Buffy 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
61sThe original, cut from a ten-episode midseason run. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Charisma Carpenter and Anthony Stewart Head — the only three names that survive all seven seasons are the first three.
Season 2
50sRe-cut from the new season's footage, and David Boreanaz joins the credits as Angel.
Season 3
50sSeth Green is added as Oz, placed between Boreanaz and Head. The last season for both Boreanaz and Charisma Carpenter, who leave together for Angel.
Season 4
50sThe college year, and the largest turnover the credits ever had: Boreanaz and Carpenter gone, Marc Blucas and James Marsters in. Marsters stays to the end.
Season 5
50sEmma Caulfield and Michelle Trachtenberg arrive — Trachtenberg's name appearing in the titles of a show her character had not existed in a week earlier. Anthony Stewart Head's last season in the main credits, and Blucas's.
Season 6
51sAmber Benson is finally named, two years after Tara became a fixture of the show, and only for this season.
Season 7
50sThe last re-cut, drawn from the final season and the move to UPN.