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Awesome Music / Live-Action TV

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jaskierbelting.png
♫I hear you're alive, how disappointing
I've also survived, no thanks to you
Did I not bring you some glee
Mister, oh, look at me
Now I'll burn all the memories of you.♫

Examples of Awesome Music in live-action TV shows. If any of these shows have an OST out, do yourself a favor and buy it.

Please don't introduce new examples by complaining that they're missing from the list.

Awesome Music pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.

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    Mike Post 
  • Mike Post is responsible for over three decades worth of Crowning Themes of Awesome. If you're breathing, you know at least one of them.
    • The Greatest American Hero. This one is so good, people probably know the song better than the show itself. (Especially if they're fans of The Cinema Snob.) It probably helps that the song stayed in the Billboard top 40 for two straight years...longer than the show was on the air.
    • The A-Team (full version). This theme never fails to pump you up. People who haven't seen the show but have heard the tune can admit it's awesome. Also an catchy. The final season version too.
    • Quantum Leap The Season 5 version wasn't half bad either. It was a little slower, but still awesome!
    • Law & Order (and all its spinoffs). Although when Channel 5 began to run Law & Order and the spinoffs they replaced the great man's work with another piece by Rob Dougan. Philistines.
    • In fact, Mike Post is so awesome that one of the greatest bands in the world wrote a song about him.
    • The theme for The Rockford Files, in all variations, set the stage for the style of the show. You hear the song and you can see the intro. It featured some top notch musicians on synthesizer, guitar and harmonica (and other instruments).
  • The most memorable thing about 1980s detective series Sonny Spoon, starring Mario Van Peebles, was its kick-ass theme song, built around a bluesy harmonica and (surprise!) the spoons. It was written by...Mike Post! Surprise, surprise...
  • He got so much stick for his theme from Murder One, but guess what turned out to be his only (to date) Emmy-winner?
  • How awesome is Mike Post? Stephen J. Cannell included him in the opening titles of many of his shows. Not the episode main credits, the actual main titles of the shows. See Tenspeed and Brownshoe, The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage, or Wiseguy for examples.

    Other Awesome Music 
  • The soundtrack to 24:
    • "Alexis' Theme".
    • "Palmer's Theme" takes on greater significance especially since a certain Senator from Illinois became Commander-In-Chief. There's greater significance in it when its main motif was reprised over Palmer's wake near the end of Season 5—at the same time that Jack Bauer and CTU were collecting evidence against then-current President Logan. It was the greatest combination of very sad and almost sadistic irony that he's ever seen.
  • "They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky. They're all together ooky, The Addams Family." (SNAP SNAP)
  • The English language version of the French mini-series The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe has one of the most memorable TV themes ever written (especially for British 60s kids). The haunting theme and the rest of the score were composed by Robert Mellin and Gian Piero Reverberi at short notice and in a short time but were of a quality that seems far too good for a kids' TV show. The theme is still used on other programmes to evoke desert islands.
  • The theme tune to Airwolf, by Sylvester Levay. Hell yeah.
  • Both ALF themes, especially the 1988 saxophone version: This.
  • The musique concrete-bottom theme song from Are You Being Served?
  • "The History Of Everything" by the Barenaked Ladies. Better known as the theme song from The Big Bang Theory.
    • The full version that the band played to open the show's panel at Comic Con turned the epicness up to 11. As if the fact that they showed up period wasn't epic enough! There's a clip somewhere where Simon Helberg said the accordion solo made him cry with joy.
    • "You Can Be My Yoko Ono" being used in the episode where Sheldon had a lady friend (for lack of a better word) who wouldn't let him out the apartment for anything except work. So fitting for the montage and so awesome!
    • Amy's short rendition of "The Girl from Ipanema".
    • Howard's romantic song to Bernadette, "From the Moment That I Met You".
  • In the episode "Judas On A Pole" of Bones, Max Keenan's big damn Papa Wolf moment is backed by Placebo's cover of Running Up That Hill.
    • "A Pain That I'm Used To", by Depeche Mode in the Bones episode "Two Bodies in the Lab" fits. Besides being a great song, the way it was set was perfect.
    • "Bring on the Wonder" by Susan Enan, used in the episode "The Boy in the Shroud". It can be found here.
  • Jeff Beal's brilliant work on Carnivàle. The opening credits are the most gorgeous blend of art and music ever, and nearly every episode has Beal's beautiful original music in it.
    • "The Battle Is Not Over", which plays over the very end of the season 2 finale.
    • The opening music for Carnivale is actually by Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman (Tim Kring's composers of choice). It is, however, indeed wonderful.
  • The opening episode of the sixth season of Charmed, "Valhalley of the Dolls", included a wonderful mix: the leather-clad, biker-chick Valkyries riding their motorcycles to a kick-ass, rockified version of Ride of the Valkyries. Updating Wagner never sounded so good.
