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.
One opening sequence is catalogued for The Rockford Files, covering seasons 1–6.
It arrived on NBC in 1974, when Truth or Consequences, Another World and Search for Tomorrow were also on the network.
The opening titles
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.
More crime opening titles from the 1970s
1 sequenceColumbo
Twenty-four seconds, and for much of the run no sequence at all — a series confident enough to open on the murder and let the detective arrive late.
- Season 1
1 sequenceCHiPs
California Highway Patrol motorcycle officers, filmed almost entirely on freeways.
- Season 1
1 sequenceStarsky & Hutch
Two Bay City detectives and a red Ford Torino with a white stripe.
- Season 1
1 sequenceHart to Hart
A wealthy married couple who solve murders, introduced by their own butler in voiceover.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Sweeney
The Flying Squad in a Ford Granada, and the series that made British police drama violent.
- Season 1
1 sequenceS.W.A.T.
The original, cancelled after two seasons over its violence, and remembered mostly for a theme that reached number one.
- Season 1