Judging Amy
A family court judge and her social worker mother, built from the creator's own mother's career.
Judging Amy opens with a main title sequence of 36 seconds.
At 36 seconds, it opens well under the 50-second median for drama sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on CBS in 1999, when Candid Camera, Guiding Light and As the World Turns were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
36sFan upload.
More drama opening titles from the 1990s
1 sequence
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Ninety seconds of a man driving home from the Lincoln Tunnel to North Caldwell. No cast montage, no highlights — just the commute, which turns out to be the whole show.
- Seasons 1–6
2 sequences
Twin Peaks
A bird, a sawmill blade and a waterfall, over Angelo Badalamenti at a tempo no network would approve today — ninety seconds of a town being described before anyone in it speaks.
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- Season 3
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ER
James Newton Howard's theme over sliding doors, gurneys and light — the template every medical drama since has either copied or deliberately avoided.
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Dawson's Creek
Paula Cole over a Massachusetts creek — a theme so tied to the show that its absence from the streaming release became a story in itself.
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The West Wing
Oil portraits, flags and W.G. Snuffy Walden's brass — an opening that treats the executive branch as a cathedral, which is the show's entire register.
- Season 1
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1 sequenceBeverly Hills, 90210
Freeze-frames of a cast grinning at the camera over a synth-brass hook — the template every teen drama of the decade copied.
- Season 1