Customer Reviews

NBC Must See TV

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Think twice before purchase:
1. Most of the good tracks are available on the non-copy protected All-Time Top 100 TV Themes, along with the best themes from other networks.
2. This disc has CDS-100 copy protection, so you probably can't upload to Windows Media and definitely not to iTunes.
I could not upload from my internal CD drive, only from an external multi-format CD/DVD burner. It still only uploaded to Windows Media, not iTunes.
To get into iTunes, I had to add the WMA files and then convert them to MP3.
This probably caused some quality loss as I'm converting one compressed format to another compressed format!
A time-consuming and tedious process which could have been avoided altogether if music companies would get over this fixation on "controlling" everything.
Hello record execs: If nobody can add your discs to their libraries, guess what happens? They DON'T PLAY YOUR MUSIC!!!
You might think you're protecting your valuable investment, but you're shooting yourself in the foot instead. Here's how it goes:
1. Nobody can upload your music.
2. Nobody plays your music.
3. Nobody hears your music.
4. Nobody recommends your music.
5. Nobody buys your music.
Remember, this only loaded from a particular kind of drive, so it may or may not work on yours.
As Bela Lugosi would say: Bevare!

For a couple of decades, TVT Records has been releasing mass collections of TV themes under its Tee Vee Toons moniker . . . but never as well done as this. The difference in the NBC collection and all past TVT releases: finally, total authenticity. For years, TVT published albums with mostly original theme material, but a few -- and many times even more than a few -- TVT reorchestrations. The upside was that the public got to hear some really great television themes; the downside, a lot of the music just wasn't the original on-air version.

With its newest release, TVT Records has done it right. This NBC compilation is a terrific tribute to some of the best of television, and they're all the as-seen-on-TV themes. Only a few have never before been released in any form, but themes that were previously published as reorchestrations (eg. "Peter Gunn", "St. Elsewhere") finally get the star treatment they deserve. No more is-it-or-isn't-it-the-real-thing? guessing, no more ending fanfares that fade out just a little too quickly. Nice work, TVT.

One wish for future volumes: if a theme with multiple broadcast versions has previously been featured on a TVT album, why not toss it up by showcasing another edition next time that theme's released? "The Cosby Show", "Gimme A Break", and "A Different World" are all the same renditions (4th, 2nd, and 1st seasons, respectively) that were spotlighted on prior TVT releases . . .

Still, we get "The Rockford Files" and the 1st season -- and best -- version of "Hill Street Blues". So thanks, TVT, for striving for the real deal, thereby morphing what might have been a good soundtrack collection into something really exceptional.

I love the Television's Greatest Hits series that TVT has released over the years. Nothing will provoke nostalgia quicker than hearing some of these songs- for me, it's themes from the 70s and 80s that really take me back. They're great for parties and conversation starters. Sometimes they'll even make you cry, taking you sentimentally back to your childhood of simpler, carefree times. You would have had to have lived in a vacuum (or a house with no TV, which is about the same thing) if you didn't feel something listening to some of the songs on these CDs.

This collection is nice, as has already been pointed out, because it actually contains original recordings of the songs as opposed to reworked versions that appeared on some of the previous releases (to their credit, those redone renditions were usually pretty close to the real thing). I'm glad to finally get the actual TV version of the St. Elsewhere theme. This show is still one of my favorites, and the opening credits and theme song were always part of the appeal (why isn't St. Elsewhere on DVD yet???). The song does sound a bit dated now, but it still evokes hundreds of memories of this fine show. Some of the songs repeat themselves from past TVT collections, but there are enough different versions here to make it worthwhile.

My only complaint- and it's not a small one- is that there is only 50 minutes or so of music on this disc. Talk about wasted space. Given that a CD holds nearly 80 minutes, and that the average TV theme is less than 60 seconds, they could have easily fit another 20 to 30 tracks on here. On compilation albums like this it's inexcusable not to fill the disc to the brim. NBC certainly has enough memorable themes over the years to fill several CDs- I won't name the shows that are missing here, but there are plenty. The fact that they didn't even bother to fill one CD really detracts from the value of this disc.

