Show (animated or live-action) with best intro

[batE]

Is it just me, or is the intro to X-Men Evolution just fantastic? I love the techno-ized version of the theme from the animated show from a few years back, and I love how all the individual X-Men are introduced, and the Brotherhood even gets some air time. (Some being the operative word).

I also love the Kids WB intro to Batman Beyond. I went and got the CD just because I love the theme song so much, but I also liked the way they melded CG and traditional animation there.

Also, the intro to NYPD Blue (any season) is really compelling to me. I think it's al the shots of NYC that do it for me.



What do you think are the best intros out there, and why?


batE

P.S.

Props to Bird Boy for my new avatar!

[Naraht]

I've gotta say, all 5 openings for Babylon 5 kicked serious ass!
BB's real opening was also very cool...and i too have that soundtrack...

although I've only seen a couple of episodes...the Invader Zim opening looks pretty cool.

[Fantasie117]

Look at my sig and my avatar and guess what I'm going to say first ;)

The West Wing's intro is great. There's a translucent flag waving in the background as they introduce the actors with two pictures, one moving and one black and white, so we know who's who. I love shows that do that. :) But the music is what makes it art. It just flows. It fits perfectly with show about the president of the United States.

Batman Beyond had great music. I loved the images during the intro, especially the words apathy, greed, hope, etc.

The Invisible Man had a great intro in its first season. The music was techno, and I thought it just worked for the show. Then, in the second, it changed to something else. It had better images, but the music wasn't techno anymore. It was still nice, but the first one was better.

Other shows that have great music are C. S. I. and Angel. C. S. I. has "Who are you?" by The Who, which is perfect for a show about forensic scientists, and I just love the Angel theme.

[Kal-el]

So many possibilities. Let's see here.

M*A*S*H
The instrumental version of "Suicide is Painless" is much easier to stomach than the actual song.

Angel
I think it brings across the darkness of the character very well.

JAG
Every time I hear this theme I want to go and sign up for the Navy.

Dukes of Hazzard
Waylon Jennings nailed this one.

The Fall Guy
Cool song.

Robotech
Always one of my favorites

Battlestar Galactica
Big time movie theme for a TV show, which is rare.

BTAS, STAS, TNBSA, BB
All captured the feel of the characters perfectly

Cheers
Who didn't sing along to this one?

Blue Thunder and Airwolf
Two super choppers got some pretty good themes to listen to.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
The theme always gave me the feel of being in deep space, far away from everything, on a frontier of a new quadrant.

[Killtacular]

Sam and Max: Freelance Police and Cowboy Bebop.

I love graphic design nightmares.

[Supernovametalstar]

Call me crazy, but I liked Saban's opening to DBZ :D . I liked the music and the clips used from the first three movies all came together nicely.

I also liked the openings to Power Rangers Timeforce (I'm a big PR nut) and I thought all of the ones used in that series were the best yet.

For prime time tv, I like the opening to Enterprise a lot. The theme of evolution of sea, to air, to space travel suits the series well, as does the music. Funny how a lot of Trek people at boards I've been too seem to hate the opening.

And I used to hum the theme to M*A*S*H* all the time. Just one of those things that gets stuck in you're head I suppose.

[Naraht]

Originally posted by Supernovametalstar
Call me crazy, but I liked Saban's opening to DBZ :D . I liked the music and the clips used from the first three movies all came together nicely.

I also liked the openings to Power Rangers Timeforce (I'm a big PR nut) and I thought all of the ones used in that series were the best yet.

For prime time tv, I like the opening to Enterprise a lot. The theme of evolution of sea, to air, to space travel suits the series well, as does the music. Funny how a lot of Trek people at boards I've been too seem to hate the opening.

And I used to hum the theme to M*A*S*H* all the time. Just one of those things that gets stuck in you're head I suppose.

It's not the opening they hate, it's the fact that there are words in the song. Alot of my friends are all "Star Trek shouldn't have singing in the theme!" I dunno, I think they're being silly. I've told them that. They got mad at me.

*sigh*


See, it's not just you guys I piss off! =D

[Evil Dr. Reef]

Cowboy Bebop, for its "Stereogram Jazz Cover" opening (the awesome music helps too), and Invader Zim, because it's just fantabalus.

[Ricochet]

Garfield and Friends! Can't beat salsa! :D

[Failure]

BB's montage of images with the hard techno is a great intro.

Angel's intro is great as well, some very good images, with rocking violins. Doesnt get much better than that.

[Lonestarr]

I agree with most of what's been said already.

Matt - You should also check out the terrific anime "Gunsmith Cats". What an opening.

