Steptoe and Son
Two rag-and-bone men who cannot leave each other, and the series Sanford and Son was remade from.
Steptoe and Son opens with a main title sequence of 27 seconds.
At 27 seconds, it opens well under the 38-second median for comedy sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on BBC One in 1962, when Grandstand, This Is Your Life and The Sooty Show were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
27sFan upload of the twenty-seven-second open, found on a second query after the first returned a two-minute soundtrack version of Ron Grainer's "Old Ned".
More comedy opening titles from the 1960s
2 sequences
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.
- Season 1
- Seasons 24–25
1 sequenceThe 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