Title Sequences

Why Girls, Bates Motel and New Girl are going with minimal title sequences

Thanks to Muffin MacGuffin for pointing out these three YouTube videos representing three different main titles for a heartwarming family sitcom called Lost. The creator of these videos is understandably fascinated by the formula of TGIF/Miller-Boyett title sequences: an uplifting Jesse Frederick theme song set to footage of the entire cast horsing around, having fun doing stuff together, and smiling when it’s their turn for a credit. But he does it much better and more accurately than my re-tooled 30 Rock video.

One thing I regret most about the disappearance of full-length title sequences is that we can’t use them to track the changes in a show. Every time a show is re-tooled, it needs to change its title sequence to reflect the changes, and even when it hasn’t been changed much, a show that’s in trouble might change the main title to make the premise clearer or create a different atmosphere. We saw a good example of this in the final season of Veronica Mars, where they created a new main title that emphasized the noir detective-show feel and re-mixed the theme song to be less chipper.