North and South
Two West Point friends on opposite sides of the Civil War, over a Bill Conti march.
North and South opens with a main title sequence of 201 seconds.
At 201 seconds, it opens well above the 50-second median for drama sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on ABC in 1985, when One Life to Live, All My Children and The Bugs Bunny Show were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
201sRestored fan upload of Book One's first episode. Three and a half minutes of credits — the longest sequence in this catalogue, and a fair measure of what event television thought it was owed in 1985.
More drama opening titles from the 1980s
2 sequences
EastEnders
An aerial pull-back over the Thames and the drum that answers it — thirty-two seconds that have barely changed in forty years.
- Season 1
- Season 41
1 sequenceBaywatch
Los Angeles County lifeguards, and at its peak the most-watched television programme on Earth.
- Season 1
1 sequenceLonesome Dove
Basil Poledouris scoring a cattle drive from Texas to Montana — the miniseries that proved the western was not finished after all.
- Season 1
2 sequences
Neighbours
Ramsay Street across forty years, and a theme song that survived every cast, network and cancellation.
- Season 1
- Season 39
2 sequences
The Bold and the Beautiful
Los Angeles fashion houses, and the most widely watched daytime serial in the world.
- Season 1
- Season 38
1 sequenceKnight Rider
A narrated premise, a scanning red light and a synth arpeggio — the most efficient piece of eighties television branding after the A-Team's.
- Season 1