All in the Family
Two people at an upright piano singing about how things used to be — an opening performed live by the cast rather than scored.
All in the Family opens with a main title sequence of 69 seconds.
At 69 seconds, it opens well above the 38-second median for comedy sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on CBS in 1971, when Candid Camera, Guiding Light and As the World Turns were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
69s'Those Were the Days', sung by Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton at the piano.
More comedy opening titles from the 1970s
1 sequence
Saturday Night Live
A new cast montage every single season for fifty years — New York at night, the current company photographed in it, and a band playing over the top. The longest-running rotating title sequence on television.
- Season 1
1 sequenceFawlty Towers
A hotel sign whose letters are rearranged into a different rude anagram every episode — the earliest running title gag in this catalogue by two decades.
- Season 1
1 sequenceHappy Days
A fifties jukebox theme that started as a closing song and was promoted to the opening once it became a hit record.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThree's Company
A theme that explains the premise, the address and the invitation in about forty seconds, then hands you a farce.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Love Boat
A cruise ship with a new guest cast every week, introduced by name in the titles.
- Season 3
1 sequenceTaxi
A single cab crossing the Queensboro Bridge to Bob James's electric piano — no cast, no jokes, and an unusually melancholy opening for a comedy.
- Season 1