All-Time Top 100 TV Themes [SOUNDTRACK]

Alan Ari Lazar (Composer), Alexander Courage (Composer), Angela Morley (Composer), Arnold Margolin (Composer), Benny Golson (Composer), Bill Conti (Composer), Bruce Broughton (Composer), Carding Cruz (Composer), Chris Seefried (Composer), Chuck Barris (Composer), Dave Kahn (Composer), David Lawrence (Composer), David Mook (Composer), Dick DeBenedictis (Composer), Earle Hagen (Composer), Fred Mollin (Composer), Fred Werner (Composer), Garry Schyman (Composer), Gerald Fried (Composer), Gerard Sampler (Composer), Tee Vee Toons Presents (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 23, 2005)
• Original Release Date: September 17, 1964
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Tvt
• ASIN: B000AOENJK
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,603 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
America is a huge, diverse country with Yankee home cooking and Tex Mex cuisine. People ski on frozen Vermont mountains and surf the big waves in sun drenched California. One thing that binds it all together is TV. Television is American culture, a common thread that holds it all together on a nightly basis as we assemble around our living rooms to watch our favorite characters and shows.

Twenty years ago, TVT Records was born with its first release, Television's Greatest Hits. Now after having sold millions of its TV theme compilations around the world, America's #1 independent label for the past 4 years running is returning to its roots. In celebration of TVT's 20th Anniversary, it is releasing the ultimate TV collection, All Time Top 100 TV Themes, featuring themes drawn from all the original sources.

Hearing these theme songs consistenly evokes a strong emotional response, pointing to a time when everyone watched the same TV shows again and again. From I Love Lucy and Green Acres to Batman and The Monkees, to Welcome Back Kotter and M*A*S*H to Pee Wee's Playhouse and Twin Peaks to Friends and Six Feet Under, virtually anyone who grew up American watching television is sure to want a nostalgic piece of their shared cultural past.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Docked a star for sound quality., August 25, 2005

By	Kimba W. Lion "kimbawlion.com" (the East Coast) - See all my reviews

As a fan of TV themes from way back, it's good to hear that in this compilation TVT Records finally went authentic instead of using the many "re-creations" they have issued in the past.

Now, someone needs to introduce those folks to a little bit of technology I like to call an "equalizer". The "classic" themes on this set sound mostly like someone stuck a microphone up to a TV speaker to record them. (Maybe TVT Records found the tape I made of TV themes back in the 60s?) A LOT could have been done to make the songs sound a whole lot better than they do here. And it wouldn't be inauthentic--that shrillness in so many of the old themes was installed to counteract the effect of land line distribution way back when, not because the producers wanted to pierce your ears from the inside.

A couple of inauthentic edits have been applied, too: The Mary Tyler Moore theme has the MTM logo "meow" spliced in, in place of the final note. Cute, but it doesn't work. The Addams Family theme (which suffers from too much noise reduction, btw) and The Jetsons theme have the beginning and ending themes spliced together.

With the older themes, a lot of times TVT has given us the ending theme only, which is going to sound wrong to a lot of people. You won't hear Rod Serling on the Twilight Zone theme. And I don't know what exactly went wrong with the Flinstones theme, but it ain't right.

Nitpicks? Maybe. But TVT Records wants to splash "All Original" on the cover, so I think it's fair to point out these things.

I won't argue over whether these are truly the 100 greatest TV themes. They definitely got some of the good ones. THE greatest TV theme, in my opinion, isn't here, but you can hear it at my web site (see my sig line, above).

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It Will Have To Do, January 3, 2006

By	Jack R. Lowe Jr. (Anywhere USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have some agreements and some disagreements with some of the reviews I've read about this 2 CD set. OK, about John Forsythe's narration on the Charlie's Angel's theme, I don't know what show "you" were watching, but that narration was at the beginning of every episode of Charlie's Angel's I watched. As for the sound effects... Do you want the original themes or not? Those sounds were part of the original theme whether you like them there or not.
As for the sound quality... Does anyone remember what TV sounded like back in the 60's, 70's and early 80's? It was pretty bad. We had a floor model TV with one big speaker. Back then, No one thought about the sound quality of these recordings for future listening. Some of these themes, Like The Adam's Family, will always sound bad. I don't think that there's any way around the fact that some of these TV themes were just not recorded very well.
Maybe there are some old dusty reel to reel master tapes of the original themes buried in some vault some place, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
I've actually started making my own TV theme collections thanks to Tevo and my computer. You can rent many TV shows on DVD now. You can get fairly good copies of the original themes from these discs.
TV Land released a very nice CD with TV themes on it. It has some original themes that are kinda hard to fine.
Ober all, this isn't such a bad collection. But, if you're hoping for some digital miracle to make those old themes measure up to todays audio standards, forget it. It's not going to happen.
But I will agree that I am really tired of the rerecorded instrumental TV themes being passed off as original recordings. Believe me, we can tell the difference, and we hate them. As one reviewer said, if you can't get the original recording, don't put it on the CD.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Shouldn't Have Been Squeezed on Two CDs, June 26, 2007

By	J. Estoye "Maniac" (Detroit) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As much as I love that they showcased 100 great TV themes, that they are short versions offsets that. The themes for "Friends", "Melrose Place", and "Will and Grace" are over before you can blink an eye! I am particularly disappointed in "The Six Million Dollar Man" theme. It does not include the entire introduction with Steve and the crew communicating during Steve's initial liftoff. Instead, it begins with the crash sound. This collection should really be on 3 CDs, with each theme lengthened to their full potential.