The Rockford Files
A telephone rings, an answering machine picks up, and a stranger leaves a message that is usually bad news and occasionally a joke at Rockford's expense. Then the theme starts. The private detective is introduced by the people avoiding him.
1 sequence19th most looked up of 151 in the 1970s
Seasons 1–6
The sequence held for six years, but the message never repeated: a different one opened all 122 episodes, which makes this the most-changed opening in the catalogue and a single entry at the same time. The pictures and Mike Post and Pete Carpenter's theme are fixed; the writing on top of them was rewritten weekly.