  • The entire score of the mini-series Chernobyl is a haunting, tense musical composition that amplifies the intense feeling of dread and death of a situation that is quickly spiraling out of control, and much larger than anyone can comprehend. It's all the more awesome by the mere fact that it incorporates sounds recorded from within an actual nuclear power plant.
  • The Criminal Minds opening theme is appropriately creepy, but you've got to give it to Patterson Hood's Heavy and Hanging, which plays over the final scenes of season five's "Hopeless". Hotch, Rossi, and Prentiss's Team Power Walk to the opening chords just makes it even more awesome.
    • It's more terrifying than awesome, but the best musical choice is the family who burn to death to the sound of Enya's "Boadicea."
    • Gary Louris’ "We’ll Get By" at the end of "Damaged". The grown children of the murdered parents have closure after 20 years, and they know that the killer, a mentally-challenged carnival worker, didn’t mean to do what he did. The team arrives back in Virginia after a job well done, as Hotch signs his divorce papers in his office. The song is perfect for the ending — it’s melancholy but hopeful at the same time, more of a feeling of "Life is uncertain, bad things happen, but the fight continues."
    • TV on the Radio's "Wolf Like Me" at the beginning of "Doubt", with the campus killings and Gideon's slow downward spiral.
    • There's also Johnny Cash's "When the Man Comes Around" in "Elephant's Memory".
    • Kevin and Garcia's first face-to-face meeting in "Penelope", set to the excellently apropos "Heroes" by David Bowie.
    • The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" playing in the beginning of "Revelations" while Reid was getting kidnapped as the BAU team was looking for him and the UnSub]] and from the same episode, "The Funeral" by the Band of Horses playing at the end as the team saves Reid just in time and Reid falls into drug addiction.
  • The opening themes to CSI, CSI: Miami and CSI NY. Why? Because they pulled three of The Who's greatest hits ("Who Are You," "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Baba O'Riley" respectively) and distilled their awesomeness.
    • Grissom's Overture is a great piece of instrumental music used in the show. Another really cool instrumental track is Investigation Suite.
    • The Who played all three songs at the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show, see it here! Hugely appropriate since the Super Bowl was in Miami and shown on CBS.
    • And now for CSI: Cyber, we have a new theme song also done by The Who: I Can See for Miles.
  • The Diff'rent Strokes main theme. "'Cause what's right for you / May not be right for some...".
  • Dollhouse features Greg Laswell's "Sweet Dream" at the end of "Man Of The Street" (also, every bit of the sweet but depressing lyrics is a ridiculously perfect fit for the situation depicted in the scene), the song "Lonely Ghosts" by O+S in the episode "Needs", and Beck's "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime" to finish off "Omega", with the bonus that it was also prominently used in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which has a premise similar to the one for Dollhouse. Finally, there's "Remains," written by show writers Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon, used at the end of "Epitaph One".
    • "What You Don't Know" by Jonatha Brooke is pretty brilliant, as well as being really catchy.
    • The series finale "Epitaph Two: Return" concludes with Lissie's "Everywhere I Go."
  • Due South was particularly good at this. "Henry Martin", "Eia Mater", and any use of a Loreena McKennitt song. Also, "Victoria's Secret", composed for the episodes dealing with Fraser's (not lost enough) love Victoria, is a heartbreaking piano piece that sums up all the emotion in that relationship.
    • The fact that Paul Gross has a decent singing voice himself wasn't lost on the show's producers. In the two parter "Mountie on the Bounty", Fraser distracted the crew of a toxic-waste dumping ship by singing "Barrett's Privateers" so Ray could slip out to look for evidence against the crew. And the final ship battle. "THIRTY-TWO DOWN ON THE ROBERT MACKENZIE!"
    • opening theme: Fantastic, especially the organ(?), it's awesome!
  • In Farscape:
    • "The Last Stand", the music for the ship's destruction asTalyn sacrifices himself to destroy Scorpius's command carrier, is truly awesome.
    • Further, the music when John and Aeryn's baby is born in "The Peacekeeper Wars" is so over-the-top you'd think it was the third coming of Christ. (The second? Jim Belushi.) Then again, the odds of that kid getting conceived, let alone surviving to birth, were pretty astronomical. He earned that overture.
    • Really, Farscape's opening themes are among the best idea of what the show is about. Somehow they combine cheesy sci-fi with weird-as-hell crazy awesome.
    • When the music swelled during the explosion of the Gammac Base in the Season one finale.
  • The haunting opening theme to Forever Knight. Heck, a lot of the other music too.
  • Chrissie Hynde's version of "Angel of the Morning" in season 2 of Friends.
  • The miniseries From the Earth to the Moon had more than its fair share of awesome music, including the intro music and when Neil Armstrong steps onto the Moon.
  • Galavant, a musical-comedy series. Alan Menken wrote the songs, AND is an executive producer. Are you surprised that it has awesome music?
    • Special mention has to go to the opening number. Apparently, ABC also loves the song, because every single trailer for an ABC show has a little ditty of its own, set to the same tune, with some rather nifty variations.
