was, I mean, because that was on Pittsburgh television, UHF TV in the late, late, late afternoon, or maybe it was on Saturdays, because that was on on Saturdays, is where you would get Star Trek and and things like Mission Impossible and Streets of San Francisco. So maybe it was on there. But I are you a fan of the Tom Cruise franchise, Mission Impossible.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

I oh I am. I think that's a very consistent uh franchise, actually. Um there's great stuff in every single one of those movies, you know, even when they um, if like you know, maybe one has an ending that kind of falls apart, but there every movie in in that series has a couple of moments of just breathtaking awesomeness.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Um, I have to say, and it's fun when they use the original theme song somewhere, and it's it's it's really fun. It was super smart of them to do that because it's just so iconic. Um, I did anyone use the face, the Tom Cruise face uh technology in the original series? Yeah, yeah, that was a big thing.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Oh, was people were always taking masks off in the big in the old show? People were always taking masks off, and it would be like one of those things where like the guy reaches into his throat, Peter Graves raises eyebrow, and then they cut back, and the mask is coming off, you know. Um uh it was um uh incredibly exciting, lo-fi in-camera effects, man. It was really uh yeah, they they used that to deliriously fun effect on the original. I love it. Um, and then they they they made it both more realistic and more fantastical in uh in the new ones.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

I love it. Okay, well, I'm gonna take us back to the 60s too.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Okay, great.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

And I think, John, if you know me, you know what I like, and you know bands that I like, and you know musical things that I like, and you've heard me talk about this band before. And I'm just simply going to say, here we come, walking down the street, which is Sunset Boulevard around Ben Frank's. We get the funniest looks from everyone we meet. Hey, hey.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

We're the monkeys.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

We're the monkeys.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah, I mean, another one, another song that immediately sets the tone. Both lyrically and musically, it just comes right out and goes, here's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

And it was written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who were our very accomplished pop rock writers during that era.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Because again, who wrote the lion's share, I think, of the monkeys' hits.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

They wrote a bunch of the monkeys' hits. So I mean Neil Diamond did. Yeah. And oh my god. Uh she wrote Tapestry. Carol King. She's Carol King. They had the idea, I mean, not to Brendan's plain the monkeys for people, because I think everybody knows that the idea was to capitalize on the success of the Beatles and create an in-house situation where you would cast actors to play a fictional band, and then you would use the best songwriters in Hollywood and the best musicians to craft pop hits, which they did.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

And but the other important thing, though, that that makes it singular to television is that, yeah, they were trying to sell records, but they were also trying to make a hard day's night every week. Absolutely. Trying to do sort of an absurd, or even closer to help, really, because help is the more absurdist of the two Big Beatles films. They were trying to make something very silly, yeah, very satirical sometimes. And smart. And smart. And definitely very the monkey show is so much smarter than you. Go back and watch if you haven't seen it recently. It's so much smarter than you remember.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

I would say to people, it's on me TV every once in a while, which is the best channel.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

And the best kind of is the best channel, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

We'll launch a lot of the monkeys episodes every once in a while. So I've got them on the the the D VR, the TiVo, the Spectrum, whatever you want to call it. I have the box set. I just have the box set. You have the box set. Yeah. Um, it's it's really legitimately good. The other thing, but the thing that I love the most about the monkeys, and again, the original casting call, uh, and it basically said we want Ben Franks types. And for the people out there listening to this show, at the time Ben Franks at the epicenter of the Sunset Strip was a very famous diner. It's now the Mel's Diner on Sunset. Not uh explaining this to John, I'm explaining this to the people who might be watching the show.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

No, I'd forgotten where the original Ben Franks was.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

