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Ok, I was thinking of doing a sitcom thread similar to the cartoon thread, but let's be honest, hardly anyone is reading most of these threads so it's really just for my own entertainment, and comments from BrandonDaCollector, so why should I devote that much time?

So instead I'm just going to post random sitcom themes from all eras and you can comment on them if you like. Or don't.

sitcom
[ˈsitˌkäm]
NOUN

A situation comedy is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new characters in each sketch, and stand-up comedy, where a comedian tells jokes and stories to an audience. Sitcoms originated in radio, but today are found mostly on television as one of its dominant narrative forms.

For me, as a kid, it all started here...




I think my sense of humor grew out of Three's Company and Night Court. Like I've said elsewhere, I watched a lot of TV in the 80s as a kid. Personally, I always preferred the later years of Three's Company with Don Knotts and Priscilla Barnes. Don't get me wrong, the Suzane Somers/Ropers seasons are funny as hell, but some of my favorite episodes ("Two Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" with Jeffrey Tambor, "Jack Bares All", "Baby, It's Cold Inside") all were in later seasons.

In fact, my wife got me this shirt for Christmas....



So, come and knock on my door, or don't. I'll still be here waiting for you.

Fun bit of trivia, the leggy brunette Jack passes by on his bike and then falls over from staring it her in the early season intros, is actually Suzanne Somers in a wig.

But you didn't think I was going to stop after just one theme, didya?



Ah, Perfect Strangers. One of those shows I haven't seen in ages but would love to see reruns aired somewhere. Perfect Strangers told the story of Wiscon-ite Larry Appleton who moved to Chicago when his hitherto -unknown cousin from the remote Mediterranean island nation of Mypos arrives in town with the intention of living with his distant American cousin. Hilarity ensues as Balki Bartokomous learns about American customs while his Cousin Larry learns to adjust to big city life.



Perfect Strangers had one of those themes I loved to sing. When I was a kid, I was a bit of an idiot savant with TV themes, able to sing many a lyric on command--further proof I watched too much TV at that time. I still recall many themes from those eras but retained nothing of trigonometry.

And now we do the Dance of Joy!

I'm knockin' and nope, I did not and thanks for mentioning Me This is gonna be a pretty good topic, I can tell Now as you know, I'm not a huge comedy guy but it's not like I don't like it...it's complicated. Anyway, Not sure if I ever knew of Three's Company. I must say Ritter looked really young and good. The women were nice looking too Gosh, Knots was in that as well This show looked ok. Congrats on your shirt

Gosh, I totally forgot about Perfect Strangers. I really never watched it though. That intro was really good. I love that scene at Wrigley, it's arguably My fave baseball stadium...really a tossup with the original Bush Stadium. I just loved the scenery of the whole area. Seeing that in that intro kinda brought that back to Me. Here is a weird trigger since you posted this, when I younger, I thought that them two guys were the two guys in American Werewolf in London. I know, its sounds weird, I thought that till I found out they weren't sometime later

Great trivia PB and excellent topic

I replied to you about your sitcom this morning. By the way, just wanted to give you the heads up that while it's not a exactly a sitcom, I updated the wrestling guest stars with WCW on Baywatch & Zeus on Matlock...just a heads up

The next sitcom had a catchy theme. It was a spinoff from Growing Pains and was part of the ABC TGIF lineup for the three seasons (the first was only 4 episodes), it aired.



I remember seeing it a few times at night, but I remember Coach Lubbock more from Growing Pains. It wasn't until a few years later when USA started airing reruns during the day that I watched it more. While I wouldn't call it anything great, it was decent enough back in more wholesome times.

Funny, unintentionally I realized all three themes posted so far were ABC shows so I need to go elsewhere. While this song had no lyrics, I'm sure we can all agree it's very catchy.



ALF (short for Alie Life Form, as if you didn't know) aired on NBC from 1986-1990 and ended with a cliffhanger that wasn't resolved until the 1996 TV movie Project: ALF which I don't think I ever saw.



Fun fact, apparently filming was so miserable that Max Wright once attacked the ALF puppet on set. It was said that the stage was hot and filming a 30 minute show sometimes took 20-25 hours due to managing the puppet. The stage had many trap doors for the puppeteers to work making it more dangerous to move about, and the cast hated working with an inanimate puppet that always had the best lines. Fun times. But the cat probably had it worse.