    • "Love is Strange". Not only is this when Galavant and Isabella confess their feelings for each other the musical accompaniment has some of the most complex orchestration heard in the soundtrack.
    • The new opening for Season 2 "New Season (aka Suck It Cancellation Bear)" also is good. Justified why the song try to replace In-Universe the catchy precedent main theme. It has a Dark Reprise also.
    • The tune of the main theme comes back for the awesome "Galavant Recap" where the Jester breathlessly and flawlessly recaps the last few episodes for everyone, to the point where both armies applaud it in universe.
  • The Season 2 finale of Grey's Anatomy had the amazing song "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol playing at the end, with the chorus beginning as Izzie breaks down lying next to Denny... The song also became a huge hit after appearing in this episode.
  • In Grimm, starting the pilot episode with the original Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" - and ending with Marilyn Manson's cover. The title theme starting from Season Two.
  • The best TV theme song ever! Hawaii 5-0 (full version. And the "reimagined", new version: which is almost as good, partly because they actually had three of the original musicians play on it!
  • The Heroes theme.
    • The rest of the show's soundtrack is low-key, but very nice though.
    • The climax of the episode "Company Man" when Claire is trying to get closer to an uncontrollable Ted Sprague, and we see parts of the house burn down. Chilling and gorgeous music plays in the background, which eventually silences all the destruction and mayhem happening. A true CMOA if there ever was one.
    • Anything involving Sylar's theme, usually played on church bells. Towards the end of "Trust and Blood", Peter explains to other heroes they are fugitives now, and an omnious rock tune starts playing in the background. In the next scene, Sylar and Luke are driving a car, the music continues and segues into the Sylar theme. This rock version of Sylar theme, even if it lasted only a few seconds, was a true CMOA.
    • The music playing during "Nathan's" suicide in The Fifth Stage. And the music playing during his funeral in Upon This Rock. ... In fact, a lot of fans of the character were annoyed that he didn't get his own theme when even Maya got one.
  • The opening theme of Finnish political comedy Hyvät herratnote  is a chill and swinging synthesized piece that wouldn't sound too out of place in a classic Sonic the Hedgehog game.
  • {Ideal} has plenty of good examples, but the musical segments Jenny hallucinates, the karaoke at the end of the Christmas episode, and Psycho Paul's theme are among the best.
  • The theme from Inspector Morse is just beautifully haunting. The Genius Bonus — the rythym of the violins spells out the Inspector's name in... wait for it... Morse code.
  • The intro song to Jack of All Trades. Whenever Bruce Campbell gets a theme song it ends up awesome.
  • The opening theme for the HBO miniseries John Adams, by Rob Lane, is pure Patriotic Fervornote , minus the Eagleland, in a fiddle solo. There is also the cue called "Declaration of Independence", which manages to go from triumphant to intimate to epic.
  • Just the Ten of Us:
    • The moments in seasons 2 and 3 where the older girls form a singing group focusing on rock hits feel absolutely wonderful.
    • The intro has a decent amount of fans who describe it as a catchy, nostalgic, feel-good tune.
  • Katie Morag has a lovely opening and closing theme. If you like Celtic music, it's a nice one to check out.
  • The Brunnen-G's song from Lexx, sung when going into battle expecting to die.
    • The fact that a soundtrack for the episode "Brigadoom" (the musical ep) has not been released is criminal.
  • Life is uniformly kick-ass with its musical choices, but the best remains the scene in the first season finale, after Charlie's car gets T-boned and he shoots the two fake cops, when he climbs out of the wreckage to "Down Boy" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, while the sun sets and the traffic light changes in the distance. Fabulous song, beautifully shot, emotional gut-punch. Also, the use of The Frames' "Finally" in the near-to-last scene of that episode, when he, Reese, and Stark bring Kyle Hollis into the precinct — a nice full-circle with the use of their song "Dream Awake" at the end of the pilot.
    • The alternate song, used in the DVD set and the streaming video on NBC's website, is "No Time Left" by Gush. All of the music from Life, both original and alternate, is listed on this site.
    • There's a really nice use of Priscilla Ahn's Dream when Charlie finally finds Rachel and carries her out into the sunlight.
  • Theme song from Malcolm in the Middle by They Might Be Giants. Also Dewey's Opera.
  • From Married... with Children, George Thorogood's "Bad to the Bone" as a theme song for Al Bundy's awesome moments, the ones where a bone is thrown to him.
  • It might not be the best show on British TV, but Merlin has some great music. Have a mix!
    • The ending of series 2 has a Big Damn Heroes moment accompanied by awesome music.
  • Jan Hammer's KickAss theme to Miami Vice. In fact, Miami Vice did it so often it could've been a trope namer. But some standouts are:
    • Phil Collins "In The Air Tonight" from the pilot episode.
    • Russ Ballard's "Voices".
    • Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do With It?".
    • Laura Brannigan's "Self Control".
    • Dire Straits' "Brothers In Arms".
