UFO
Anderson's first live-action series, set in a 1980 that never arrived, with purple wigs and a Barry Gray theme.
UFO opens with a main title sequence of 81 seconds.
At 81 seconds, it opens well above the 58-second median for sci-fi sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on ITV in 1970, when The Sooty Show, The Big Match and World of Sport were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
81sPosted by the official Gerry Anderson channel.
More sci-fi opening titles from the 1970s
1 sequenceThe Six Million Dollar Man
A crash, a countdown and the promise that they can rebuild him — narration that entered the language more thoroughly than the show did.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Incredible Hulk
A narrated origin, a green transformation, and a piano coda so sad it became the show's real signature — though that plays over the closing credits, not these.
- Season 1
2 sequencesSpace: 1999
The most confident opening Gerry Anderson ever made: a burst of brass, then a rapid-fire montage of clips from the episode you are about to watch, so no two broadcasts were identical.
- Season 1
- Season 2
1 sequenceBuck Rogers in the 25th Century
A disco-scored space opera that opens with a shuttle, a starfield and absolutely no embarrassment about either.
- Season 1
1 sequenceLand of the Lost
A raft over a waterfall into a closed pocket universe, written by Dorothy Fontana and David Gerrold for Saturday mornings.
- Season 1
1 sequenceBlake's 7
BBC electronic music and a rotating logo, rebuilt each series as the crew was killed off — which on this show happened often enough to matter.
- Seasons 1–4