"Day in the Life" Titles

Wayne: You know how they catch cast members in various scenes of New York nightlife?

Garth: As, as if they ever get to go out.

Wayne: Yeah, you've seen it. This is how it goes. It goes...

(they pantomime choreographed reactions)

— Saturday Night Live, "Wayne's World" sketch from the "40th Anniversary Special"

What's a good way to introduce the cast of your work? One way is showing them going out and about in their everyday lives. It gives the audience a glimpse at what sort of person they're like. Sometimes this trope can show the characters' Morning Routine.

May coincide with an Expository Theme Tune.

Compare Introductory Opening Credits and Welcome Titles.

Not related to The Beatles song.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The Devil is a Part-Timer!: The opening song shows the main characters working their various jobs, getting up late for work and tripping on an alarm, as well as flashes of life in Ente Isla for the characters from that world.
• Interviews with Monster Girls: The opening shows Machi, Hikari, and Yuki hanging out at school, with Hikari acting rambunctious, and her twin Himari being exasperated by her antics. It also shows each of the demi-human girls next to a pop-up storybook showing the myths and legends about each type of demi-human that the girl's represent.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: Outside of the first 20 seconds (which is all the various members of the cast reacting to Kaguya shooting an arrow), the season 2 intro is a self-contained story of Kaguya trying to offer Shirogane some food from her lunch.
• The Japanese opening to Maya the Bee shows Maya's daily routine.
• My-HiME: The opening song has our various HiME doing their daily things, like Mikoto dodging Shiho while stealing her food, Mai waffling between Yuuichi, Reito, and her brother, Shizuru calmly sipping tea at her desk while Haruka fumes and Yukino sulks, Natsuki tearing up and down a coast road at sunset on her motorcycle, followed by her combat wolf robot, and Midori glomping Akane and Kazuya at the restaurant they work at.
• Almost every One Piece anime opening devotes at least a third of its runtime to showing the Strawhats during downtime; a few, like "Hikari E" and "Crazy Rainbow", even make it the entire thrust.
• Some examples from Pretty Cure, which tend to start with this trope before transitioning to the action:
  • Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star: The intro shows Saki and Mai going to school together, where Saki plays softball and later goes for a run, and Mai draws a crab.
  • Yes! Pretty Cure 5: The beginning of the intro has a montage of the Cures having a normal day: Nozomi is Late for School and chasing the bus, Rin plays soccer, Urara recites a monologue, Komachi writes, and Karen plays a violin.
  • Suite Pretty Cure ♪: The intro shows Hibiki participating in gym class, Kanade baking, and the two walking in the rain.
  • Smile PreCure!: Like the Yes! 5 example, the intro has, in order, Miyuki reading a picture book, Akane making okonomiyaki, Yayoi drawing (replaced with a clip of her smiling in Glitter Force), Nao watching her siblings, and Reika shooting a perfect bullseye in archery.
  • KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode: The intro shows Ichika obsessing over a display of desserts, Himari studying, Aoi playing with her band, Yukari trying on clothes, and Akira giving a present to her sickly sister Miku.
  • HuGtto! Pretty Cure: The intro shows Hana, Saaya, Homare, Hugtan, and Harry having a tea party, looking at clothes, and watching a movie.
  • Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure: The intro has Nodoka, Chiyu, Hinata, and their mascots visit a food truck, a hot spring, and a mall.
  • Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure: The intro has a brief montage of Sango trying on clothes, Minori studying, Asuka working out, and Manatsu and Laura playing a clapping game.
  • Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure: The intro has Yui enjoying a rice ball, Kokone getting dolled up, and Ran taking a picture of a delicious ramen bowl.
  • Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure: The intro has Sora working out, Mashiro feeding baby Elle, the two playing with makeup, and all four Cures going for a drive in Ageha's Hummer.
• Ranma ½: The second opening for the OVA series has Akane and Ranma arguing at the stairs before setting out to school, Nabiki heading to school, and stopping to fawn over a small puppy, Kasumi hanging the laundry, and Soun and Genma playing Shogi.
• The Season 1 opening of Squid Girl shows a scene of the titular character bussing tables at the Lemon Beach House. She ends up falling on her face when she trips after carrying too many dishes at once.

Film — Animated

• Some DreamWorks Animation and Blue Sky Studios movies begin with an introduction to the non-human society they take place in. Shark Tale does this underwater, Ice Age starts with a mass migration of Pleistocene animals, while Robots shows us a slice of life of the titular characters.
• Subverted in Monsters, Inc.: Mike, Sully, and about 90% of the cast are introduced about 10 minutes after the beginning of the movie, which starts with a failed scaring test and a quick introduction to the company's CEO and some minor characters who work for him.

