Sanford and Son
Quincy Jones writing a harmonica blues for a junkyard — one of the few sitcom themes composed by someone of that stature.
Sanford and Son opens with a main title sequence of 51 seconds.
At 51 seconds, it opens well above the 38-second median for comedy sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on NBC in 1972, when Truth or Consequences, Another World and Search for Tomorrow were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
51s'The Streetbeater', over the junkyard.
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 sequenceFawlty 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.
- 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