Candid Camera
Allen Funt's hidden-camera format, the oldest reality programme there is, and the ancestor of everything that followed it.
One opening sequence is catalogued for Candid Camera, covering season 1.
It arrived on CBS in 1948, when The Ed Sullivan Show, Studio One and CBS Evening News were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
No usable clip kept. The only upload is from the 1991 syndicated revival, and the programme ran as a series of separate incarnations that share no season numbering.
More comedy opening titles from the 1940s
1 sequenceThe Life of Riley
A radio sitcom moved to television twice, the second time with William Bendix finally allowed to play the part he had on radio.
- Season 1
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
4 sequences
Young Sheldon
The Big Bang Theory prequel, narrated by the adult Sheldon it never shows. Its titles are one family portrait in the West Texas hills, reshot every couple of seasons as the children outgrow the last version of it.
- Seasons 1–2
- Seasons 3–4
- Seasons 5–6
- and 1 more
2 sequences
NCIS
Naval insignia, photographs and a snare roll, refreshed periodically as a cast that has now turned over almost completely came and went.
- Season 10
- Season 1
1 sequence
Person of Interest
Surveillance footage narrated by the machine watching it — an opening delivered from the point of view of the software, years before that was a common idea.
- Season 1
1 sequence
Two and a Half Men
Twelve seasons on a Malibu beach house, opened by four sung syllables.
- Season 6