American Gothic (1995)
A South Carolina sheriff who is something worse than corrupt, created by Shaun Cassidy and produced by Sam Raimi.
American Gothic (1995) opens with a main title sequence of 40 seconds.
At 40 seconds, it opens well under the 50-second median for horror sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on CBS in 1995, when Candid Camera, Guiding Light and As the World Turns were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
40sThe 1995 opening credits on their own, found on a later pass. An alternate sequence is also in circulation and is a different cut.
More horror opening titles from the 1990s
7 sequencesBuffy the Vampire Slayer
An organ sting, a shot of the moon, and then Nerf Herder's surf-punk theme over black-and-white monster-movie footage that bursts into colour. The design never changed in seven years; the fifty seconds behind it were re-cut every one of them.
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Season 3
- and 4 more
5 sequencesAngel
The spinoff takes the parent show's structure and drops the jokes: Darling Violetta's 'Sanctuary' instead of surf-punk, city at night instead of monster movies. Like Buffy, the design holds for five years while the names in front of it keep moving.
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Season 3
- and 2 more
1 sequenceAre You Afraid of the Dark?
A campfire, a handful of powder thrown into it, and a children's anthology that frightened a generation on a Saturday teatime.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe League of Gentlemen
Royston Vasey, a local shop, and a radio series that arrived on television already knowing exactly what it looked like.
- Season 1
8 sequencesCharmed
Love Spit Love's cover of 'How Soon Is Now?' over the Book of Shadows and three sisters, re-cut every season. It goes further than that, though: the credits were rebuilt whenever the cast of an episode changed, so a season carries several versions rather than one — eight of them in the second year alone.
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Season 3
- and 5 more
1 sequenceMillennium
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