South Park
A banjo, a cut-paper Colorado town and four boys at a bus stop — re-recorded and re-animated repeatedly across nearly thirty years while staying recognisably the same twenty-nine seconds.
South Park rebuilt its titles: two distinct opening sequences are catalogued here across seasons 1 and 15, running between 29 and 30 seconds.
At 30 seconds at its longest, it opens well under the 58-second median for animation sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on Comedy Central in 1997, when Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist were also on the network.
Only 139 of the 2,618 shows catalogued here changed their titles at all; South Park did so once.
All 2 opening title sequences
Season 1
29sThe first season's intro, with the original mumbled vocal that later versions cleaned up.
Season 15
30sThe fifteenth season, in high definition. Fourteen years on, the same drive into town and the same four children at the bus stop.
More animation opening titles from the 1990s
1 sequence
One Piece
The longest-running opening rotation in television — more than twenty distinct sequences over a quarter of a century, each announcing a new arc.
- Season 1
1 sequence
SpongeBob SquarePants
A sea shanty led by a painted pirate head, in call and response with children — one of the most universally known pieces of television music written this century.
- Season 1
2 sequences
Family Guy
A musical number performed by the family about how television used to have values — a sitcom opening from the 1970s, done straight and then undercut.
- Season 1
- Season 10
2 sequences
King of the Hill
Four men drinking beer in an alley, and a guitar riff. Thirty-one seconds that tell you the show has no interest in going anywhere.
- Season 1
- Season 14
1 sequence
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Ninety seconds cut faster than the eye resolves, with whole frames of text and diagram flashed for one frame each. Yoko Takahashi's theme is bright, major-key J-pop laid over imagery that is doing nothing of the kind, and the mismatch is the point rather than an accident.
- Season 1
2 sequences
Futurama
Like The Simpsons, an opening built to differ every week — a new caption under the logo and a different scrap of old cartoon on the screen the ship flies past — wrapped around Christopher Tyng's theme and a crash into a billboard.
- Seasons 1–4
- Seasons 6–7