Todd McFarlane's Spawn
The comic adapted as adult animation, and among the first American cartoons made explicitly for an adult slot.
Todd McFarlane's Spawn rebuilt its titles: two distinct opening sequences are catalogued here across seasons 1–2, running between 48 and 59 seconds.
It arrived on HBO in 1997, when Arli$$, Oz and The Larry Sanders Show were also on the network.
Only 139 of the 2,618 shows catalogued here changed their titles at all; Todd McFarlane's Spawn did so once.
All 2 opening title sequences
Season 1
48sThe series open, not the feature film released the same year: the graveyard angel, then credit cards over black.
Season 2
59sSeason two replaced the graveyard with a close-up of the character.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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