Film — Live-Action

• Galaxy Quest: A Show Within a Show example, at the end of the movie we see the opening credits of the new Galaxy Quest series, showing the cast at their stations aboard the ship or performing tasks related to their duties, Commander Taggert in the command chair, Loredo at the helm, Tech Sgt. Chen repairing a panel, with Laliari assisting him.
• Mercenaries from Hong Kong: The titular team are retired ex-soldiers who used to fight in the South East-Asian wars, but now lead fairly mundane lives in Hong Kong. The movie opens with Luo Li, the hero, working out in his apartment, and later each member of the team is introduced with a quick flashback to their times in the war — before skipping to what they're currently doing (Sing the Blade Enthusiast now working as a chef and cooking noodles, ex-marksman Sergeant Lei visiting his terminally-ill daughter in a hospital, Private "Curry" fixing cars after changing careers as a mechanic, and so on).
• Star Trek: Insurrection: The opening credits are set against the rural Baku community as they go about their day. Children are playing in the fields, farmers are tending to their crops, people are about and talking one with another, and the setting is very warm and pastural. This is then contrasted with the cold and technological Starfleet "duck blind", from which they have been observing the Baku.

Live-Action TV

• Dexter: The show's opening follows Dexter as he gets ready for his day (i.e. shaving, eating breakfast). This serves to illustrate how he portrays himself as a normal person but also hints at his darker urges.
• The opening titles for Drop the Dead Donkey show Gus walking through the newsroom at Globelink, giving us hints at what the others do, before ending with Henry and Sally going on air.
• Laverne & Shirley: The opening song shows the titular duo working their job at a Milwaukee brewery, doing chores changing outfits at their apartment, or having a snowball fight.
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show: The opening credits show Mary driving into Minneapolis, before showing a montage of her at work, going shopping, out on dates, and other such mundane activities before ending with the famous freeze-frame "YEAH!" Shot of her tossing her hat in the air in the middle of the street.
• M*A*S*H: In an opening that was reshot a few times as characters came and went, we're shown evac choppers delivering patients to the 4077 with the doctors, nurses, and orderlies readying to transport them from the helipad to the hospital building for surgery.
• Monk: The first season's opening titles are a montage of Adrian Monk preparing for his day, with several details hinting at his OCPD: he disinfects his toothbrush with boiling water before brushing his teeth, he keeps his pairs of socks in individual plastic bags, his wardrobe is full of identical brown suits, etc. (Then they changed the intro for season two—and every season after—and made it no longer an example of this trope in the process. The new intro is a montage of clips from the show, several of them too bizarre to represent an "average day" for Mr. Monk.)
• All eleven opening sequences of Odd Squad feature snippets and still images from episodes of characters performing the day-to-day work of the organization, solving various odd cases as well as meeting various odd creatures like giraffe businessmen and blobs.
• Perfect Strangers: The title sequence introduces Larry and Balki taking in the Chicago sights and sounds.
• Saturday Night Live: The title sequence usually shows the SNL performers taking in the New York City nightlife. Lampshaded by Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey) in the "Wayne's World" sketch from the SNL 40th Anniversary Special in 2015.
• WandaVision: The intro to each episode parodies real-life sitcoms from the era being referenced, with two of them showcasing the characters living an average life, despite such events not actually occurring in the show itself.
  • In "Don't Touch That Dial", we get an animated intro showing Wanda and Vision waking up and getting ready in the morning. Vision leaves for work, while Wanda goes to the store, and both try to hide their quirks (magical powers and being a synthezoid) in the process. They then drive home and watch TV.
  • In "All-New Halloween Spooktacular", we get camera footage as Tommy runs around the house, messing with his family and Agnes as they go about their daily life, such as reading a newspaper or getting ready in the bathroom.

Web Animation

• The Cyanide & Happiness Show: "Jimmy Three Balls": The intro for the Show Within a Show features Jimmy cooking eggs for breakfast, doing laundry (with focus on his underwear), and watering plants (one of which has three oval-shaped leaves).

