TV themes' swan song?
The catchy jingles that once opened favorite shows (`I'll be there for yoouu!') are going the way of the cassette tape.
NEW YORK — Don't remember much about high school biology or physics. Couldn't tell ya how to compute a calculus problem. But, for the love of Will Smith, the theme song to "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" remains fresh in the mind.
Smith's catchy rap opened each episode of his hit '90s sitcom, in which he starred as a street-smart teen from Philly who moves in with wealthy relatives. A whole generation knows it by heart — that, and the "Saved by the Bell" song.
Familiar TV themes from such shows as "The Beverly Hillbillies," "The Brady Bunch," "Cheers" and "Friends" conjure up memories of cozy nights, childhood bliss and a universal nostalgia for bygone days. But today, show themes are doing a fast fade as the networks crunch their programming budgets.
Are they about to join the variety hour in the TV graveyard?
"It's a rarity today," TV historian Tim Brooks said of the catchy, tuneful opening. "It's kind of like the Broadway musical producing hit songs — it just doesn't do that anymore."
Back in the day, even into the '90s, shows usually had a "main title," a 40- to 60-second opening montage that introduced the cast and was often set to music written by a composer, said Jon Burlingame, author of "TV's Biggest Hits," a history of themes. Songs summed up what a show was all about, whether spinning the tale of how a group of wacky castaways ended up on "Gilligan's Island," telling how a spunky single career woman was "going to make it after all" or describing why six touchy-feely Manhattan singles were there for each other.
But now many sitcoms and one-hour dramas are dropping that device. They dive straight into the action, sometimes flashing the show's title or logo at various points throughout an episode.
ABC's "Lost" does it. The twisty drama begins after a teaser, which touches on what happened in previous installments, and cuts to a black screen at a crucial plot point. A white "Lost" logo swirls into view. Eerie music plays. The whole thing lasts about five seconds.
"That's not a theme" nor an artistic statement, lamented Burlingame, longing for the urgency of the "Mission: Impossible" score.
Other title-flashers include ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," which threw out its 26-second theme last year, and "Desperate Housewives" and NBC's "My Name Is Earl," which both switch off between showing the full credits and the logo. New shows — ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" and "Ugly Betty" and NBC's "Heroes" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" — display only the logo.
"Almost all shows have music, but it's generic, it's scene-setting, it's short," said Brooks, who estimated that fewer than 10% have "traditional" themes that set up the show.
Clearly, brevity is key. No drawn-out intro or hokey theme. Networks don't have time for that — and neither, prevailing TV thinking goes, do the country's couch potatoes.
"Producers feel, rightly or wrongly, that that interruption, if you will, is going to lose viewers," Brooks said.
"I think one of the things that has squeezed themes out is this relentless kind of move toward tightening everything, making it go right from joke to joke, from action to action, from shootout to shootout, so that you won't press the dreaded remote control."
Thanks to the elimination of commercials between the end of one show and the beginning of another, shows overlap before fickle viewers have a chance to channel-surf to another network. More commercials air within a show, making episodes shorter. Main titles and well-rounded theme songs and scores? Sorry, no time, no money.
Tara Ariano, co-founder of the blog Television Without Pity, isn't sweating it. She thinks a "full-on opening credit [and] theme song is kind of a waste, from a business perspective."
"The networks sort of assume we watch the show, so we don't need to have the premise explained to us each week.... In the era of the DVR, half the people watching the show are just fast-forwarding that anyway," she said.
Another trend, which harks back to the late '80s-early '90s fave "The Wonder Years" and the more recent "Dawson's Creek" and "Laguna Beach," is the use of music by established and new artists as both a theme in the main title and a device within the show.
"Increasingly, it's not music scored for the show, it's pop songs pasted into the show," Brooks said.
CBS' "CSI" opens with the Who's "Who Are You?" Gavin DeGraw's star rose after his radio-friendly single "I Don't Want to Be" debuted as the theme to the CW's "One Tree Hill." And the Fray was, well, just a band on the fringe until "Grey's Anatomy" and others played their songs to underscore dramatic scenes and montages.
All of this makes Jesse Frederick-Conaway, who composed the music to G-rated sitcoms such as ABC's "Full House" and "Family Matters," a little sad. There is, he thinks, "this desire to be super hip."
"Now, the music director is sort of the composer," he said. "It's a different kind of deal."
Burlingame, citing the great intros of award-winners such as NBC's "The West Wing" and HBO's "Six Feet Under," is confident the theme — lyrical, instrumental, whatever — will make a comeback. He'd rather see more original music, but he'll take licensed material if it's good.
"Some producers, I think, want to make a statement, in terms of imagery and music," he said. "It depends on who you get."
Will Smith, back in the '90s, made a hip-hop statement of his own while advising fans to "just sit right there / I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel-Air."
But, in this fast-forward TV world, would they still listen?
