Matlock
Andy Griffith as a defence attorney in a grey suit, nine seasons long.
Matlock opens with a main title sequence of 71 seconds.
At 71 seconds, it opens well above the 47-second median for crime sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on NBC in 1986, when One Life to Live, All My Children and The Bugs Bunny Show were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
71sFan upload.
More crime opening titles from the 1980s
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1 sequenceAgatha Christie's Poirot
Art Deco geometry and Christopher Gunning's theme — a title sequence that establishes the period, the register and the fastidiousness of the detective in one gesture.
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1 sequenceMagnum, P.I.
Hawaii, a Ferrari and a moustache, over a theme so brash it dates the decade to within about eighteen months.
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1 sequenceIn the Heat of the Night
The 1967 film continued as a series, with Carroll O'Connor as the chief.
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1 sequenceHill Street Blues
Mike Post's piano over squad cars pulling out into snow — the sequence that taught American drama an opening could be melancholy rather than exciting.
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