The Muppet Show
1976–1981ITVSyndicationComedy
An opening that changes every week by design: Statler and Waldorf get a new heckle, Gonzo gets a new way to fail the closing note, and the arch fills with whoever is in that episode.
The Muppet Show opens with a main title sequence of 56 seconds.
At 56 seconds, it opens well above the 38-second median for comedy sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on ITV in 1976, when Romper Room, Truth or Consequences and The Sooty Show were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
56sThe first series' opening. The joke at the end and the heckle from the box are rewritten for every episode, so no two broadcasts match.
More comedy opening titles from the 1970s
1 sequence
Saturday Night Live
A new cast montage every single season for fifty years — New York at night, the current company photographed in it, and a band playing over the top. The longest-running rotating title sequence on television.
- Season 1
1 sequenceAll in the Family
Two people at an upright piano singing about how things used to be — an opening performed live by the cast rather than scored.
- Season 1
1 sequenceFawlty Towers
A hotel sign whose letters are rearranged into a different rude anagram every episode — the earliest running title gag in this catalogue by two decades.
- Season 1
1 sequenceHappy Days
A fifties jukebox theme that started as a closing song and was promoted to the opening once it became a hit record.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThree's Company
A theme that explains the premise, the address and the invitation in about forty seconds, then hands you a farce.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Love Boat
A cruise ship with a new guest cast every week, introduced by name in the titles.
- Season 3