  • Midnight Caller: The opening theme by Rick Braun is an incredible piece of jazz music that screams the Film Noir feeling of roaming the streets at (mid)night. The opening sequence with a montage of pictures of night-time San Francisco amongst the regular "cast list" pictures became unforgettable as a result.
  • Several songs from The Mighty Boosh could qualify as awesome songs, but the Tundra Rap and Mod Wolves dance are pretty ear-catching.
  • Both openings of Monk.
  • "Turn the World Around" on The Muppet Show. Could be considered one of the CMoAs of the show as well.
  • Monday Mornings had some impressive choices for music. The ending of first episode uses the meandering, chill-giving opening riff of "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones. It captures perfectly Dr. Wilson's Heroic BSoD and the fact that he has to put himself together right now because there is a new patient.
  • IT'S... Monty Python's Flying Circus. It sounds like it was written for the show, and is nearly impossible to find a copy without the trademark raspberry at the end. It is actually the Liberty Bell March, written by John Philip Sousa, used both for its bright, energetic sound, and because they didn't have to pay royalties on it.
  • The show Northern Exposure was regularly praised for having amazing incidental music, usually broadcast by the local DJ Chris Stevens' on the show's fictional radio station, KBHR. The show used everything from Miriam Makeba to Lynard Skynard to Enya to Cajun folk songs to Etta James...one well-regarded scene featured the free-spiritish Stevens advising Ed, a local boy, about how to care for a wounded whooping crane he was nursing back to health; at some point they try to teach the crane to "dance" to the tune of Brian Eno and John Cale's "Lay My Love".
  • NUMB3RS:
    • The Intro with its instrumental, accompanied with Charlie's narration about the importance of math, gets the viewer excited about the plot of the episode is going to be.
    • "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen at the end of "Provenance" when Alan, Larry, and Charlie discuss how even though a Holocaust survivor has lost her family, she regained something when she was given back her family's painting. The song fits with the events of the episode about how something that was once lost was found again.
  • Part of The O.C. 's popularity stemmed from its brilliant soundtrack choices. For some, it ended up being a Gateway Series into indie music. A very considerate person on Youtube has thoughtfully culled the most memorable CMOAs from The O.C. onto one channel. The song "Dice", used in the New Year's Eve episode, is particularly sublime.
  • The theme song to The Office (US).
  • Dominic Frontiere's scores for The Outer Limits (1963) (specifically, the first season of the original series) were magnificent, ranking with the best film music of the era.
  • Peep Show and "Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger. Rarely have a show and a non-original theme song been so perfectly matched...
  • The Perry Mason theme, "Park Avenue Beat".
  • The Pushing Daisies Instrumental Theme Tune, along with the "danger music" that shows up in some episodes (the one that sounds like Ominous Latin Chanting). And the several Leitmotifs and any time Aunt Vivian and/or Olive sings.
  • The title theme for Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) is delicious.
  • Jeff Beal's magnificent music for Rome, which manages to sound plausibly ancient and yet seductive at the same time. Highlights include the percussive title theme, the Egyptian remix of same, and the deviously catchy "Janus Breaks".
  • Though the show itself is simply stupid-yet-fun in retrospect (with the ratio of stupid to fun varying by episode), the original music composed for The Sentinel kind of rocks in its own right; check out the "Red Dust Suite" and the '97/'98 end theme in particular. Steve Porcaro, John Keane (episode composers) and James Newton Howard (theme), take a bow.
  • The theme music from Seven Days. Just listen to it! It got a slight upgrade in Season 3 if you ignore Parker's naff narration.
  • The main theme of The Shield, performed by X-Ecutioners. Perfect to hook you up for a world of dirty cops and dirtier criminals.
  • Skins and As If both have unbelievably awesome soundtracks. Skins's peak is probably Glasvegas' epic "It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry", from the ending of "Katie And Emily" in series 3.
    • Or possibly at the end of series 1, where Sid, Chris, Angie, a bus driver and the comatose Tony start singing Cat Steven's Wild World.
    • Dinosaur Jr.'s "Said The People" at the end of Series 4 episode "Emily" where Emily walks back into Naomi's house to, presumably, make up with her for cheating displays the angst of the moment perfectly.
    • MGMT's "Time to Pretend" during the very last shot of the Series 2 finale, where Effy smiles into the camera, essentially ascending to her throne as main character of the next generation. Epic.
  • Silicon Valley makes great use of amazing neo-psychedelic music, particularly in the first few episodes. The theme song is "Stretch Your Face" by Tobacco, and the first season features a several more songs by him as well. An early episode also has Erlich take mushrooms and have a bad trip to the tune of The Black Angels' "Bad Vibrations."
  • "Woke Up This Morning" by Alabama 3, as seen in The Sopranos.
  • The theme song from the "1975 T.V Show S.W.A.T.".
  • The House of Cards Trilogy has some fantastic music by Jim Parker. The fact it has never been made widely available is just criminal.