Boy Meets World (the first season; it featured a terrific opening with a great theme...that people discovering the show on Disney Channel will never find out.)
The Drew Carey Show (all of them, but I just love the opening where the audio is "Cleveland Rocks!" and the video is clips from various episodes.)
The New Batman/Superman Adventures
Family Guy
The Weekenders
Welcome Back, Kotter (not much in the way of scenery, but who doesn't love John Sebastian's song?)
Malcolm in the Middle

[Watagashi]

The coolest intros I've seen are:

Record of Loddoss War
Martian Successor Nadesico
Batman Beyond
Smallville


There's a few others, but I can't think of anything else right now. Oh, well.

[James]

Batman Beyond: Great music to a great intro. Really sets up the programme.

Blake's 7 (series 3): Truely unique theme to a cool opening sequence of starships (abeit animated on occasions!) I remember this from when I was a kid - it used to give me a real thrill!

Battle Of The Planets: The best intro music for an anime! Great montage of clips - very clever!

Homicide: Life On The Street: Pure class. Subtle visuals, subtle theme .

Space 1999: The tinpani, the funk, the orchestra, the 'This Episode:' montage - great stuff!

Babylon 5 Series 3 and 4: Wicked tune great montage!

[Sango]

My favorite would probably be Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. I love the song "Kiseki no Umi" and the animation for the beginning is kind of dark.

I also kind of like the Tenchi openings.

My other favorite openings would be for Inu-Yasha. But I kind of actually like their endings better. ^_^;; When my cousin got back from Japan, all she played was her CD with "Fukai Mori" on it so maybe that's why I like the ending better. ;)

[GL2k2]

The Twilight Zone
Nuff said.

Speed Racer/Battle of the Planets
Growing up with these shows, they were unique from the cookie cutter hanna-barbera stuff and held their own. Their themes were almost cinematic and adult, although it's hard to forget...

Spider-Man
Spider-man! Spider-Man! Does what what any real Spider can! Let's see what Sam Raimi can do with that.

The Green Hornet
The Flight of Bumblebee as done by Lalo Shifrin (Also did Mission: Impossible, Enter the Dragon, and Rush Hour). This is quite possibly the most energy put into a series opening.

The Six Million Dollar Man
"We can rebuild him. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."

The Greatest American Hero
One of the only television themes to be #1 on the pop charts.

The X-Files
The original one, where you literally didn't know what to expect from week to week. This is now and thusforth a classic. Not quite as spooky and scary as Twilight Zone was and always will be, but good attempt.

The Adventures of Pete & Pete
If you'd never seen the show, you will should be ashamed of yourself. Its Seinfeld for kids and sniffing model airplane glue.

The Batman/Superman Adventures
Shirley Walker is the bomb, she is worthy to take the torch from John Williams and Danny Elfman someday.

Cowboy Bebop
Kinda a mix of Gunsmith Cats and the original Jonny Quest, cool daddio.

[Tim Drake]

Cowboy Bebop. Batman Beyond. And the Original BTAS intro.

[Majin_Megabyte]

I got ton of fave theme songs

Family Guy
Dragon Ball (Not Toonami verison the Japan verison)
Reboot Season 4
South Park
Daria
Welcome Back Kotter!
All in the Family
Outlaw Star
All of the Tenchi series theme songs
Gundam Wing
Freakazoid
ThunderCats
Cowboy Bebop
Garfield & Friends
The Drew Carey show
and finnaly Invader Zim

[Alaskanbullworm]

Mine are in no particular order:
Animation:
Invader Zim
Spongebob Squarepants
Family Guy
The Oblongs
The Fairly Oddparents
South Park
Samurai Jack
Futurama
Daria
Garfield & Friends
Celebrity Deathmatch

Real Life:
All in the Family
Whose Line Is It Anyway?(British Version)
Drew Carey Show

[KingKoopa]

SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS!

Seriously, Gundam Wing's second intro was pretty good.

[Terminatah]

Of all the Bruce Timm shows, I like The New Batman/Superman Adventures the best. If you listen to it, you'll notice every bit of music keeps getting repeated in a lower note, I think to represent the light Superman and the dark Batman.

Here's some that have not yet been mentioned:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The original, of course. If the new Ninja Turtles show deviates from this theme by one note, then they are fools.

The Critic
"Mr. Sherman? This is your doctor. I've gone over your X-rays and it seems that you're made entirely ... of cheese." Score by the very talented Hans Zimmer.

Frasier
It's actually the closing theme that's great, sung by Kelsey Grammer, mainly because the lyrics sum up the show so well.

Knight Rider
This is probably the ultimate driving music.

Tiny Toon Adventures
You NEVER see themes like this anymore.

--
The next two weren't classics, but I liked them:
--

Stark Raving Mad
This excellent show was axed by NBC before it got a chance to take off. The short theme was sweet.

Jesse
This show wasn't so great, but the theme (Time For You by The Tories) was a good one.

-Terminatah