'Father Knows Best' actress Wyatt dies
LOS ANGELES - Jane Wyatt, the lovely, serene actress who for six years on "Father Knows Best" was one of TV's favorite moms, has died. She was 96.
Wyatt died Friday in her sleep of natural causes at her Bel-Air home, according to publicist Meg McDonald. She experienced health problems since suffering a stroke at 85, but her mind was sharp until her death, her son Christopher Ward said.
Wyatt had a successful film career in the 1930s and '40s, notably as Ronald Colman's lover in 1937's "Lost Horizon."
But it was her years as Robert Young's TV wife, Margaret Anderson, on "Father Knows Best" that brought the actress her lasting fame.
She appeared in 207 half-hour episodes from 1954 to 1960 and won three Emmys as best actress in a dramatic series in the years 1958 to 1960. The show began as a radio sitcom in 1949; it moved to television in 1954.
"Being a family show, we all had to stick around," she once said. "Even though each show was centered on one of the five members of the family, I always had to be there to deliver such lines as `Eat your dinner, dear,' or `How did you do in school today?' We got along fine, but after the first few years, it's really difficult to have to face the same people day after day."
The Anderson children were played by Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin, and all grew up on the show. In later years critics claimed that shows like "Father Knows Best" and "Ozzie and Harriet" presented a glossy, unreal view of the American family.
In defense, Wyatt commented in 1966: "We tried to preserve the tradition that every show had something to say. The children were complicated personally, not just kids. We weren't just five Pollyannas."
"In real life my grandmother embodied the persona of Margaret Anderson," said grandson Nicholas Ward. "She was loving and giving and always gave her time to other people."
It was a tribute to the popularity of the show that after its run ended, it continued in reruns on CBS and ABC for three years in primetime, a TV rarity. The show came to an end because Young, who had also played the father in the radio version, had enough. Wyatt remarked in 1965 that she was tired, too.
"The first year was pure joy," she said. "The second year was when the problems set in. We licked them, and the third year was smooth going. Fatigue began to set in during the fourth year. We got through the fifth year because we all thought it would be the last. The sixth? Pure hell."
The role wasn't the only time in her 60 years in films and TV that Wyatt was cast as the warm, compassionate wife and mother. She even played Mr. Spock's mom in the original "Star Trek" series and the feature "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home."
She got her start in films in the mid-'30s, appearing in "One More River," "Great Expectations," "We're Only Human" and "The Luckiest Girl in the World." When Frank Capra chose her to play the Shangri-la beauty in "Lost Horizon," her reputation was made. Moviegoers were entranced by the scene — chaste by today's standards — in which Colman sees her swimming nude in a mountain lake.
Never a star, Wyatt enjoyed career longevity with her reliable portrayals of genteel, understanding women. Among the notable films:
"Buckskin Frontier" (with Richard Dix), "None But the Lonely Heart" (Cary Grant), "Boomerang" (Dana Andrews), "Gentleman's Agreement" (Gregory Peck), "Pitfall" (Dick Powell), "No Minor Vices" (Dana Andrews), "Canadian Pacific" (Randolph Scott), "My Blue Heaven" (Betty Grable, Dan Dailey) and "Criminal Lawyer" (Pat O'Brien).
"Father Knows Best" enjoyed such lasting popularity in reruns and people's memories that the cast returned years later for two reunion movies. She also remained active on other projects, such as "Amityville: The Evil Escapes" in 1989, and in charity work.
When Young died in 1998, Wyatt paid tribute to him as "simply one of the finest people to grace our industry."
"Though we never socialized off the set, we were together every day for six years, and during that time he never pulled rank (and) always treated his on-screen family with the same affection and courtesy he showed his loved ones in his private life," she said.
Wyatt was born in Campgaw, N.J., into a wealthy family in 1910, according to McDonald, her publicist. Her father, an investment banker, came from an old-line New York family, as did her mother, who wrote drama reviews. They gave their daughter a genteel upbringing, with her schooling at the fashionable Miss Chapin's school and Barnard College.
She left college after two years to apprentice at the Berkshire Playhouse in Stockbridge, Mass. For two years she alternated between Berkshire and Broadway, appearing with Charles Laughton, Louis Calhern and Osgood Perkins.
While acting with Lillian Gish in "Joyous Season" in 1934, she got a contract offer from Universal Pictures. She agreed, on condition she could spend half each year in the theater.
During college, Wyatt attended a party at Hyde Park, N.Y., given by the sons of Franklin D. Roosevelt. There she met a Harvard student, Edgar Ward. In 1935 she married Ward, then a businessman, in Santa Fe, N.M.
The family will gather for a funeral mass Friday, followed by a private interment, family members said.
Wyatt is survived by sons Christopher, of Piedmont, California and Michael of Los Angeles; three grandchildren Nicholas, Andrew and Laura; and five great grandchildren.
