Arrested Development
A ukulele, a narrator, and a family photograph that gets less flattering the longer you look at it.
Arrested Development opens with a main title sequence of 20 seconds.
At 20 seconds, it opens well under the 38-second median for comedy sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on Fox in 2003, when Mystery Science Theater 3000, America's Most Wanted and The X-Files were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
20sThe titles, with the narration establishing the premise in a single sentence.
More comedy opening titles from the 2000s
1 sequence
The Big Bang Theory
Fourteen billion years of natural history in twenty-three seconds, flashing past at one image per beat.
- Season 1
1 sequence
Malcolm in the Middle
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
The Office
Scranton, a car park and a filing cabinet, shot like stock footage for a regional business — twenty-two seconds that promise nothing will happen.
- Season 1
1 sequence
Scrubs
Twelve seconds, an X-ray and a guitar — a medical comedy that spends less time on titles than most shows spend on a network ident.
- Season 1
1 sequence
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Photographs of Philadelphia over a jaunty public-domain waltz, with the episode's absurd title card dropped into the middle of it.
- Seasons 2–4
1 sequence
Modern Family
Fourteen seconds of family photographs sliding into place, and a card. Nothing else.
- Season 1