Fox

89 shows, 101 sequences, oldest first.

12 of these moved between networks during their run and appear under each one.

1 sequence

21 Jump Street

1987–1990FoxCrime

Officers young enough to pass for pupils, in one of the four shows Fox launched its network with.

Season 1

1 sequence

Married... with Children

1987–1997FoxComedy

Sinatra's 'Love and Marriage' over a Chicago family who demonstrably have neither — one of television's earliest deliberately sarcastic openings.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Tracey Ullman Show

1987–1990FoxComedy

The sketch show Fox launched its network with, and the one that carried the Simpsons as thirty-second interstitials before they left.

Season 1

1 sequence

Werewolf

1987–1988FoxHorror

One of the four series Fox launched its network with, and the first weekly werewolf on American television.

Season 1

1 sequence

America's Most Wanted

1988–2013FoxDocumentary

The programme Fox launched itself on, and the one that turned a network into a switchboard.

Season 1

1 sequence

Alien Nation

1989–1990FoxSci-Fi

The film continued as a series, with a buddy-cop format used to work through immigration and prejudice week by week.

Season 1

2 sequences

The Simpsons

1989–FoxAnimation

The only main title in television built to be different every week: the chalkboard, the saxophone solo and the couch gag all change, so the sequence is a format rather than a film.

Seasons 1–20
Season 21

1 sequence

Beverly Hills, 90210

1990–2000FoxDrama

Freeze-frames of a cast grinning at the camera over a synth-brass hook — the template every teen drama of the decade copied.

Season 1

1 sequence

Get a Life

1990–1992FoxComedy

A thirty-year-old paperboy still living at home, in a sitcom that got stranger every week.

Season 1

1 sequence

In Living Color

1990–1994FoxComedy

Graffiti, dance and a Heavy D theme — a sketch show that opened at a volume network television had not previously permitted.

Season 1

1 sequence

Parker Lewis Can't Lose

1990–1993FoxComedy

Ferris Bueller as a weekly series, shot on wide lenses with a narrator who never once stops talking.

Season 1

1 sequence

Herman's Head

1991–1994FoxComedy

A man's four personified impulses arguing inside his skull while the plot happens outside it.

Season 1

1 sequence

Roc

1991–1994FoxComedy

A Baltimore refuse collector and his family, and a season shot live to air on purpose.

Season 1

1 sequence

Martin

1992–1997FoxComedy

Detroit, a hip-hop bed and a lead who plays most of the supporting cast himself.

Seasons 1–2

1 sequence

Melrose Place

1992–1999FoxDrama

The same freeze-frame grammar as its parent show, moved to an apartment complex and given a considerably nastier theme.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Ben Stiller Show

1992–1993FoxComedy

Thirteen episodes, cancelled, then given an Emmy — the writers' room that produced most of the next decade's American comedy.

Season 1

1 sequence

Living Single

1993–1998FoxComedy

Queen Latifah performing the theme over Brooklyn — a sitcom opening sung by one of its own stars.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

1993–1994FoxSci-Fi

A bounty hunter in 1893 chasing a device from the future, cancelled after one season and quoted ever since.

Season 1

5 sequences

The X-Files

1993–2002, 2016–2018FoxSci-Fi

One sequence held untouched for seven years, then rebuilt twice as the cast turned over. The card at the end is the real trick: it reads 'The Truth Is Out There' most weeks, and something else entirely more than twenty times.

Seasons 1–7
Season 8
Season 9
and 2 more

1 sequence

Party of Five

1994–2000FoxDrama

Five siblings and a house, over BoDeans — an opening that establishes an absence rather than a cast.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Critic

1994–1995ABC / FoxAnimation

Al Jean and Mike Reiss's film critic, made between their Simpsons runs and cancelled by two networks.

Season 1

1 sequence

MADtv

1995–2016FoxComedy

Mad magazine turned into a sketch show, with Alfred E. Neuman in the titles and a cast that changed almost every year.

Season 9

1 sequence

Sliders

1995–2000Fox / Sci-Fi ChannelSci-Fi

A wormhole opening in a San Francisco street, and four people falling into it — the same shot every week for a show about never seeing the same world twice.

Season 2

1 sequence

Space: Above and Beyond

1995–1996FoxSci-Fi

Marines fighting an interstellar war, written by two X-Files producers and cancelled after the one season they had planned five of.

Season 1

1 sequence

Kindred: The Embraced

1996FoxHorror

Vampire clans running San Francisco as organised crime, cancelled after eight episodes.

Season 1

1 sequence

Millennium

1996–1999FoxHorror

Chris Carter's other series, opened with the same Mark Snow unease as The X-Files and none of its wit — thirty-four seconds that promise a much worse world.

Season 1

1 sequence

Ally McBeal

1997–2002FoxComedy

Vonda Shepard singing over a lawyer walking through Boston — a theme so tied to the show that the singer became a recurring character.

