@JustinJackFlash said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

@JustinJackFlash said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

WKRP in Cincinnati

Suddenly Susan

Welcome Back, Kotter

Flashpoint

The Love Boat

Moonlighting

Again I gotta exclude things like Flashpoint and Suddenly Susan because they are tunes rather than songs. Otherwise the list would be huge and oversaturated with Knightriders, Airwolfs and A-Teams. But I think I will make a list for that sort of thing at some point.

Fair enough. (As an aside, I use Flashpoint as my main phone ring tone!)

I'm looking for actual songs that were used for TV shows. For example True Detective uses a Leonard Cohen song, The Wire uses a Tom Waits song, etc.

Frank Sinatra did a song called Love and Marriage which was used for the TV Show Married...with Children. I can't believe I forgot to include that in my first list above.

I'm absolutely clueless when it comes to the kind of songs used in the other things you've mentioned. Were they actually seen as well regarded songs at the time or is it more a case of a nostalgia thing? Not that I'm criticizing, I honestly don't know.

The smooth voice of Al Jarreau makes _Moonlighting'_s theme song could have made this a real stand-alone song.

And hey, how about Family Ties' theme?

The Love Boat theme](https://youtu.be/m_wFEB4Oxlo) is TV them show royalty, who didn't sing along whenever it comes on? (those of a certain age).

Not "real songs", I guess. TV nostalgia, sure.

I put in Married With Children. I do know that Sinatra song.

I don't know why but I don't really remember these shows being around when I was young. I'm obviously aware of them all but mainly just through word of mouth. I know exactly what Moonlighting is but I'd never seen it. I don't know if it's because I maybe just a couple of years too young but then I remember things like Dallas and Dynasty very well which is weird. I'm thinking it might be because they weren't really on over here in the UK. Or not really in the zeitgeist in the same way. Could anyone else from the UK who reads this maybe shed some light? Were they on over here? It seems like I just missed out a big part of famous culture.

If you're in the UK that likely explains it. We don't all get the same shows. There's lots of UK TV we never got/get here in Canada. I remember my mom used to watch "On the Buses" and we thought it was hilarious. And I loved Benny Hill. But there's lots of shows you guys have over there that I've never heard of, so it's not a surprise if I'm mentioning shows that simply didn't make it across or weren't popular it they did.

No worries.

One show's theme song that was so popular, they actually released the song as a single and it did quite well on the music charts. The Greatest American Hero's theme was Believe it or Not, sung by Joey Scarbury, and went to Number 2 on Billboard Hot 100.

If you're in the mood for some 1980 cheeze:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcsMPyjwav8

@M.LeMarchand said:

Did you ever watch Salem? I enjoyed the few I saw, but it keeps getting pushed down the list by shows that aren't primarily of interest due to attractive women in not very many clothes.

Not yet, but thanks for the reminder. I did just have a look to see if I could find it but it doesn't seem to be on anything at the moment. Not on Netflix, not on Amazon Prime. At least not over here. I'm sure it'll pop up somewhere at some point.

I want to suggest Due South and The Protectors, but on a rewatch I was surprised to find that both have instrumental intros, with the vocal versions only over the end credits.

Due South intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwIVJXVmAxU

Due South closing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkfoDTfA0TM

Protectors intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXseqmFmFOc

Protectors closing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuFWrx9mdTQ

Yeah, I remember Due South. I don't think I've heard of The Protectors but it looks well cheesy cool.

@DRDMovieMusings said:

If you're in the UK that likely explains it. We don't all get the same shows. There's lots of UK TV we never got/get here in Canada. I remember my mom used to watch "On the Buses" and we thought it was hilarious. And I loved Benny Hill. But there's lots of shows you guys have over there that I've never heard of, so it's not a surprise if I'm mentioning shows that simply didn't make it across or weren't popular it they did.

No worries.

You haven't been missing much. American tv has always been much better than British. British tv has always been mostly bad (although we have been getting better recently). America has always produced good stuff from things like The Twilight Zone to The Simpsons and X-Files through to the constant stream of HBO type shows we get today. Though we have always been more innovative at comedy with shows like The Office and Monty Python. Does Canada get it's own tv shows or is it generally just US stuff?

@Dark_Sithlord said:

One show's theme song that was so popular, they actually released the song as a single and it did quite well on the music charts. The Greatest American Hero's theme was Believe it or Not, sung by Joey Scarbury, and went to Number 2 on Billboard Hot 100.

If you're in the mood for some 1980 cheeze:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcsMPyjwav8

Haha, yeah! When is anyone not in the mood for 80s cheeze?

