Fawlty Towers
A hotel sign whose letters are rearranged into a different rude anagram every episode — the earliest running title gag in this catalogue by two decades.
Fawlty Towers opens with a main title sequence of 28 seconds.
At 28 seconds, it opens well under the 38-second median for comedy sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on BBC Two in 1975, when The Old Grey Whistle Test, The Morecambe & Wise Show and The Goodies were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
28sThe opening. The sign is relettered each week, so no two broadcasts carry the same title card.
More comedy opening titles from the 1970s
1 sequence
Saturday Night Live
A new cast montage every single season for fifty years — New York at night, the current company photographed in it, and a band playing over the top. The longest-running rotating title sequence on television.
- Season 1
1 sequenceAll in the Family
Two people at an upright piano singing about how things used to be — an opening performed live by the cast rather than scored.
- Season 1
1 sequenceHappy Days
A fifties jukebox theme that started as a closing song and was promoted to the opening once it became a hit record.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThree's Company
A theme that explains the premise, the address and the invitation in about forty seconds, then hands you a farce.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Love Boat
A cruise ship with a new guest cast every week, introduced by name in the titles.
- Season 3
1 sequenceTaxi
A single cab crossing the Queensboro Bridge to Bob James's electric piano — no cast, no jokes, and an unusually melancholy opening for a comedy.
- Season 1