Season 1

2 sequences

King of the Hill

1997–FoxAnimation

Four men drinking beer in an alley, and a guitar riff. Thirty-one seconds that tell you the show has no interest in going anywhere.

Season 1
Season 14

1 sequence

Brimstone

1998–1999FoxHorror

A damned detective sent back from hell to recapture a hundred and thirteen escaped souls, cancelled after thirteen episodes.

Season 1

1 sequence

That '70s Show

1998–2006FoxComedy

The cast singing 'In the Street' from the back of a Vista Cruiser, re-recorded and reshot every season — plus one-off Halloween and Christmas versions.

Seasons 1–8

2 sequences

Family Guy

1999–FoxAnimation

A musical number performed by the family about how television used to have values — a sitcom opening from the 1970s, done straight and then undercut.

Season 1
Season 10

2 sequences

Futurama

1999–Fox / Comedy Central / HuluAnimation

Like The Simpsons, an opening built to differ every week — a new caption under the logo and a different scrap of old cartoon on the screen the ship flies past — wrapped around Christopher Tyng's theme and a crash into a billboard.

Seasons 1–4
Seasons 6–7

1 sequence

The PJs

1999–2001Fox / The WBAnimation

Eddie Murphy's stop-motion housing-project comedy, animated in foam rather than drawn.

Seasons 1–2

1 sequence

Boston Public

2000–2004FoxDrama

David E. Kelley's high school, running alongside his legal series on the same network.

Season 1

1 sequence

Dark Angel

2000–2002FoxSci-Fi

Post-collapse Seattle in thirty-five seconds, from James Cameron's only substantial television project.

Season 1

1 sequence

Malcolm in the Middle

2000–2006FoxComedy

They Might Be Giants' 'Boss of Me' over archive film of chaos — falling, crashing and general misadventure, cut faster than a network comedy usually dares.

Season 1

1 sequence

Titus

2000–2002FoxComedy

Christopher Titus narrating his own childhood from a white void between scenes.

Season 1

1 sequence

24

2001–2010FoxDrama

A ticking clock and a card, and nothing else. For a series whose entire conceit is that time is passing, spending a minute on titles would have been the one unforgivable thing.

Season 1

1 sequence

Grounded for Life

2001–2005Fox / The WBComedy

A young Staten Island family, told out of order within each episode.

Season 1

1 sequence

Temptation Island

2001–2003FoxDocumentary

Unmarried couples separated onto an island of singles, and the format that drew the first serious wave of complaints about American reality television.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Bernie Mac Show

2001–2006FoxComedy

A comedian raising his sister's three children and turning to camera to explain himself about it.

Seasons 3–5

1 sequence

The Lone Gunmen

2001FoxSci-Fi

The X-Files spin-off about its three conspiracy theorists, cancelled after thirteen episodes.

Season 1

1 sequence

Undeclared

2001–2002FoxComedy

Judd Apatow's college follow-up to Freaks and Geeks, cancelled after one season.

Season 1

1 sequence

American Idol

2002–Fox / ABCDocumentary

The talent format that ran American primetime for a decade, opening on a spotlight and a logo that spins.

Season 1

1 sequence

Firefly

2002FoxSci-Fi

A slide guitar and a weary blues vocal over a spaceship. Sonny Rhodes sings words the show's creator wrote, and the argument of the whole series — that this is a western that happens to be in orbit — is settled before a line of dialogue is spoken.

Season 1

1 sequence

That '80s Show

2002FoxComedy

The follow-up to That '70s Show with none of the same characters, gone in thirteen episodes.

Season 1

1 sequence

Arrested Development

2003–2019Fox / NetflixComedy

A ukulele, a narrator, and a family photograph that gets less flattering the longer you look at it.

Season 1

1 sequence

The O.C.

2003–2007FoxDrama

Phantom Planet's 'California' over Newport Beach, in thirty-two seconds that sold an entire idea of southern California to a generation.

Season 1

1 sequence

Tru Calling

2003–2005FoxSci-Fi

A morgue attendant who relives days, opened with the clock imagery the premise requires.

Season 1

2 sequences

House

2004–2012FoxDrama

Anatomical illustration and MRI imagery over Massive Attack's 'Teardrop' — a diagnostic show that opens by looking inside a body rather than at one.

Season 8
Season 1

1 sequence

Wonderfalls

2004FoxComedy

Souvenir figurines that talk, in a Niagara Falls gift shop — Bryan Fuller's first series and a direct ancestor of Pushing Daisies.

Season 1

1 sequence

American Dad!

2005–Fox / TBSAnimation

A CIA agent singing about his morning routine, in a sequence that varies its final line to suit the episode.

Season 1

1 sequence

Bones

2005–2017FoxCrime

Skeletal reconstruction rendered as clean laboratory graphics — a procedural that opens on anatomy rather than crime.