Still, overall a good effort, and hopefully something that this label will continue to produce in the future. Would be nice to have a disc that includes all of the cable show themes that have popped up over the past decade, like The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm, etc. As long as they produce new TV shows (with theme songs, which is not always a guarantee anymore) there will be material for these compilations.

Does anyone remember when TV shows had a theme? Today you never got a theme song or open music of show.

There were times you's hear the Hill Street Blues theme and it drags you into this hour long drama. Or the song Thank you for Being a Friend and you know the Golden Girls were on. Or that Tra La la of the Banana Splits show

If you dont know these theme, I must be talking over your head. Some have remarked these themes on this cd is short. These are the music which openned the shows and made you watch. In 56 minutes you get 50 YV tunes.YES there are some of the great NBC shows music missing (like Bonanza, Facts of Life, Hunter and the A-Team to name a few), but on the whole, fans of the TV generation will love this trip down memory lane

So if you wax for the old theme of shows of the past, this CD is for you. worth ten stars of memories as I listened to this CD

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

I loved this whole album! I didn't think that they would cram 50 theme songs from NBC in 55 minutes. I even played this CD in the car during a road trip this summer and everybody loved it--they remembered most of the shows' themes! One person thought it sounded like the current CSI from CBS, but she's too young to remember. Everything from Friends to Law and Order, to Golden Girls, to those high keyboards for that NBC movie theme, to Howdy Doody, to Cosby Show to Knight Rider, to Different Strokes, to Ironside (though I wished they'd use the disco version they had on it in the '70s), to the Tonight Show (Jay Leno and Johnny Carson) are all on it. Even Gimme a Break, where I would always scream like some heavy metal singer on Break! at the end singing along to it during the show's run. Would have liked it if they put the theme from 227 on it,but you can't please everybody. Most networks now don't like to use theme songs as much--to them it's a waste of time. But theme songs give us a chance to find out what the shows are all about. And this album demonstrates why theme songs are more important and why they should return back to form soon. Excellent album to play a fun game with when naming a show's theme music.

This is an awesome soundtrack it was enjoably and fun to listen to. the best songs on this disc are all of them

I'm in agreement with some of the reviews that condemn the CD for being under 60 minutes long. More than likely, this is due to the availability of a lot of the music that should have been on the disc (Star Trek, Bonanza, The Mothers-in-law, Quincy, McCloud, Buck Rogers, etc.). It's not that they couldn't have gotten these and many more, they just didn't want to spend the money. The more popular the show, the higher the price tag. This is why, as some observed, they keep using the same versions that were used on previous TVT releases and also why they fall back on off-air/DVD/VHS versions like Get Smart(tire squeal/door slams) & I Dream of Jeannie (smoke sounds). They're getting better though. This CD marks a vast improvement in the quality of their product and I hope that they continue along this path. An ABC disc would be great, as would a CBS disc as well (especially to make up for the horrible one they did in the mid 90's).

While some of the themes included in this collection are questionable (Saved by the Bell?), the biggest omission seems to be the themes from "Newsradio" and "Third Rock from the Sun." I've NEVER seen either one of these themes available anywhere other than file sharing services like Kazaa and Limewire. To me, the "Newsradio" theme is one of the all time greats but good luck finding it!

Where are The Facts of Life and Flipper? This having been said, the NBC Nightly News theme by Williams (clocking in at precisely :30) is a work of true genius. To evoke pathos, drama, and urgency in one [very] short theme is no minor achievement.

But no Facts of Life. Shame.

This is a great release and brought back back many happy memories of years gone by of sitting in front of the TV with my parents (the older programmes) and with my young wife (the not as old programmes), and my young and then teenage children (the more recent programmes). My, how the years fly by!

The tunes themselves are the actual original theme tunes heard each week (or sometimes daily) at the commencement of a programme and not the full recorded versions that were subsequently released on singles or albums, or, indeed, the cover versions that seem to be available everywhere.

The tunes are, therefore, not only most welcome for their entertainment value, but also for their historical value, as it is unusual to see these 'brief' versions available to purchase. I would certainly purchase others, if they became available.

The only complaint I have (and this is why I haven't given it 5 stars) is that, although there are liner notes on who wrote and published the tunes, there is no information as to who is playing or singing on the tracks. Maybe I'm expecting too much? Anyway, buy and enjoy.