Friday, June 6, 2014

Is there a better TV theme song than the one from "Mission: Impossible"?

These days, I've taken to watching the beginning of "Mission: Impossible" on MeTV at 11:30 p.m., because the local news has ended and Jay Leno no longer hosts "The Tonight Show." (Yes, I am one of those seemingly rare people who preferred Leno to David Letterman.)

Right now, the episode rotation is late in the sixth season, which is when the show stopped sending the IMF team into unnamed foreign countries, and instead had them battling domestic gangsters who were "beyond the reach of conventional law enforcement." I find these episodes less fun than the ones set in foreign locales, so I haven't always stayed up to watch all the way to the end, or even to TiVo them for later watching.

I do, however, try to make sure to catch the opening sequence. It was such a clever approach to splice quick cuts of scenes from that episode with the casting credits, etc. (The only other show that I've seen do this was the re-imagined "Battlestar Galactica.") And of course, the fuse that burned its way across the screen, over and over.

But the best thing of all about the opening was the theme song:


Has there been a better TV theme song than the one from "Mission: Impossible"? Off the top of my head, I'd say the contenders are:

- "Hawaii 5-0" (so good that the current remake didn't bother with a new version)
- "MacGyver"
- "Star Trek: The Next Generation"
- "L.A. Law"
- "The Amazing Race"

Any others I've missed?

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