'Friday Night Lights' Gets Monday Tryout
Drama will replace 'Studio 60' for one week
NBC will try to give its struggling drama "Friday Night Lights" an extra boost later this month by airing after the network's most successful new show.
On Monday, Oct. 30, NBC will air an original "Lights" episode at 10 p.m. ET, following "Heroes"; the episode will then repeat in the show's normal 8 p.m. Tuesday spot on Oct. 31. "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," which usually airs at 10 p.m. Mondays (and was scheduled for a repeat that night), will get a week off.
The network has also ordered several more scripts for "Friday Night Lights," which doesn't necessarily mean a life for the show beyond its original 13-episode order but certainly isn't a bad thing. A Monday airing could presumably benefit some from promotion on NBC's "Sunday Night Football" broadcast the previous night.
Through its first three airings, "Friday Night Lights" -- based on the book and movie of the same name -- has averaged only about 6.6 million viewers. It did improve some this week after falling below the 6 million mark in its second airing.
It's hardly alone among NBC's new dramas in its ratings difficulties. The past two episodes of "Studio 60" have fallen below 9 million viewers, and "Kidnapped" has been shunted to Saturdays after drawing 6.5 million viewers in three Wednesday airings.
Only "Heroes," which is averaging better than 13 million viewers and is the season's top new show among adults 18-49, has been an unqualified success for the network thus far. NBC is undoubtedly hoping some of that will rub off on "Friday Night Lights" two Mondays from now.
'Prestige' conjures $14.8M at box office
LOS ANGELES - The magic act "The Prestige" debuted as the weekend's No. 1 movie with $14.8 million, outperforming Clint Eastwood's World War II saga, which opened at No. 3 with $10.2 million.
Holding strong in second place was Martin Scorsese's "The Departed," which took in $13.7 million and raised its three-week total to $77.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, Sony's horror sequel "The Grudge 2," tumbled to fifth-place with $7.7 million, lifting its 10-day total to $31.4 million.
Box-office analysts had viewed the weekend as a three-way race among well-reviewed films: Disney's "The Prestige," starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as rival magicians in a blood feud; Paramount's "Flags of Our Fathers," dramatizing the Iwo Jima invasion; and the Warner Bros. mob tale "The Departed."
"I'm not surprised that we won the weekend," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney. "It's just when everybody has such quality films as `Flags' and `Prestige' and `Departed,' that's a great crowd to be running in."
"The Prestige" debuted in 2,281 theaters, 400 more than "Flags." "The Departed" is playing wider, in 3,005 cinemas.
With 70 percent of its viewers under 35, "The Prestige" drew a younger crowd that tends to turn out in bigger numbers over opening weekend. Eighty percent of the audience for "Flags" was older than 30.
"We felt the movie was going to play to the older crowd. It takes time usually for that group to show up," said Jim Tharp, head of distribution for Paramount.
Among other new movies, 20th Century Fox's family film "Flicka" tied "The Grudge 2" for No. 5 with $7.7 million. Based on the children's book "My Friend Flicka," the movie stars Alison Lohman as a teen who adopts a wild mustang.
Sony's "Marie Antoinette," with Kirsten Dunst in director Sofia Coppola's chronicle of the 18th century queen beheaded during the French Revolution, premiered at No. 8 with $5.3 million.
The 1993 animated tale " Tim Burton's the Nightmare Before Christmas" returned to theaters in a three-dimensional version and rang up a strong $3.3 million in limited release of 168 theaters.
"Running With Scissors," featuring Joseph Cross, Annette Bening and Alec Baldwin in an adaptation of Augusten Burroughs' best-seller, opened strongly with $225,000 in eight theaters.
"The Prestige" pits two big-screen superheroes against each other, "Batman Begins" star Bale vs. Jackman, who plays Wolverine in the "X-Men" flicks. The film reunited Bale with his "Batman Begins" director, Christopher Nolan.
"Flags of Our Fathers" lacked that star power, its ensemble cast led by Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach and Jesse Bradford.
Eastwood's last two movies, 2003's crime drama "Mystic River" and 2004's Academy Awards champ "Million Dollar Baby," both debuted in a handful of theaters. The debut for "Flags of Our Fathers" was in line with the first wide-release weekends for those films, $10.4 million for "Mystic River" and $12.3 million for "Million Dollar Baby."
"I don't think it was a movie that was destined to make a huge opening-weekend splash," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "`Flags' is a film that definitely has more appeal to older audiences, so I think over time, it'll do well."
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Prestige," $14.8 million.
2. "The Departed," $13.7 million.
3. "Flags of Our Fathers," $10.2 million.
4. "Open Season," $8 million.
5 (tie). "Flicka," $7.7 million.
5 (tie). "The Grudge 2," $7.7 million.
7. "Man of the Year," $7 million.
8. "Marie Antoinette," $5.3 million.
9. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning," $3.9 million.
10. "The Marine," $3.7 million.