The Beatles Anthology
1995ABCDocumentary
The band's own account of itself, assembled with the three surviving members.
The Beatles Anthology opens with a main title sequence of 27 seconds.
At 27 seconds, it opens well under the 37-second median for documentary sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on ABC in 1995, when One Life to Live, All My Children and The Bugs Bunny Show were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
27sFan upload. Torn photographs and posters reassembling themselves over a montage of the group's own music.
More documentary opening titles from the 1990s
1 sequenceThe Real World
"This is the true story of seven strangers" — the narration that invented the reality format, and the one every parody since has copied.
- Season 1
1 sequenceDateline NBC
NBC's newsmagazine, which outlasted every other network attempt at the form by turning into a true-crime hour.
- Season 1
1 sequenceTime Team
Three days to excavate a site, with the clock running in the titles before anyone picks up a trowel.
- Season 1
1 sequenceWho Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Keith and Matthew Strachan's music, which unusually runs continuously under the questions rather than only over the titles — one of the few game shows scored like a thriller.
- Season 1
1 sequenceBill Nye the Science Guy
Science for children at the speed of a music video, with a theme that shouts the presenter's name.
- Season 1
1 sequenceRobot Wars
Twenty-one seconds of sparks and industrial metal, for a programme in which people destroyed their own hardware for sport.
- Seasons 1–4