SpongeBob SquarePants
1999–NickelodeonAnimation
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.
SpongeBob SquarePants opens with a main title sequence of 66 seconds.
It arrived on Nickelodeon in 1999, when Rugrats, All That and Are You Afraid of the Dark? were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
66sThe theme and opening credits, from Nickelodeon.
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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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