  • The Tudors title theme is just amazingly beautiful.
    • As is the theme "Anne's Final Walk", which plays when Anne Boleyn is executed. This one is haunting as anything - appropriate, isn't it? They used the same song for the final fall of Cardinal Wolsey.
  • Music from the original miniseries V (1983), and V: The Final Battle. Especially the opening themes for both.
  • Veronica Mars:
    • The use of The Pixies "Where Is My Mind?" at the end of episode 2, season 2, combining the Last Note Nightmare with the finding of the dead guy with Veronica's name on his hand.
    • Veronica singing "One Way or Another" and Aaron Echols beating the snot out of his daughter's abusive boyfriend to "That's Amore!" are also very much awesome.
    • The jaw-droppingly intense use of "Right Here, Right Now" in conclusion to season 3's serial rapist arc.
  • The second opening credit theme for White Collar—it's halfway through rock and funk and fits the tone of the series perfectly.
  • The Wire barely ever had a score at all, so each season's opening credit sequence and each season finale's closing montage had to make up for this. Be warned, each montage contains massive spoilers for the season. Especially awesome is the series finale closing montage, which recycles the theme song from the first season. Done to represent the show's recurring theme of "the world doesn't change, it just turns."
  • It's only fitting that a miniseries that is made of pure win should have an awesome title theme. Sleazy yet spine-chilling, The opening to I, Claudius fits the bill rather nicely... and that snake!
  • Ultraman Nexus opens every episode with DOA's Eiyuu, which is even more epic at full-length.
  • This bit from the Japanese talent show Kasou Taishou.
  • Parallax. They made the Australian national anthem into one of the most stirring pieces of music ever. Although...
  • "My Lovely Horse" from Father Ted and, to a lesser extent, Dick Byrne's "losing" Eurosong entry from the same episode.
  • The theme to The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. So awesome, they just HAVE to use it for the Olympic Games coverage on NBC!
  • The Knight Rider theme. It was so awesome that people felt they needed to sample it.
  • The theme to CHiPs must have Took a Level in Badass, it's so mind-blowingly awesome. (Oh, wait - it did.)
  • The Simon & Simon theme. Rocks your socks off.
  • The theme song from Rawhide.
  • Wiseguy: "Nights in White Satin" playing on the jukebox at the conclusion of the Sonny Steelgrave arc. The Dead Dog Records arc had some good music too, for obvious reasons.
  • The National Geographic Specials won't be complete without its theme composed by the great Elmer Bernstein.
  • Bryan Tyler's soundtracks to the SciFi... sorry, SyFy... Channel's Dune and Children of Dune are Made of Win, but Summon The Worms is surely one of the best tracks EVER. See if you can count how many other movie trailers have used the first minute or so for their music.
  • Finland's entry to the 2006 Eurovision song contest, none other than Lordi's "Hard Rock Hallelujah". This won by the biggest margin to date; the record has since been surpassed by Norway, but it took a change in voting procedure to bring about that result.
  • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is another (excellent) Bear McCreary project, but the few instances where licensed music is used are epic, particularly Johnny Cash's "When The Man Comes Around" and Shirley Manson's version of "Samson and Delilah," both over slow motion action scenes.
  • The grandiose, ominous, occult-sounding music whenever something grandiose, ominous and occult happens in Bortko's television series of The Master and Margarita.
  • The Kids in the Hall's groovy, surf-rock theme tune Having an Average Weekend
  • At the end of the 2008 series of Good News Week, Paul McDermott sang a touching, melancholy rendition of a certain popular song reflecting on the nature of the news of the year. That song? "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry. See it here, with the joke spoiled. Around the chorus, it becomes awesome. Incidentally, this is also a funny moment.
    • Also, this cover of "Oops I Did It Again", where halfway through the song becomes a hard rock song. At the end, Paul's screaming is a thing of beauty.
    • At the end of 2009, Paul, Tim Ferguson, Joseph Tawadros and Tripod played an original song, "Oh, My Stars". It's a serious and beautiful song.
  • Ken Burns is known for the meticulous selection of the soundtracks for his documentaries, but nothing quite matches "Ashokan Farewell" from The Civil War.
  • The diabolically fun "Funeral March of the Marionettes", also known as the theme from Alfred Hitchcock Presents. "Goood eeeevning, ladies and gentlemen....", along with the shadowy visuals, one of the best openings ever.
  • The Russian TV miniseries Seventeen Moments of Spring has two awesome songs: Moments and Somewhere Far Away.
  • The Trouble With Mr. Bean began with Mr. Bean himself waking up late, realises that he's running late for his appointment with the dentist, and decides to get dressed and brush his teeth while driving to the appointment... all while an awesome remix of the show's theme song plays. Have a listen here.
  • The HBO Mini Series adaptation of Angels in America has a score written by Thomas Newman. Had this music been nominated, the show's 11 Emmy wins would have been 12.
  • The Theme from the BBC Documentary Series Blue Planet, written by George Fenton, is just... ah, just Listen to it.
