The Crystal Maze
1990–Channel 4Documentary
Four themed zones and a warehouse in Essex, opened with an orchestral fanfare grander than any game show has earned before or since.
The Crystal Maze kept one opening title sequence, 47 seconds long, across season 5.
At 47 seconds, it opens well above the 37-second median for documentary sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on Channel 4 in 1990, when Brookside and Drop the Dead Donkey were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 5
47sThe fifth series' opening theme, with the music that belongs to it. The copy rejected before laid the 2016 revival's theme over the original pictures.
More documentary opening titles from the 1990s
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1 sequenceTime Team
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1 sequenceWho Wants to Be a Millionaire?
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1 sequenceThe Beatles Anthology
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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.
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