The 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.
One opening sequence is catalogued for The Addams Family, covering seasons 1–2.
It arrived on ABC in 1964, when The Bugs Bunny Show, ABC's Wide World of Sports and American Bandstand were also on the network.
The opening titles
Seasons 1–2
Unchanged across both seasons. Vic Mizzy wrote it and then directed the sequence himself, which is unusual and entirely practical — he wanted the actors' snaps landing exactly on his arrangement rather than near it.
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 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
1 sequenceThe Beverly Hillbillies
"The Ballad of Jed Clampett" — a bluegrass number that reached number one on the country chart while the series was running.
- Season 1