Takeshi's Castle

Name: Takeshi's Castle
Genre: Documentary

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A hundred contestants a week storming a fortress, and the origin of every obstacle-course format that came after it.

Takeshi's Castle opens with a main title sequence of 15 seconds.

At 15 seconds, it opens well under the 37-second median for documentary sequences in this catalogue.

1 sequenceIMDb ↗

The opening titles

15s

Fan upload of the animated open, carrying a rebroadcast channel's watermark in the corner.

1987–2002NBCDocumentary

Robert Stack in a trench coat, a synthesiser and a fog machine — the most frightening thing on American television that was not fiction.

1983–2006PBSDocumentary

LeVar Burton reading to children for twenty-three years, and "but you don't have to take my word for it".

1988–2013FoxDocumentary

The programme Fox launched itself on, and the one that turned a network into a switchboard.

1989–MTVDocumentary

Sixteen seconds and an acoustic guitar — a format whose whole argument is in the title card.

1986–ITVDocumentary

Say what you see, and a golden robot called Mr Chips who was the reason anyone watched.

1980–1988SyndicationDocumentary

The weekly chart countdown as a dance routine, with its own troupe named after it.