But the but the idea was to sort of capture the youth culture. Yeah. And this is pre-hippie. This is 64, 65, 66. The youth culture that was exploding. The baby boomers, the kids born right after the war or during the war or whatever, who are coming of age and hanging out in sunset and going to all those clubs, Ceros, the whiskey, the whole nine yards to say, the hair is not really long yet. It's just more mod. No, right. It's it's it's long gish for the day. It's it's not a buzz cut, but it's it's the monkeys, it's the beatles, and it's the clothes and the things that they wore. Um and the thing that I love the most about the monkeys is that they absolutely struck gold with the casting of Mike Nesmith and Mickey Dolans and Peter Torque and Davy Jones from the UK because all of those guys brought, I think, more to the table than the producers originally imagined. 100% because they exploded right out of the gate. And they were able to, because the each of them had their own musical prowess, they were able to perform these songs to the point where they basically turned around and said, Hey, we need to be involved in this process. That's a whole other issue. We covered this uh on the show when I did um Capricorn Aquarius Jones and Yada Yada, the inaugural episode, if I'm mistaken, yeah, that they wanted to do on their own. Uh Pisces, Capricorn, Aquarius, Yada Yada. I don't have the papers. The Zodiac album. I'm an idiot. Um, but I just they they withstand the test of time. They should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I love them so much. Uh I love the show. And this is easily of all the great theme songs out there in the world, and maybe at the end we'll give some honorable mentions, but this is by far my number one favorite theme song. Because when I hear it, it takes me back to a very good time. The monkeys were on every single day in Pittsburgh after school at 3:30 or 4 on the local UHF stations. It was on in Albuquerque in the same in the 70s. It's just I think in a way that I discovered the monkeys before I really discovered the Beatles because they were on TV every day. So that's all that I'll say about that. Yada yada. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

It it it's a um it's a gem of a song. It's a really excellent choice. I um uh yeah, I I could not agree with you more. The a great song for a truly uh great TV show. Um, I'm gonna uh um edge us a little closer to the current day, um, ever so slightly. I don't want to push it too much here, so I'm just gonna go to the 90s. Let's let's let's baby steps here. Um, where to even start? So if you're a comedy nerd of my age, which is solidly Gen X, you you cut your teeth probably on SNL, and then you got a little deeper and you discovered Monty Python. And then after you would discover Monty Python, if you were lucky enough that your parents had HBO, you discovered the Kids in the Hall. And if you were really paying attention, you then discovered the Canadian instrumental group Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, who created the Kids in the Hall theme song having an average weekend. Now, this song, it's not really a surf song, although it has that twangy reverbie guitar. It is a masterpiece of it it's weird because it sets a mood, it doesn't necessarily set a sketch comedy mood, but it sets a mood that lets you know you're in for something cool and unusual. So it isn't, it doesn't have like that big sort of like the SNL theme song, which has changed over the years, obviously. But that you know has like, hey, you're coming to a party and there's a horn section, and wow, this is gonna be crazy. You know, the monkeys um are are sneaking up on you a little bit, you know, and it, you know, it starts in a minor key and then it explodes into the major key for the chorus, and that's really fun. Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, just do something kind of cool and sort of quietly badass that lets you know that yes, you're in for comedy, but it's gonna be something a little unusual. And true to form, kids in the hall were doing something different. A lot of their stuff was a lot more surreal than what was going on on SNL. A lot of it was. um a little uh darker. Uh the last sketch of a kids in the hall episode would would usually be a a very odd uh short film of sorts that um would sometimes deeply alienate the audience but it's one of those um it's one of those uh songs that when I hear the HBO intro music my head immediately goes to oh I'm about to hear the opening riff from the kids in the hall um I went deep on these guys and I got a couple of their their full-length albums and the albums are just great they're just they're filled with like cool badass heavy reverb guitar instrumentals um but if if all you know is this if you don't know the song at all do yourself a favor you're welcome you're about to have a really really cool drive through your neighborhood listening to Shadowy Man on a Shadowy Planet. If all you know is that one song go deeper into those records because there's tons of gold there. You familiar with the the piece I'm talking about uh Brandon no you know and and this is I can't believe I'm gonna admit this.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

No no it's okay. You know, because I'm just being honest today. I for some reason I think the age that I am and what I was doing at the time I just missed kids in the hall.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

You know what it would have been I think if I may and I have a bunch of stuff like this myself too is that there's some things break when you've hit the workforce and you're like oh I don't really have time for this right now. I'm trying I'm working retail or I'm flipping burgers or I'm in a you know and that was me for a lot of stuff after I graduated you being just a and I I I will never exploit this uh but be you being a couple years older than me yeah it would not necessarily have been on your radar I think it helped to be in college a little or at least to at least think you were a little smarter than the average bear and then there's this new kind of esoteric uh Canadian comedy coming out well at the time at the time I aspired to do what I had hoped that I would find my own kids in the hall group at the time.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Right sure and when I was in LA because that's when the show launched what what year did Kids in the hall launch?

