Beast Wars: Transformers
1996–1999SyndicationYTVAnimation
Transformers rebuilt in computer graphics on a fraction of the budget, which is why everybody is an animal.
Beast Wars: Transformers rebuilt its titles: three distinct opening sequences are catalogued here across seasons 1–3, each running 61 seconds.
It arrived on Syndication in 1996, when Soul Train, Judge Judy and VeggieTales were also on the network.
Only 139 of the 2,618 shows catalogued here changed their titles at all; Beast Wars: Transformers did so two times.
All 3 opening title sequences
Season 1
61sThe first season's, from a channel that posted all three.
Season 2
61sThe second season's, restaged indoors.
Season 3
61sThe third season's, in a jungle and visibly better rendered than the first.
More animation opening titles from the 1990s
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The longest-running opening rotation in television — more than twenty distinct sequences over a quarter of a century, each announcing a new arc.
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1 sequenceSpongeBob SquarePants
A sea shanty led by a painted pirate head, in call and response with children — one of the most universally known pieces of television music written this century.
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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.
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1 sequenceNeon Genesis Evangelion
Ninety seconds cut faster than the eye resolves, with whole frames of text and diagram flashed for one frame each. Yoko Takahashi's theme is bright, major-key J-pop laid over imagery that is doing nothing of the kind, and the mismatch is the point rather than an accident.
- Season 1