@mechajutaro said:

@JustinJackFlash said:

@mechajutaro said:

The criminally overlooked Get A Life opened to REM

And I've never heard of Get a Life. Even though I've never been a big R.E.M. fan I do like that one.

You're hardly the only one, sadly. Lucky for us, the episodes are widely available

I'm a huge fan of Get a Life. Chris Elliott's irreverent brand of humour was really something. I still regularly quote from that show. My favourite episodes are probably My Prettiest Week, when Chris tries to become a male supermodel, and the SPEWY episode. HahA! Good times. I can't listen to REM's Stand without thinking of Get a Life. I can't say the humour would appeal to everyone, but I recommend you watch a couple of episodes if you haven't watched it before.

@Dark_Sithlord said:

@mechajutaro said:

@JustinJackFlash said:

@mechajutaro said:

The criminally overlooked Get A Life opened to REM

And I've never heard of Get a Life. Even though I've never been a big R.E.M. fan I do like that one.

You're hardly the only one, sadly. Lucky for us, the episodes are widely available

I'm a huge fan of Get a Life. Chris Elliott's irreverent brand of humour was really something. I still regularly quote from that show. My favourite episodes are probably My Prettiest Week, when Chris tries to become a male supermodel, and the SPEWY episode. HahA! Good times. I can't listen to REM's Stand without thinking of Get a Life. I can't say the humour would appeal to everyone, but I recommend you watch a couple of episodes if you haven't watched it before.

I might just do that.

@JustinJackFlash said:

@M.LeMarchand said:

Did you ever watch Salem? I enjoyed the few I saw, but it keeps getting pushed down the list by shows that aren't primarily of interest due to attractive women in not very many clothes.

Not yet, but thanks for the reminder. I did just have a look to see if I could find it but it doesn't seem to be on anything at the moment. Not on Netflix, not on Amazon Prime. At least not over here. I'm sure it'll pop up somewhere at some point.

I want to suggest Due South and The Protectors, but on a rewatch I was surprised to find that both have instrumental intros, with the vocal versions only over the end credits.

Due South intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwIVJXVmAxU

Due South closing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkfoDTfA0TM

Protectors intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXseqmFmFOc

Protectors closing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuFWrx9mdTQ

Yeah, I remember Due South. I don't think I've heard of The Protectors but it looks well cheesy cool.

Salem is available on Hulu!

@JustinJackFlash said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

If you're in the UK that likely explains it. We don't all get the same shows. There's lots of UK TV we never got/get here in Canada. I remember my mom used to watch "On the Buses" and we thought it was hilarious. And I loved Benny Hill. But there's lots of shows you guys have over there that I've never heard of, so it's not a surprise if I'm mentioning shows that simply didn't make it across or weren't popular it they did.

No worries.

You haven't been missing much. American tv has always been much better than British. British tv has always been mostly bad (although we have been getting better recently). America has always produced good stuff from things like The Twilight Zone to The Simpsons and X-Files through to the constant stream of HBO type shows we get today. Though we have always been more innovative at comedy with shows like The Office and Monty Python. Does Canada get it's own tv shows or is it generally just US stuff?

I strongly disagree that other than your comedy shows the rest suck! The UK has made some wonderful shows (IMHO). The shows that have been broadcast on PBS's Masterpiece Theater are superb. I love a bunch of your cop shows, mysteries, 'dramedies', etc. The only thing that I don't like is the REALLY SHORT seasons/series & the time in between each series/season!

I agree with brat. A bounty of UK crime, mystery, and drama series/miniseries, as well as adaptations of famous literary works and the such, are excellent. I don't know about the UK series that PBS stations in the US do not broadcast, but the ones that such stations do broadcast (that most of the time, anymore, during the last ten or so years, it's ITV-PBS co-productions or strictly ITV productions) are typically somewhere in the good to very good (sometimes the outstanding to exceptional) range and always high-quality, very well-acted, smartly scripted, interesting, and pretty much all of them worthwhile and satisfying to watch.

@JustinJackFlash said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

If you're in the UK that likely explains it. We don't all get the same shows. There's lots of UK TV we never got/get here in Canada. I remember my mom used to watch "On the Buses" and we thought it was hilarious. And I loved Benny Hill. But there's lots of shows you guys have over there that I've never heard of, so it's not a surprise if I'm mentioning shows that simply didn't make it across or weren't popular it they did.

No worries.