SPEAKER_01 24:17

I want to say 90 91.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Yeah so I'm in LA and so in the very early 90s all of my so much of our free time was spent going out going to bars and going to see music. And so there was actually a lot of television that I missed during the early 90s because I was more interested in going out. At the same time I aspire I wanted to be in my own the state or the my own um Strangers with candy or my own kids in the hall um it was harder to do that in LA at the time because we didn't have a second city there was only the groundless really and the groundlings was so hyper competitive and just awful and backstabbing that I just chose not to participate in it.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

That place would have broken me like a twig if I had started I'm so grateful that I started doing comedy at UCB in New York before it got really cutthroat because if I had tried to move out to LA and and tried to make a name for myself at the groundlings it never would have worked I it was the only thing laughed out of this town.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Yeah it was the only thing and my friends that tried it we have I have very talented friends that did it and and some who would you know the idea that you would just go through the steps and get to the top step and then be shivved at the end and not make the main stage you would be voted out by your peers.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

It would be it was really daunting.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Like what um how how does that work after spending hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars um you know of your own hard earned money to get there. So that was the only reason that I didn't throw in I saw them live I totally appreciate them.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

I understand no one is knocking the people that have come out of the groundlings.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Uh the aforementioned Paul Rubens came out of the groundlings Ray Newman is a founding member Will Farrell you know my friends at the time on it Goster was a friend of mine from college Rachel Harris was at the groundlings there were so many great people that I think very very gifted people have come out of the groundlings no one's knocking the ground links it just would have crushed me like a grape. And I knew that it would do the same to me and I so I didn't participate. But um but I love but I do love uh kids in the hall I had to go back to them later okay um so that's my thing on that but excellent call I love that and I love that theme song. Yeah it's a beauty such a good that's like you're going to I'm gonna take me back to a place where I didn't feel like I was getting crushed like a grape. I'm gonna take me back to another place that is soothing and comforting and takes me back to a very good time in my childhood and that is Space The Final Frontier. Oh wow okay my second favorite theme song of all time okay the OG original series with the pheroman the OG with Shatner's narration at the beginning of the Alexander Courage composition. The original Star Trek theme if I'm in the right mood because I watch the original Star Trek to this day and if Mirror Mirror is on or any of the other incredible ones um I will watch and I might cry when I hear that bing dong ding dike it really makes me emotional because I was a great age when they started playing Star Trek for the first time in syndication on American again the UHF the kids the kids don't know what the UHF stations were. Can I brand explain the UHF stations? I think you should okay so in the era before cable a lot of cities had these private independent little channels that existed um not on the network frequencies but on their own sort of local reach sometimes they would reach beyond your own city sometimes they would come in from other cities and you'd get them on like channel 35 or again we're not talking public television these were private channels these were private channels that largely got into the syndication game and just re-ran that's how Gen X saw Gilligan's Island and the Brady bunch and the Beverly Hillbillies.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

This is why we had a mono culture because we watched the same television that our grown up that our parents had had been watching. Yes and uh and we and they also would show a lot of old movies and obviously everything was with commercials and cut to ribbons and often heavily censored if you're watching a movie but it was still the first way I saw Dog Day Afternoon you know the first way I I yes and the first way I discovered I Love Lucy and Gilligan's Island and Burns and Allen and Pro Studio Wrestling and Soul Train and Hee-Ha like just so many amazing things. There were also Kung Fu films did you had a you had a a station for Kung Fu films it was uh it was WNYC in New York Channel 5 the drive in movie on Saturday afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

I mean I just remember I forget the the Pittsburgh UHF station but I just remember Sunday morning kung fu theater. Oh wow okay and that's a that's that's an abrupt way to begin your day and then you would get the three stooges or Laurel and Hardy which is also how uh I saw SCTV for the first time before they were on NBC Pittsburgh UHF again channel 53 channel 35 whatever it was they played SCTV the original version where Harold Ramis was in the group like mind blowing but Star Trek so colossally important to me I just love it so much. The theme is so dramatic it has a build it takes you into space it's just it's just a fantastic it's my second favorite movie theme song of all time and again it it takes me back to such a good place in time uh and I love it so much.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

It should be mentioned uh at this point that uh the UHF channels were also where I uh watched a show that has an honorable mention on this list and I best it bet it's on both of our lists the Kraken Surf instrumental that opened the Monsters Kmart ad, post it on TikTok and use the Monsters theme song and you'll get like 12000 hits. Oh I bet.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

