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Twin Peaks

1990–1991, 2017ABCShowtimeDrama

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A bird, a sawmill blade and a waterfall, over Angelo Badalamenti at a tempo no network would approve today — ninety seconds of a town being described before anyone in it speaks.

Twin Peaks rebuilt its titles: two distinct opening sequences are catalogued here across seasons 1–3, running between 90 and 97 seconds.

At 97 seconds at its longest, it opens well above the 50-second median for drama sequences in this catalogue.

It arrived on ABC in 1990, when One Life to Live, All My Children and The Bugs Bunny Show were also on the network.

Only 139 of the 2,618 shows catalogued here changed their titles at all; Twin Peaks did so once.

2 sequences3rd most looked up of 409 in the 1990sIMDb ↗
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All 2 opening title sequences

Seasons 1–2

97s

The original ABC sequence: the Packard mill, the sign, and Snoqualmie Falls, held for the whole of the first run.

Season 3

90s

The Return, twenty-six years later. The mill and the waterfall are gone; what is left is the red room's curtains and chevron floor, and the same theme.

More drama opening titles from the 1990s

Still from the opening titles of The Sopranos1 sequence

The Sopranos

1999–2007HBODrama

Ninety seconds of a man driving home from the Lincoln Tunnel to North Caldwell. No cast montage, no highlights — just the commute, which turns out to be the whole show.

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Still from the opening titles of ER2 sequences

ER

1994–2009NBCDrama

James Newton Howard's theme over sliding doors, gurneys and light — the template every medical drama since has either copied or deliberately avoided.

  • Season 1
  • Season 10
Still from the opening titles of Dawson's Creek1 sequence

Dawson's Creek

1998–2003The WBDrama

Paula Cole over a Massachusetts creek — a theme so tied to the show that its absence from the streaming release became a story in itself.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The West Wing2 sequences

The West Wing

1999–2006NBCDrama

Oil portraits, flags and W.G. Snuffy Walden's brass — an opening that treats the executive branch as a cathedral, which is the show's entire register.

  • Season 1
  • Season 5
Still from the opening titles of Beverly Hills, 902101 sequence

Beverly Hills, 90210

1990–2000FoxDrama

Freeze-frames of a cast grinning at the camera over a synth-brass hook — the template every teen drama of the decade copied.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Xena: Warrior Princess1 sequence

Xena: Warrior Princess

1995–2001SyndicationDrama

A narrated mythological premise and a war cry, from the spinoff that comprehensively outgrew Hercules.

  • Season 1