  • In 2009 the Swedish Eurovision Song Contest finally included a halftime show number called Tingaling. The song became incredibly popular, in fact so popular it was the most downloaded song from Swedish iTunes for weeks after the show aired. The comedy group behind the number also released a CD, "Absolute Tingaling", which consisted of nothing but different versions and remixes of the song. You'd think it would stop there, but the song actually managed to cause a political conflict between Sweden and Russia (the hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest that year). Try listening to it, it's quite catchy.
  • The theme for The Prisoner (1967) contains dangerous quantities of bongos, spy guitar, and badassery.
  • The opening theme to Psych. Which was written and performed by the band of the creator.
  • The soundtrack of Green Wing. It is an appropriately odd soundtrack for an utterly bizarre show.
  • The theme from Van der Valk is almost absurdly OTT for a Police Procedural. It was a top 40 hit in the UK, and was also used as the closing theme to Alan Partridge Mid Morning Matters.
  • The theme from 1960s and 70s Australian Cop Show Division 4 is awesome, so much so that TISM sampled it for the song "Thunderbirds are Coming Out".
  • UFO (1970) had a theme of great awesomeness — John Barry would have been proud. It was written by Barry Gray, whose themes for Gerry Anderson's other shows Fireball XL5, Stingray (1964) and Thunderbirds were equally awesome if not more so. His theme for Space: 1999 is a reminder of just how good the show was before Second Season Downfall kicked in.
    • Gray's music for Thunderbirds is pretty awesome to begin with, but there's a particular theme that usually kicks in just after International Rescue have saved the day (originally composed for the first appearance of the Fireflash airliner), which raises the score to a whole new level of awesomeness.
    • Specifically used in Spaced as music inspiring enough to launch Brian ("Are you a man or a mouse?" "Meep.") into action.
      • (Mike switches on his tape of the Thunderbirds main theme. Several seconds of it pass. A huge grin slowly spreads across Brian's face...) "...I'm a MAN!"
    • And "Dangerous Games" from "The Cham-Cham". Especially when Penny sings it.
  • Don't lie, Bill Nye the Science Guy had a kick-ass theme song.
  • BEAKMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!
  • "Kung Fu".
  • When Sean Hayes hosted Saturday Night Live back in February 2001, he started his monologue segment by playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on the piano. Then outta nowhere, the SNL Band joined in, and it segued into a rocking cover of Walter Murphy's "A Fifth of Beethoven". (And just to show off, Hayes kept playing as he shaved, signed autographs, and took a cell phone call).
  • SNL's closing theme music. It's the sound of a party breaking up. Very effective.
  • Human Target has music by Bear McCreary. This is automatic awesome. The end theme is just as good.
  • The famous four-note riff from The Twilight Zone (1959). The classic theme by Marius Constant started with it, just before Rod Serling's voiceover narration; the 1980s revival built up to it as the climax, by which time it was so famous that they didn't need narration any more.
  • While as a whole the show Mysterious Ways was panned, Natalie Maines' rendition of Amazing Grace in the pilot is nothing short of incredible.
  • Rebel L.
    • That song is actually a parody of Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell". Sesame Street has done a lot of these parodies. Measure, Yeah, Measure (based on Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never") isn't half bad either, although Elmo's unsuitably high-pitched voice is a bit of a Level Breaker.
  • One episode of Boston Legal featured an epic cover of "War (What Is It Good For?)" crossed with "Over There", representing anti-war and pro-war testimony, respectively. Yes, this was performed in a courtroom, why do you ask?
  • The 1980s TV show Misfits of Science had a memorable scene of the electrically charged Johnny B. giving a few hundred soldiers a concert starts at about 5.25.
  • The BBC's Top Gear has some awesome music sampled into the BGM for things like their regular challenges, super/hypercar laps and to generally live up the the general level of awesome. The one that stands out most is the use of Globus' "Preliator" during the "Race Across London" challenge in Series 10, Ep 5.
    • Top Gear is more or less a continuous CMOA, as evidenced in this short clip featuring a Lotus Elise, an Boeing Apache AH-64, Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", and finally Motörhead's "Ace of Spades"!
    • The series 13 finale, closing with the piece about the Aston Martin V12 Vantage possibly representing the end of an era and during a period where rumours abounded that the show - or at least Jeremy Clarkson's tenure on it - was finishing, was epic in scope and cinematography and writing all on its own. But mix in Brian Eno's "An Ending (Ascent)" and the result is breathtaking.
    • At the end of the episode where Slash (of Guns & Roses fame) was the Star in the Reasonably Priced Car, the end credits were accompanied not by the usual recorded music but by Slash. Playing "Jessica". While standing atop the Indestructible Toyota. It was exactly as awesome as it sounds.
  • Several theme songs from Guiding Light qualify.
  • Joey Tabolt's "Theme from The League of Gentlemen" is amazing, mainly because it seems better suited for an action or detective show and yet manages to feel very much in place in the opening montages.
