Shōgun (1980)

Name: Shōgun (1980)
Genre: Drama

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The Clavell miniseries that ran five nights and made a genre out of the Western sailor in feudal Japan.

Shōgun (1980) opens with a main title sequence of 20 seconds.

At 20 seconds, it opens well under the 50-second median for drama sequences in this catalogue.

It arrived on NBC in 1980, when Truth or Consequences, Another World and Search for Tomorrow were also on the network.

The opening titles

20s

Fan upload. Twenty seconds against the 2024 version's ninety-nine, on the same novel.

1985–BBC OneDrama

An aerial pull-back over the Thames and the drum that answers it — thirty-two seconds that have barely changed in forty years.

1989–2001NBC / SyndicationDrama

Los Angeles County lifeguards, and at its peak the most-watched television programme on Earth.

1989CBSDrama

Basil Poledouris scoring a cattle drive from Texas to Montana — the miniseries that proved the western was not finished after all.

1985–2025Seven / Ten (Australia)Drama

Ramsay Street across forty years, and a theme song that survived every cast, network and cancellation.

1987–CBSDrama

Los Angeles fashion houses, and the most widely watched daytime serial in the world.

1982–1986NBCDrama

A narrated premise, a scanning red light and a synth arpeggio — the most efficient piece of eighties television branding after the A-Team's.