You haven't been missing much. American tv has always been much better than British. British tv has always been mostly bad (although we have been getting better recently). America has always produced good stuff from things like The Twilight Zone to The Simpsons and X-Files through to the constant stream of HBO type shows we get today. Though we have always been more innovative at comedy with shows like The Office and Monty Python. Does Canada get it's own tv shows or is it generally just US stuff?

Canada has its own shows, but I hardly watched any of'em (which isn't to say they weren't successful, just not my speed). That said, most of the networks/shows we get are American.

@JustinJackFlash said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

If you're in the UK that likely explains it. We don't all get the same shows. There's lots of UK TV we never got/get here in Canada. I remember my mom used to watch "On the Buses" and we thought it was hilarious. And I loved Benny Hill. But there's lots of shows you guys have over there that I've never heard of, so it's not a surprise if I'm mentioning shows that simply didn't make it across or weren't popular it they did.

No worries.

You haven't been missing much. American tv has always been much better than British. British tv has always been mostly bad (although we have been getting better recently). America has always produced good stuff from things like The Twilight Zone to The Simpsons and X-Files through to the constant stream of HBO type shows we get today. Though we have always been more innovative at comedy with shows like The Office and Monty Python. Does Canada get it's own tv shows or is it generally just US stuff?

I forgot to add, Canada has it's share of stinkers (one that immediately comes to mind is 'Flashpoint'), just like any other country!

@bratface said:

Salem is available on Hulu!

Alas, we don't have Hulu over here. Usually the Hulu shows appear on our screens on some other channel at some point.

I strongly disagree that other than your comedy shows the rest suck! The UK has made some wonderful shows (IMHO). The shows that have been broadcast on PBS's Masterpiece Theater are superb. I love a bunch of your cop shows, mysteries, 'dramedies', etc. The only thing that I don't like is the REALLY SHORT seasons/series & the time in between each series/season!

I'm not saying they all suck. Of course we do do some good stuff now and again (and a lot more recently). But a lot of the things we have made over the years tend to be those very similar detective shows like Inspector Morse and A Touch of Frost. Those and most of our tv seemed to be for a specific audience and it was all quite traditional with little intention of innovating and pushing boundaries. Growing up there was very little that appealed to me or that was aimed at me and the little tv I did watch tended to be American. But at the moment we are turning things around with shows like Bodyguard, the This is England series, Killing Eve and many more.

Maybe I missed a lot of the good stuff. What would you recommend?

@JustinJackFlash said:

@bratface said:

Salem is available on Hulu!

Alas, we don't have Hulu over here. Usually the Hulu shows appear on our screens on some other channel at some point.

I strongly disagree that other than your comedy shows the rest suck! The UK has made some wonderful shows (IMHO). The shows that have been broadcast on PBS's Masterpiece Theater are superb. I love a bunch of your cop shows, mysteries, 'dramedies', etc. The only thing that I don't like is the REALLY SHORT seasons/series & the time in between each series/season!

I'm not saying they all suck. Of course we do do some good stuff now and again (and a lot more recently). But a lot of the things we have made over the years tend to be those very similar detective shows like Inspector Morse and A Touch of Frost. Those and most of our tv seemed to be for a specific audience and it was all quite traditional with little intention of innovating and pushing boundaries. Growing up there was very little that appealed to me or that was aimed at me and the little tv I did watch tended to be American. But at the moment we are turning things around with shows like Bodyguard, the This is England series, Killing Eve and many more.

Maybe I missed a lot of the good stuff. What would you recommend?

The first (& best IMHO) is Luther. I'll have to think on the rest. But if you could give me a clue about what you don't like that would help.

@bratface said:

@JustinJackFlash said:

@DRDMovieMusings said:

If you're in the UK that likely explains it. We don't all get the same shows. There's lots of UK TV we never got/get here in Canada. I remember my mom used to watch "On the Buses" and we thought it was hilarious. And I loved Benny Hill. But there's lots of shows you guys have over there that I've never heard of, so it's not a surprise if I'm mentioning shows that simply didn't make it across or weren't popular it they did.

No worries.

You haven't been missing much. American tv has always been much better than British. British tv has always been mostly bad (although we have been getting better recently). America has always produced good stuff from things like The Twilight Zone to The Simpsons and X-Files through to the constant stream of HBO type shows we get today. Though we have always been more innovative at comedy with shows like The Office and Monty Python. Does Canada get it's own tv shows or is it generally just US stuff?

I forgot to add, Canada has it's share of stinkers (one that immediately comes to mind is 'Flashpoint'), just like any other country!

I so wanted to like Flashpoint. While it wasn't terrible, it could have been so much more. That said, it's theme song is my main ringtone!