  • It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is unique in that the calm, classical music used on the show is a massive contrast to the actual content. All the same, you can't say music playing over the car crash at the end of "The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis" doesn't somehow seem to fit perfectly.
  • The Fawlty Towers intro music - a genteel, tranquil string quartet tune - is completely at odds with the agitating stories, providing a delightful bit of Soundtrack Dissonance.
  • Dead Like Me's theme isn't anything particularly special but their sort of "unofficial theme" is Metisse's Boom Boom Ba. Watch the final scene where this song plays as George is walking away from her grave and just casually says "It's not so bad, being dead like me and try not to Squee.
    • Stewart Copeland (and Emilio Kauderer)'s theme isn't anything particularly special? As the fragrant Piper Halliwell once put it, "You. Me. Issues."
  • Ryan Star's Brand New Day from the Lie to Me opening credits..
  • Fringe's theme music is awesome and wonderfully captures the crazy nature of the show. Just watch...
  • The theme for Baywatch; here's the full version.
  • The season three premiere of The Sopranos features a killer mashup of the Peter Gunn theme and "Every Breath You Take"; the two songs have the exact same beat and fit together perfectly.
  • The 62nd Annual Emmy Awards opened with this. Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Joel McHale, Jon Hamm, Jane Lynch, and the cast of Glee all performing Bruce Springsteen's "Born To Run". Wow.
  • The theme to the short-lived crime drama Department S. Arguably the best TV theme most people have never heard.
  • The American Queer as Folk. It's really hard to find one song that isn't awesome. In five seasons!
  • Mission: Impossible has its theme music, the various motifs for phases of the plot, and the birdsong in outdoor scenes.
  • Anything by Joseph LoDuca, but especially his EPIC themes for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess.
  • Castle has made great use of well and lesser known artists. So far the most outstanding would have been Unthought Known by Pearl Jam and "Rise" by The Frames. The latter was played over the powerful, touching ending of "Knockdown" and fit the mood just perfectly
  • The theme for the '80s Japanese cop show Dai Gekitou - Mad Police. Composed by the great Yuji Ohno.
  • Any of the music from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Admit it.
  • Carl Davis's theme from The World at War is guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes.
    • His theme for the Thames TV documentary series Hollywood is, astonishingly, even better.
  • Michael Kamen's theme for Band of Brothers is an astonishingly emotional piece to begin with, but on the closing credits of one particularly emotional episode it's played by the string section alone and becomes a massive tear-jerking moment. Just goes to show you can have amazing war music without breaking out the heavy drums.
  • The main theme for a Chinese television adaptation of Journey to the West.
  • Parks and Recreation's theme song could make even Eeyore beam with delight, and their genius use of Tom Petty's "American Girl" in season 3's "Harvest Festival."
  • A lot of the Dark Angel score counts, like the Expanded Space Needle Theme (unused in the pilot, but heard in "...And Jesus Brought a Casserole" and "Freak Nation", the two season finales).
  • The opening titles of The Borgias, composed by Trevor Morris and featuring Spanish guitar, a haunting choir and Gregorian-like chanting, is spine-tinglingly awesome.
  • The NOVA theme is 43 seconds of awesome. Made even better with the opening.
  • The atmospheric lighting and surreal music of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction turned what was occasionally a by the numbers anthology series into something awesome.
  • The Vampire Diaries tends to do very well on the music front, but a standout scene is in the penultimate episode of season two, where British singer Birdy's beautiful, mournful cover of Bon Iver's "Skinny Love" plays while Elena reads John's letter and puts flowers on the graves of Jenna, John and her parents.
    • Placebo's cover of Running Up That Hill in the pilot episode, as Stefan talks to Zach, then opens a cupboard, picks out a journal and looks at the picture of Katherine from 1864.
    • Wires by Athlete in 2.06 Plan B, as Elena insists she and Stefan break up because of Katherine.
    • Of the instances in 'Masquerade' that really stand out are the use of Tawgs Salter's "Brave" while Stefan and Elena talk about their relationship, and Elena repeats that she needs to stay away from him, as well as Digital Daggers' gorgeous cover of Tears for Fears' "Head Over Heels" while Stefan and Katherine dance.
  • Harry's Dream Sequence Musical Number, "Life Has Been Good to Me", from 3rd Rock from the Sun. He's not a bad singer, actually.
  • 3-2-1 Contact:
  • Square One TV': Opening theme and extended closing theme.
  • Mark Mancina and Trevor Rabin's Soldier Of Fortune.
  • Was Threat Matrix a good show? No. Was its theme by Hans Zimmer and Steve Jablonsky too good for it? Yes.
  • The Planet Earth Theme, and it really gets epic at 1:14.
  • Also by Impossible Pictures, Primeval has its fair share of memorable tracks too. They include the extended theme song, the sad "Into the Late Permian", "The Mystery of the Anomalies" and the chilling "Infected".