I do it all the time unbelievable song The Monsters again on every single day. John just said it but like that's why we love the monsters so much an incredible incredible theme song I'll give you another one that I love I'm taking you back. Yeah it's a we're having a Gen X party baby if you ever wondered wondered whatever became of me I almost I almost did this one you did I'm I almost did this one I'm living on the air in Cincinnati Cincinnati WKRP I'm at WKRP Cincinnati um we had we had Sebastian Bach on Rock Tales with Ahmed Zappa he admitted to us that this was his favorite show of all time and then we started singing the theme song and we went right to the end and he goes no no no and he sang the middle verses oh wow the stuff that didn't make it in the opening credits yeah yeah didn't make it in the opening credits nor the end credits but if you listen to SiriusXM's Yacht Rock radio they will often play it. Oh great yes they play the WKRP uh it qualifies as Yacht Rock in their eyes. I think so um what an incredible one I'm gonna do one more and then I'll give you the floor to do a couple honorable mentions and we'll get out of here. Okay. Um Partridge Family I'm sorry partridge family hello world it's a song that was singing come on happy love love love love. Again similar concept to the monkeys based on the popularity of the castles at the time right a family of of musicians who with mom in the band and little kids in the band and middle aged kids in the band and I just read that um in preparation for this that the castles they the producers of the Partridge family thought the castles were too old which is why they cast everybody who legendarily became the Partridge family.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Wow Lori Partridge being may arguably my first crush I think most of her the the great Susan Day most of us yeah for those of us who are Gen X of a certain age uh loved her um but I just I just love this damn song wrongfully wrongfully equated with the Brady bunch because they came out around the same time yeah but oddly enough it's it's weird to say this Partridge family is joke for joke the far superior show far superior show um it is it it there's genuinely funny moments on that they had a real find in young Danny Bonaducci yes they did um as the snotty little bassist um and uh Shirley Jones by this point was you know she was an esteemed musical theater actress um she had hit she had done uh a ton of Broadway and unless I'm she is Marion the librarian in the music man in the film not on the original Broadway cast that's Barbara Cook but she um so they had like real they had real talent put together and the jokes are pretty solid uh particular shout out to the episode where uh Lori has a biker boyfriend who turns out to be really sweet and he's played by uh uh uh Randolph Mantooth I don't have no idea uh uh no but another recent R.I.P. a young Rob Reiner oh yeah yeah find the episode where Lori's got a biker boyfriend because he is hilarious on it um yeah the show uh the show is is genuinely funny Dave Madden as uh Ruben the the uh manager by the way I did I did not know you were gonna pick this on this is all like details that I have at the tip of my tongue here this is this is the worst kind of John Splaining like this was all in the chamber ready to go this is why Kripke works on Stuart fails to save the universe it might be because the actor who plays Kripke has the gravitas with him within him part of him that gives you a legendary character that hopefully will be successful on HBO Max.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

God willing give me uh give me another one of your honorable mentions.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

Um you know what it's funny I I I would never like put this on um to listen to but anytime I hear it my heart lifts up a little bit we're going back to the 1980s right now to a tiny little bar just off the commons in Boston. Oh wow it's a place you know what's interesting about this place you know what's singular about this place Brandon it does the kind of place well it does exist but it's the sort of place where oh gosh you're easily recognizable where people seem familiar with you that's it well put it is the place where everybody knows your name written by Gary Portnoy this theme song introduced what the show was which was 25 minutes of incredible sitcom comfort food that song bought Gary Portnoy.

SPEAKER_00 35:26

A house and Resita.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

A nice house and Resita a Resita yeah yeah nothing crazy no um uh let me actually I'm sorry uh co-written with Judy Hart Angelo but that's him on the vocals and um yeah it uh it actually had a uh some radio play um because it's uh incredibly incredibly catchy uh and um sets a terrific tone that made you realize that not only is norm recognizable in this bar but you will likely be as well um every couple of years I just put on the Cheers pilot because it is such a magnificently constructed piece of writing that introduces the characters so seamlessly and without effort um it is a it's truly a marvel of the form and the theme song sets that tone very nicely.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

I love it. I mean wow fantastic cheers we well we've hit some pretty damn good shows too all the shows that we picked are important shows. If you grew up in a cult and you weren't allowed to watch television everything you've got some homework everything that we just explained to you you could start there you could build your new life just by watching these programs today you absolutely could um John I think it's time to pull the Partridge family bus it's so brightly colored into the garage it's so bright you can see it coming from a mile away you really can here they are um again in closing I cannot wait for people to see Stuart fails to save the universe they're gonna experience the Danny Elfman song we don't even have it now I mean that's how like new and raw it is I'll post it once we uh it'll go on the Patreon once we uh once it it's out and available to the public but uh yeah it's um it's a fun one you're gonna like it I love it I love it I love it um it'd be great to see you good to see for your support good luck knock on wood it's gonna rule I know that it is and um you know good to see you and thank you for doing this today.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Not at all thank you.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Okay. Bye go into following the full enough