Recycled TV Theme Songs?

[Python Trek]

While watching TNG the other day, I was thinking about how much I love the up-tempo, recycled TMP theme that the series uses. This got me to thinking about other TV series that re-use theme songs from other sources. The ones that came to mind right away were the original FOX animated Batman series, which used Danny Elfman's awesome theme from the first Tim Burton film, and of course, M*A*S*H, which uses "Suicide is Painless" from the film. I suppose we could also include the CSI shows, which use classic Who songs......

Are there any really good ones that I'm forgetting? And why has no one ever used the excellent John Williams Superman theme for any of the various Superman or Justice League series?

 

[Christopher]

And why has no one ever used the excellent John Williams Superman theme for any of the various Superman or Justice League series?

The Ruby-Spears Superman animated series from 1988 used Williams' theme in its main title, then segued smoothly into an original Ron Jones-composed Superman theme. The incidental music within the stories used only the Jones theme, though.

The reason why most shows don't recycle other people's themes -- or why they only use them in the main title and not elsewhere -- is that they'd have to pay royalties for their use. In general, for any and all questions about why things are done a certain way in film and television, it's a safe bet that the answer is "to save money." It's less expensive to have the composer on your payroll create a new theme than it is to pay royalties to an additional composer.

One rather odd bit of theme recycling: Randy Edelman's theme for The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., a steampunk Western on the FOX network, ended up being reused a few years later as a theme for NBC's Olympics coverage and then for years thereafter as a general NBC Sports theme.

 

[Python Trek]

Really? That's interesting. I wonder what series of labyrinthine maneuvers led to that acquisition?

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

Well, TFI Friday used the theme from Man in a Suitcase. Saxondale uses the same theme music as Don't Ask Me (it's a track by Focus). Give Us A Clue and Grange Hill used the same theme tune at more or less the same time (slightly different arrangements of Alan Hawkshaw's Chicken Man) - that's one of the perils of using library tracks, I guess.

 

[Starbreaker]

The theme from Law & Order: Trial by Jury is what is used on Law & Order: Criminal Intent now.

 

[StarshipDefiant]

For that matter, while the tempo may change some, all of the Law & Order series have similar (or 'the same') theme (from what I can recall, anyway).

 

[Aragorn]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVrZE5Y2lV4[/yt]

 

[23skidoo]

The 4 Law & Order series (original, SUV, CI and Trial) were interesting in that they all used variations of the same piece of music.

Sometimes recycling a theme can have unexpected circumstances. Back in the 60s the US broadcasts of Danger Man were retitled Secret Agent and the famous Johnny Rivers song Secret Agent Man was recorded for the new opening credits. Around 2000 a TV series called Secret Agent Man aired on Fox. It also used the Johnny Rivers song, and as a result I occasionally see it referred to as a remake of the original Secret Agent series when there was no connection between the two shows at all.

Alex

 

[doubleohfive]

^
That's probably got more to do with sloppy journalism / lazy fact-checking than anything else.

 

[Ptrope]

The theme song for the original Kolchak: The Night Stalker was recycled from Roddenberry's unsold TV-series pilot The Questor Tapes.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Monty Python's Flying Circus used Sousa's The Liberty Bell. Seeing Monty first, the first time I heard it outside of the show I thought they were playing the "Monty Python song".

I suppose a good number of these would be from film-to-TV or cartoon spin-offs using the source music such as The Real Ghostbusters and so on.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

When Christopher Reeve guest starred on Smallville, they used some of the John Williams cues as part of the episode soundtrack. It was around this time that they started going into the Kryptonian mythology and backstory as well. It was also the last time I thought Smallville was cool!

 

[Magnum]

The highly popular opening theme music to Magnum P.I. was originally just the closing theme music in episode 1.08. They only started using it as the main opening theme since 1.12. Prior to that, Magnum P.I. had a very generic, jazzy opening theme.

 

[Ptrope]

And, of course, the theme for Star Trek: Enterprise was originally recorded by Rod Stewart for the soundtrack of the Robin Williams bio-pic Patch Adams .

 

[Christopher]

Not exactly the same thing, but the iconic Mission: Impossible theme was actually written for a chase sequence in the pilot episode. When the intended theme didn't work out, they decided to use that cue as the main title theme instead.

 

[M'Sharak]

Saxondale uses the same theme music as Don't Ask Me (it's a track by Focus).

The name of the tune is "House of the King".

 

[Joel_Kirk]

The Peter Gunn theme was used for various film trailers....(particularly mediocre comedies)...

 

[Brikar99]

Not exactly the same thing, but the iconic Mission: Impossible theme was actually written for a chase sequence in the pilot episode. When the intended theme didn't work out, they decided to use that cue as the main title theme instead.

That's a pretty cool little tidbit, though!

 

[Python Trek]

The theme song for the original Kolchak: The Night Stalker was recycled from Roddenberry's unsold TV-series pilot The Questor Tapes.

I didn't know that! The Kolchak theme is a fave of mine....cool series, too.

 

[Keith1701]

Was elements of the original "Battlestar Galactica" theme music put into the new series as well?