Weeds
'Little Boxes' over identical suburban houses — and from the third season the song is re-recorded by a different artist every episode, which makes this one of the most varied openings in television.
Weeds kept one opening title sequence, 51 seconds long, across season 2.
At 51 seconds, it opens well above the 38-second median for comedy sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on Showtime in 2005, when Twin Peaks, Stargate SG-1 and Queer as Folk (US) were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 2
51sThe second season's opening, with Elvis Costello singing Little Boxes. One of many recordings of it rather than the version.
More comedy opening titles from the 2000s
1 sequence
The Big Bang Theory
Fourteen billion years of natural history in twenty-three seconds, flashing past at one image per beat.
- Season 1
1 sequence
Malcolm in the Middle
They Might Be Giants' 'Boss of Me' over archive film of chaos — falling, crashing and general misadventure, cut faster than a network comedy usually dares.
- Season 1
1 sequence
The Office
Scranton, a car park and a filing cabinet, shot like stock footage for a regional business — twenty-two seconds that promise nothing will happen.
- Season 1
1 sequence
Scrubs
Twelve seconds, an X-ray and a guitar — a medical comedy that spends less time on titles than most shows spend on a network ident.
- Season 1
1 sequence
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Photographs of Philadelphia over a jaunty public-domain waltz, with the episode's absurd title card dropped into the middle of it.
- Seasons 2–4
1 sequence
Modern Family
Fourteen seconds of family photographs sliding into place, and a card. Nothing else.
- Season 1