Intros

Posting will be sporadic for the next few days, so here as filler ™ is another example of how you can trace a show’s re-toolings through its changing title sequences. This is AFTERMASH, the M*A*S*H spinoff that Larry Gelbart created for the three M*A*S*H cast members who wanted to stay on after the original show ended (Potter, Klinger, and… Mulcahy?). In the first season, when it was actually doing pretty well in the ratings, this show kept the same main title for all 22 episodes: a montage of drawings of typical ’50s things, accompanied by a nostalgic new theme by Pat Williams (preceded by a little bit of the M*A*S*H theme for extra nostalgia).

…While I’m working on something else, I need to put up a clip or something, so here’s my pick for the ultimate American ’80s action-show intro. Not the best intro, by a long shot (though I always liked the fake Beach Boys middle section of the theme), not even in the top 20 best intros, but it’s got everything: helicopters, casual use of firearms, car crashes, explosions, male bonding with gratuitous shirtlesness, robots, Mike Post music, and a female character who got dropped after the first few episodes (how could they do that to Honey West, even a middle-aged Honey West?). If Ben Silverman really wants to retool Knight Rider into an ’80s type of show, he needs to have the producers watch this intro over and over and take notes.