Alternative Foreign Theme Song / Live-Action TV

• The German dub of Neighbours (Nachbarn) used this.
• The French dub of The A-Team replaced the iconic opening theme tune with a tinny sound-alike featuring French lyrics. The most immediate problem being, the original theme tune doesn't have any lyrics, so there was no need to dub it in the first place. They could have simply recorded the lyrics directly over the original music. To make matters worse, the lyrics are completely redundant, since they simply rehash the premise of the show outlined in the opening voiceover and they refer to the team by the rather less dynamic sounding name of the dub itself, "L'agence tous risques" ("The All-Risks Agency") and also as "The Kings of Cool".
• The various Law & Order series had their theme tunes changed in the UK for their Channel 5 airings; all the other channels to show them in the UK (BBC1, Sky One, Hallmark/Universal, ITV4) use the Mike Post ones.
• When Choudenshi Bioman was licensed in France, it first used a dubbed opening, but did a Channel Hop after five or so episodes and got a new opening by Bernard Minet.
• The Japanese version of The X-Files has a few ending themes in Japan, including "Love Phantom" by B'z, "Unbalanced" by Maki Oguro, and "True Navigation" by Two-Mix.
• Several American live-action shows have had new themes put on for French television such as Dallas (here), Starsky & Hutch (here), Heroes (here) and Prison Break (here).
• The Japanese theme song for Gossip Girl is called "Get Away". The ending theme is "Wonder Woman" by Michi.
• "GO-ON" by Uverworld is the second ending theme for the Japanese dub of the first season and "New World" by w-inds is the ending theme of the second season of House.
  • The UK broadcast replaced "Teardrop" with a different theme song.
• The Japanese dub of Prison Break uses "Top Secret" by Namie Amuro for the theme song of the second season. "Evolution" by Exile was the first theme song for the third season and "Be On Top" is the second theme song. "Change" by YU-A is the ending theme song of the final season.
• The first season of Chicago Hope has "In Silence" as the theme song for the Japanese version and "Winter Fall" for the second season.
• "Ore to Omae no Atarashii Kisetsu" by B'z is used as the Japanese ending theme to The O.C..
• For Lizzie McGuire, instead of using the original opening, the Japanese version uses a dubbed version of "I Can't Wait" sung by Chieko Kawabe.
• The Japanese version of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has "Ghost" by GACKT as its opening theme.
• The Japanese version of Lost uses "Here I Am by Chemistry for the first ending theme, "Losin'" by Yuna Ito for the second ending theme, and "Lonely Girl" by Crystal Kay for the third ending theme.
• The ending theme for the Japanese version of CSI: NY is "The First Day Without You" by Dreams Come True.
• The Japanese theme song of FlashForward (2009) is called "Sisyphus".
• The Japanese theme song for Supernatural is called "Bad Drive" by BoA.
• "Taisetsu na Mono" by AI is the theme song for the Japanese version of Heroes. Mai Kuraki's "Drive Me Crazy" is the theme song for the third season.
• The Japanese broadcasts of Thunderbirds opened with the English-language "5-4-3-2-1" countdown from the original "Thunderbirds March" theme, but then segues into another Barry Gray composition, the Century 21 March, accompanied by Japanese-language lyrics sung by a chorus.
• The ending theme for the Japanese release of Damages is "Perfect Me". The ending theme for the second season is "Rain" by Michi.
• The ending theme for the Japanese version of Ghost Whisperer is a song by Yuji Ono and Lupintic Five. The ending theme for the second season is "Strongly Strongly" by AZU. The ending theme for the third season is "Snowy Town" by Aimer
• When the Canadian-British (although several of its writers, directors and guest stars were American) Seaway aired in the UK, it had this for an opening. At home it had this.
• In a cross with Real Song Theme Tune, Brazil used Rush's "Tom Sawyer" in the opening of MacGyver.
• Parodied with this fake Japanese theme song for Two and a Half Men which calls the show "Out Couple".
• Unsurprisingly, the Japanese opening of Revolution, named "HEAVEN ONLY KNOWS ~Get the Power~" is performed by... T.M.Revolution.
• The Polish version of H₂O: Just Add Water has retained the usual "No Ordinary Girl" song but it actually has been dubbed in Polish by actress Katarzyna Laska. All other dubs have the song in English.
• When RCTV aired Baywatch in Venezuela, instead of using the original opening song, it substituted it with several reggae songs, changing them every season or so. The first and the one used for the longest time was "Bad Boys", the one Americans identify as the theme of COPS.
• Despite the fact that Power Rangers is an English language adaptation of the Japanese Super Sentai shows, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was exported back to Japan and dubbed into Japanese. The Japanese dub kept the English "Go Go Power Rangers" theme, but added new Japanese language ending themes: "Sekai de Ichiban Hakanai Yoru ni" by modern grey, "BREAK YOURSELF" by ROLL DAYS, and "BLOOD ON BLOOD" by ZYYG.
  • The Italian dub used "Power Rangers", sung by Marco Destro, as the show's opening theme up until Power Rangers Lost Galaxy.
• The ending theme for the Japanese version of Once Upon a Time is "Once Upon a Time -Kibou no Uta-" by Shoko Nakagawa.
• A lot of international versions of Sesame Street substitute the classic theme song with something completely different (others just modify the American theme).
  • The Japanese co-production that aired on TV Tokyo used the song "I will be with you" by Ayaka Hirahara as its ending theme for the third season.
• The Japanese version of Timeless has a different ending theme, titled "Let It Shine" by the Gospellers.
• This is the Italian theme song for Barney & Friends, sung by Cristina D'Avena.
• The Spanish dub of The Big Comfy Couch uses the same tune as the English one, but sung at a lower octave.
• The French dub of Return of The Saint uses "Taking it Easy" by Oliver Onions as it's theme song.
  • The Italian dub of the show also used it for the opening credits as well. However, the closing credits used "Feeling Blue" by Jack Basehart.

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