Vic Mizzy

The replacement of theme songs with five-second title cards is a sad-making thing — it’s summed up by Accidentally On Purpose, which in its first few episodes had enough time for a long recap of the premise, but not for an actual theme song. The death of Vic Mizzy, composer of the themes for “The Addams Family” and “Green Acres,” reminds us of why shows need theme songs: his songs not only explained the premise, but created a sound that told us what the mood of the show was going to be.