  • Both Jeeves and Wooster and Poirot have wonderfully quirky main titles that capture the flavour and style of each series beautfully.
  • Bruce Broughton's theme for JAG. Why did it take so long to have a soundtrack album?
  • The BBC and DK series Eyewitness opens with a famously badass theme song.
  • The Cosby Show had a different opening for each season, but the opening for season 5 is definitely the most epic. The arrangement that played during the end credits is a little more easygoing, but it has quite a catchy groove.
  • Billy May's trumpet heavy score for The Green Hornet (featuring Al Hirt playing on the theme tune) is Rule of Cool made into music form.
  • From Misfits, Simon and Alisha's theme.
  • Garth Marenghis Darkplace has a spectacularly cheesy (and brilliant) soundtrack, particularly the opening theme. The show was designed to mock 80s action dramas.
  • The telemusical from 1966 Evening Primrose obviously has this because the songs were written by Stephen Sondheim, but "Take Me to the World" is the most prominent, regardless if it is Anthony Perkins (yes, that Anthony Perkins) or Neil Patrick Harris belting out that ending.
  • The Mahabharat War Song. Ten and a half minutes of pure awesomeness, and most of it is simply listing the major players of the Kurukshetra War.
  • Reading Rainbow ("Take a look, it's in a book...").
  • David Schwartz wrote the intros for Deadwood, Arrested Development and Northern Exposure, and is therefore an unsung television theme genius.
  • The use of "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" by Creedence Clearwater Revival in the final episode of Stargate SG-1 is just fantastic.
  • Ladies and Gentlemen... the theme music for Taggart.
  • Revenge and its use of "Seven Devils" by Florence + the Machine for the final montage of its first season could not be more fitting. If this show wanted a theme (besides the one it already has) that song would be IT!
  • The theme song to New York Undercover.
  • Dallas theme song.
  • Before he composed the themes to the Back to the Future movies and Forrest Gump, Alan Silvestri got his start on television in the late 70s. He was hired in the second season Chips to do a disco arrangement of the opening credits and score the episodes. He could turn any standard TV police chase on an LA freeway into a disco dance party!
  • Henry Mancini's scores for Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky. Bonus points for the former having none other than a then-unknown John Williams as session pianist.
  • "Crockett's Theme" from Miami Vice by Jan Hammer.
  • Theme song to Channel 4's adaptation of Porterhouse Blue, performed by the Flying Pickets.
  • "The Call of Destiny", the main theme from Merlin.
  • While Richard Markowitz's theme for The Wild Wild West is terrific in itself, Dave Grusin's waltz music for "The Night of the Puppeteer" is wonderful, and any episode scored by Richard Shores already has one thing in its favour (especially the fight music from "The Night of the Eccentrics" and all of "The Night of the Firebrand"), it's Markowitz's finale from "The Night of Jack O'Diamonds" that's the series awesome music - as the episode's Big Bad El Sordo rides away to fight another day, the score combines his theme and the show's for a glorious sendoff (which, tellingly, was never used again). In fact it also counts as a sendoff for the composer, as this was the last episode of the series Markowitz scored.
  • Fourscore, a theme commissioned for Channel 4. Yes, a theme for an entire television channel.
  • From That '70s Show, during "Career Day," season 1, when "Bad Blood" comes on the radio and Eric and Kitty sing along. A great example of two characters enjoying music together.
  • The theme song of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, as well as the extended version.
  • "The Ballad of Jed Clampett", the theme song of The Beverly Hillbillies.
  • David Rose's epic yet wistful theme for the 60s western The High Chaparral.
  • Danny Elfman's main theme for The Flash (1990) is an excellent example of superhero theme-music.
  • Arrow:
    • "The Dark Archer". Equal parts majesty, evil, and mystery, and bound to give one chills.
    • "Deathstroke". Fast-paced and energetic. And the minute you hear his two-note Leitmotif, you know something horrible is going to happen.
    • The Atom's leitmotif is like the theme song from a Golden Age superhero serial, perfectly melded to a modern arrangement.
  • One of the first big TV documentaries, Victory at Sea, was broadcast by NBC in 1952-53, telling the story of the United States Navy in WWII. Since it was composed mostly of newsreel footage and battlefield recordings made without sound, it was decided that it should have an extensive soundtrack. The themes were composed by Richard Rodgers (yes, that guy), and orchestrated and arranged by Malcolm Russell Bennett conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Some highlights:
  • Sense8:
    • The score is very good, and the songs chosen for the various scenes fit perfectly. "What's Up?" by Four Non-Blondes is the most obvious example, as the sensates first bond as a group while it is stuck in all of their heads (and funnily enough, the sequence ends with Neets making a massive Take That! to the song).
    • The song playing in Riley's introduction scene, "World Falls Apart".
  • Once Upon a Time:
  • The jazzy, swinging theme that opens and closes the '60s show Man in a Suitcase.
  • The main theme to SeaQuest DSV by John Debney deservedly won an Emmy.

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