Sesame Street
Children running through a New York street to a song asking how to get there — an opening that has been remade every decade for over fifty years.
Sesame Street rebuilt its titles: two distinct opening sequences are catalogued here across seasons 1, 24 and 25, running between 61 and 104 seconds.
At 104 seconds at its longest, it opens well above the 38-second median for comedy sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on PBS in 1969, when Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was also on the network.
Only 139 of the 2,618 shows catalogued here changed their titles at all; Sesame Street did so once.
All 2 opening title sequences
Season 1
104sThe 1969 opening, from an upload that carries the era's funding credits alongside it as broadcast.
Seasons 24–25
61sFan upload, labelled by the uploader as the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth seasons, 1992 to 1994. Twenty-three years on, still children running down a street.
More comedy opening titles from the 1960s
1 sequence
The Addams Family
Harpsichord, bass clarinet, and two finger snaps that half a century of television has never managed to shake off. The family assemble for a portrait while Lurch supplies the only three adjectives the song needs.
- Seasons 1–2
1 sequenceThe Brady Bunch
A three-by-three grid of faces all looking at each other — a title sequence so structurally famous that the grid alone is the reference.
- Season 1
1 sequenceBewitched
Animated witches and a swing arrangement — a live-action sitcom that opens as a cartoon, which was the only way to show the magic on a 1964 budget.
- Season 1
1 sequenceGilligan's Island
A theme song that narrates the entire premise, names every castaway, and was rewritten after the first season to stop leaving two of them out.
- Season 3
1 sequenceThe Andy Griffith Show
A father and son walking to a fishing hole while somebody whistles — twenty-three seconds, and one of the most quoted pieces of music in American television.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Beverly Hillbillies
"The Ballad of Jed Clampett" — a bluegrass number that reached number one on the country chart while the series was running.
- Season 1