ALF appeared elsewhere, for two season as a Saturday Morning cartoon, as a talk show host in 2004's ALF's Hit Talk Show, and even in pog form.



Like most women, my wife is nosey, and she'll sometimes look out the window to see what the neighbors are doing so sometimes I call her Gladys Kravitz and other times I call her Mrs. Ochmonek.

I never saw the Growing pains one. I watched the intro and noticed the The Gateway Arch, yep that's classic Downtown St. Louis

Gosh, all of this Alf, that is so cool! I watched him now and then. I had no idea about that movie however Alf was a really a great example of fun 80s TV!

Great stuff PB

EDIT: That's cool about your wife

Ok, trying to give every network one show, but full disclosure, I was never a big CBS fan. Especially when it came to comedies. MASH, Alice, Newhart, Major Dad...they just weren't shows based off things that a younger kid would normally watch. I could appreciate the physical comedy of Three's Company or the zany lewdness of Night Court, not to mention all the family comedies ABC and NBC had at the time. But a comedy built around the Korean War? Not the cup of Kool Aid for a kid in the single digits of age.

I remember though there was a point when I was little that the TV in my bedroom had a busted knob so it was stuck on CBS, which wasn't ideal, but since I used it mostly to play Nintendo, it was still serviceable. But there was many a night I remember falling asleep to the theme of Falcon Crest which is basically a wannabe Dynasty. Oh, I can still here that damn majestic song in my head.

In later years I'd grow to really like shows like Alice (I still watch it on Antenna TV occasionally) and many years later CBS would do better in the comedy department with shows like The Golden Palace.



Just kidding, that show was terrible. But even a few years after that CBS debuted Everyone Loves Raymond, and that's easily a top 10 comedy for me. But it doesn't have much a of theme, so here's a show from the 80s, Kate & Allie. I can't say I always understood the show when I was young, it was the story about two divorced women who decided to live together (not like that, though NBC is making a reboot allegedly, so who knows if they'll change it then) in NY with their young children. Back then CBS made sure to show the two going to bed in separate rooms to avoid any complaints. I actually recall the theme more than actual stories, and the show was a bit unique in that the opening was just some piano and then a cold open brief random scene of Kate and Allie living the big city life. It wasn't until the show ended with the end credits that you actually got what I would consider the theme, with lyrics. And I still remember it to this day. I've always been a sucker for piano music anyway.

Great write up PB. Yeah MASH and ones like that were never My kind of shows. Actually I never knew of the Golden Palace. Looked ok though and nice theme. I know what you about "going" there. I'm sick of hollyweird shoving that down our throats among other stuff over the decade especially recently

Again, another great commentary of yours PB

Great thread! Man, I grew up watching most of these and I've actually started rewatching Perfect Strangers on DVD and honestly, most (if not all) of the episodes still hold up! The only one I didn't watch was Just the Ten of Us mostly because I don't recall it airing here at all and we had TGIF here, too.

I still find most of these very watchable except maybe ALF which I tried rewatching when it came back on TV a while back but I couldn't get into it. Maybe it's time for a revisit. And since you haven't actually posted it yet, time for Growing Pains! It had one of the catchiest themes of all time featuring the vocal talents of BJ Thomas and Jennifer Warnes (and at some point Dusty Springfield). There's also a version by Eric Carmen and Louise Mandrell that was not used for the show.

BJ Thomas Solo Season 1 Version


BJ Thomas & Jennifer Warnes Season 3 Version


BJ Thomas & Dusty Springfield Season 4 Version


Catchy Acapella Version Season 6 Version


BJ Thomas & Jennifer Warnes Final Season (7)


Growing Pains also featured a number of "before they were famous" guest spots such as Brad Pitt and Matthew Perry and even in a regular role for Leonardo DiCaprio.

***RIP Alan Thicke

I had a similar trait as packer as I used to randomly belt out themes to popular sitcoms during my elementary school days. Maybe it's some kind of disorder? I still find myself singing these tunes even now.

Hopefully you'll find time to squeeze in some of my faves. You already did Golden Girls and Perfect Strangers which are in my top 10 for sure. Can't wait for you to get to: Who's the Boss?, Step by Step, Fresh Prince of Belair, Family Ties, Family Matters, Charles in Charge, the Wonder Years and Full House.