Season 2

1 sequence

Hell's Kitchen

2005–FoxDocumentary

Flames, a skull made of a chef's hat, and Gordon Ramsay shouting — the titles tell you exactly what the hour is.

Season 1

1 sequence

Point Pleasant

2005FoxHorror

The devil's daughter washed up in a New Jersey beach town, from the Buffy writers' room.

Season 1

1 sequence

Prison Break

2005–2017FoxDrama

Blueprints and tattoo ink treated as the same document — which, for this show's premise, they are.

Season 1

1 sequence

So You Think You Can Dance

2005–2024FoxDocumentary

The dance contest built to the Idol template by Idol's own producer, and one of the few competition formats to run its production credits over the performance rather than after it.

Season 1

1 sequence

Kitchen Nightmares

2007–FoxDocumentary

The American Ramsay format, louder than the Channel 4 original it was remade from.

Season 1

3 sequences

Fringe

2008–2013FoxSci-Fi

Pseudo-scientific terms floating in coloured fog — and the colour is the plot: the palette changes to tell you which universe or era the episode is set in.

Season 1
Season 4
Season 5

1 sequence

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

2008–2009FoxSci-Fi

The films continued between the second and third, with Bear McCreary scoring it and Fox cancelling it after two seasons.

Season 1

1 sequence

Dollhouse

2009–2010FoxSci-Fi

Bodies wiped and rewritten, shown as blank figures being dressed — a premise stated without a word.

Season 1

1 sequence

Glee

2009–2015FoxComedy

An Ohio show choir, and the series that briefly made network television a singles chart.

Season 1

1 sequence

Lie to Me

2009–2011FoxCrime

A deception expert reading faces frame by frame, built on the research of the psychologist who consulted on it.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Cleveland Show

2009–2013FoxAnimation

The Family Guy spin-off, moving Cleveland Brown to Virginia and giving him a theme song about it.

Season 1

1 sequence

Raising Hope

2010–2014FoxComedy

A young father raising a baby with his own parents' help, from the My Name Is Earl creator.

Season 1

1 sequence

Bob's Burgers

2011–FoxAnimation

Three running gags in nineteen seconds — the burger of the day, the shop next door, and the pest-control van — all three rewritten for every single episode.

Season 1

1 sequence

New Girl

2011–2018FoxComedy

Zooey Deschanel and three flatmates, with a theme the cast sings themselves.

Season 1

1 sequence

Terra Nova

2011FoxSci-Fi

A colony sent eighty-five million years into the past, cancelled after one season for cost.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Mindy Project

2012–2017Fox / HuluComedy

Mindy Kaling as an obstetrician with a romantic-comedy view of her own life.

Season 1

1 sequence

Almost Human

2013–2014FoxSci-Fi

A detective partnered with an android in 2048, cancelled after thirteen episodes.

Season 1

2 sequences

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

2013–2021Fox / NBCComedy

Precinct signage and a horn line in twenty-one seconds — a cop show opening with no sirens in it.

Seasons 1–5
Seasons 6–8

1 sequence

Sleepy Hollow

2013–2017FoxHorror

Ichabod Crane woken in the present day, with the Horseman following him.

Season 1

1 sequence

Gotham

2014–2019FoxCrime

The city before the character — architecture, rain and corruption, with the costume kept firmly off screen.

Season 1

1 sequence

Minority Report

2015FoxSci-Fi

The film continued a decade after precrime was shut down, and cancelled after ten episodes.

Season 1

1 sequence

Rosewood

2015–2017FoxCrime

A private pathologist in Miami working the cases the police have already closed.

Season 1

1 sequence

Scream Queens

2015–2016FoxHorror

Ryan Murphy's sorority slasher, with a title sequence longer than most of the deaths.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Last Man on Earth

2015–2018FoxComedy

The last man alive, who turns out not to be, and who is not much of a loss to anybody either way.

Season 1

1 sequence

Wayward Pines

2015–2016FoxSci-Fi

An Idaho town nobody can leave, from the Blake Crouch novels.

Season 1

1 sequence

Bordertown

2016FoxAnimation

A Seth MacFarlane-produced border comedy, cancelled after one season.

Season 1

1 sequence

Lucifer

2016–2021Fox / NetflixDrama

Eleven seconds and a card, from a procedural that would rather get to the case.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Exorcist

2016–2018FoxHorror

A sequel to the film rather than a remake, which it does not admit until the end of the first season.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Gifted

2017–2019FoxSci-Fi

A family on the run in the X-Men world, made while Fox still held the rights.

Season 1

1 sequence

The Orville

2017–2022Fox / HuluSci-Fi

A ship passing the camera to a full orchestral fanfare, played entirely straight — a comedy whose titles are a sincere love letter to the ones this catalogue opens with.