Western Animation

• American Dad!'s intro shows lead character Stan Smith driving to work.
• Animaniacs: The first part of the title sequence, which matches up with the Expository Theme Tune lyrics, shows the Warners bouncing out of their water tower, running around the Warner Brothers movie lot, and avoiding capture by Ralph the security guard, giving the gist of their everyday antics.
• Arthur: The intro shows the characters doing day-to-day things like swimming in a pool, riding bikes, and posing for family photos.
• Batman: The Animated Series: The opening titles are dialogue-free sequences showing a typical night for the Dark Knight. A pair of faceless crooks rob a bank, then Batman confronts them on a rooftop as they try to flee. Batman overpowers the two and leaves them tied up for the police to find.
• BoJack Horseman: The opening title sequence keeps the camera on the titular horse's blank face as he goes about his day, showing how unsatisfied he is with his life. He wakes up in bed, goes to his kitchen for coffee, goes out on the town (what he's doing changes each season depending on his current employment status at the start of the season), then throws a party at his house that ends with him falling into the pool, ending on a shot of him relaxing in his pool. Season 6 changes the formula by instead showing BoJack reliving his darkest moments.
• The Flintstones had two such openings. The first shows Fred driving to work, which was used for the first three seasons. The second, which is better known for being the one used on syndication, shows Fred driving home from work, then taking the family and the Rubbles to a drive-in movie, which presumably shows that week's episode. The closing credits for both versions then show his nighttime routine, ending with the gag of Fred putting the cat outside for the night, only for the cat to then lock him outside and Fred banging on the door calling out "Wilma!"
• The Jetsons begins with George driving his kids to school and Jane to the shopping mall, then him going to work.
• King of the Hill shows Hank and the guys standing in the alley drinking beer, while the rest of the cast go about their day in time-lapse footage.
• The Loud House: The intro shows a typical scene in the eponymous house — Lori and Leni are squabbling over clothes, Luna is playing music, Luan is trying to give Lincoln a Pie in the Face, Lynn is riding on a motorbike, Lucy is reading, Lana is causing a flood when trying to fix the bathroom sink, Lola is playing tea parties, Lisa is carrying a vial of some unknown substance, Lily is toddling around with a full diaper, and Lincoln is trying to make his way past all his sisters.
• The theme song sequence for Milo Murphy's Law show the titlular character going for a walk and remaining unflinchingly cheerful even as everything around him goes wrong in his very presence.
• When a distress call goes out for The Mighty Heroes, it's always while they are at their day jobs, whereupon they undergo their Transformation Sequence into superheroes. Strong Man works at a filling station as a mechanic. Rope Man works at the docks, possibly as a navyman. Tornado Man works at the weather bureau. Cuckoo Man sells timepieces in a clock shop. And Diaper Man lives as an infant in a crib.
• The main titles for Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023) showcase Lunella's usual routine of waking up, hanging with family and friends, going to school, and then fighting crime with Devil.
• The Patrick Star Show: The show's intro has Patrick taking the viewer through his house and introducing his family and their quirks. Cecil is fishing in the living room, Bunny takes a full dinner out of a toaster, Squidina is camera-shy and runs away, and GrandPat is driving an out-of-control mobility scooter. Patrick then takes his place in his studio room to introduce his show.
• Both The Proud Family and The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder show off the family's usual daily shenanigans with family photos and Penny getting pranked by her baby brother and sister.
• The Real Ghostbusters: The intro shows a generic day of work for the Ghostbusters — Janine rings a bell, Slimer eats Winston's lunch, the Ghostbusters climb into the car and drive to where a ghost is, and then they all zap it in unison.
• The opening credits sequence for Disney's Recess shows what the children are doing on the playground during recess; Gus blows a bubblegum bubble which pops in his face, causing him to bump into a cart filled with dodgeballs, the Diggers try to dig out of school, Vince kicks one of the dodgeballs, T.J. plays a card game with the other students, Randall tries to rat the other students out to Ms. Finster, but Spinelli threatens to beat him up, Gretchen works on an experiment, and Mikey makes himself a Dagwood Sandwich, which he then eats.
• The opening credits sequence for Rugrats (1991) shows the babies playing in Tommy's living room as Grandpa Lou falls asleep until Stu and Didi arrive home, at which point Tommy squirts milk from his bottle at the camera. The seventh season features an updated intro to incorporate the new characters introduced by then, including Dil, Tommy's new little brother, and Kimi, Chuckie's adopted sister. This intro ends with Angelica falling headfirst into a plate of cookies that Didi serves the babies.
• The Simpsons title sequence shows the Simpson family in their everyday lives (Homer at work, Bart and Lisa at school, and Marge shopping with Maggie) before heading home for the Couch Gag.

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