Expository Theme Tune: Difference between revisions
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A [[Theme Tune]] which explains, fairly specifically, the premise of the show. An [[Opening Narration]] in verse. It might also throw in an [[Intro Dump]] for the central characters during the middle 10 seconds.
This was fairly standard for the early [[Sitcom]]. Later sitcoms moved away from this form in favor of the [[Thematic Theme Tune]], and then toward the [[Surreal Theme Tune]]. Today, the
Some shows might use the
This style of [[Theme Tune]] is also the most common for a [[Show Within a Show]], and is practically universal when the fictional show is meant to be mocked.
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* The ''[[Nerima Daikon Brothers]]'' opening has shades of this, but the English dub cranks it up a notch.
* The English dub of ''Amazing Three''. "''Spacemen with a mission, you must make a very big decision...''"
* The English dub of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' has a song about the title character "Fighting Evil by Moonlight" and "Winning love by daylight". It matches up... for the first season. Between having found her true love, her powers no longer being "new", and any Senshi that shows up after the first arc being left out... The original didn't have this and the song was more about
** [[Anime Theme Song
** The (undubbed) 5th season, replaces the standard opening theme, "Moonlight Densetsu", with "Sailor Star Song", which was written just for the show (the lyrics were actually written by the Mangaka of the original manga) but still isn't really this.
* The dub of ''[[Kinnikuman Nisei|Ultimate Muscle]]'' had a quite [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ac3Cr965jM catchy], but blatantly expository one. It manages to be less of a [[Spoiler Opening]] than the Japanese one, due to the increased speed of the animation making it more difficult to pick out all the characters shown.
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== Comics ==
* Despite appearing in a non-audio medium, the [[Blackhawk
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Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!'' }}
* ''[[The Guns of Navarone]]'' and ''Gun Fight at OK Corral'', both composed by Dimitri Tiomkin.
** [[The Western|Westerns]] seem to like
* Expository Theme Tunes for movies were common in the 1950s, very rare nowadays. The most famous is undoubtedly "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'" from the classic western ''[[High Noon]]'' by Dimitri Tiomkin (again) and Ned Washington, which lays out the hero's motivation and objectives while appealing to his wife to stay with him in spite of what he's about to face. Despite the line "look at that big hand move along nearin' high noon," it can hardly be called a [[Title Theme Tune]].
* The movie ''High Society'' features an opening song explaining the premise sung by [[Louis Armstrong]].
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* In ''[[Baseketball]]'', Trey Parker's character turns on the radio and listens to a song that describes his situation in absurd detail.
** "Look out ahead, there's a truck changing lanes/You've got some yellow crumbs on your upper lip..."
* "''Here come the [[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]''": [[Will Smith]] made rap songs for both ''MIB'' and ''MIIB''. They're identical in concept to
* The theme song of ''Maniac Cop 2'' is an Expository Theme ''Rap Song'', [http://www.dreadcentral.com/story/maniac-cop-remain-silent-no-longer explaining the premise of the series].
* ''[[¡Three Amigos!|Three Amigos]]''
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** The theme actually helped to get the show on the air in the first place! [[Sherwood Schwartz]] had trouble selling it to CBS because the head of the network thought it would be a pain explaining to everyone every week why they were on the island, so he wrote [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIvslFMAaew an opening song to get the point across]. It worked, but because it was a calypso and the show [[Did Not Do the Research|was set in the Pacific]], it was drastically changed for the series...
* ''[[The Nanny]]'', in a deliberate retro spoof of 1960s shows ("... That's how she became The Nanny...")
* ''[[The Dukes of Hazzard]]''
* The ''[[Knight Rider]]'' intro explains who David Hasselhoff's Michael Night is. Arguably, it fits more in the [[Theme Tune Roll Call]] trope, except only one character is introduced.
* ''[[Small Wonder]]''
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retreat and reversed it to victory...'' }}
* The first two seasons of ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' do this after the theme, which was disguised as a distress call describing the situation.
** The closing theme was originally meant to be an
* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAYPNF4aIf0 theme] to the McLean Stevenson sitcom ''Hello Larry'' is a hilariously clumsy attempt at this trope. It almost sounds like the producers just walked into the recording studio and handed the singer a copy of the pitch they gave the network, then told him to improvise a melody, change everything to second person and toss in some rhymes here and there. Not to mention the wonderfully [[
* ''Here Come the Double Deckers''
* Parodied in ''The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo'' whose theme song raves on about how brave and selfless the sheriff is (though we know he's actually greedy and incompetent) played over a montage of the disasters Lobo and his men cause. It ends with Sheriff Lobo, who's been striding down a line of deputies standing by their patrol cars, calling "Move 'em out!" whereupon they all drive off at the same time causing one big pile-up.
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* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3UNOEWBDN8 Headdy the Hero] in ''[[Dynamite Headdy]]'' qualifies as this.
* ''[[The Wonderful End of the World]]'' does this with the menu music.
* ''[[Brütal Legend|Brutal Legend]]'' shows
* In part, Chris Ballew's "Get Together" from ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Baseball 2007]]''.
* ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' for the song ''Otherworld''. "An Other-world awaits you", "and you will fight, fight, fight... fight, fight, FIGHT", "Go now, into the sand and dust in the sky, go, for it is better to do than to die".
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* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987]]'': "''When the evil Shredder attacks, These turtle boys don't cut him no slack!" and "[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Turtles]] / Ninjitsu action / Turtles / It's a [[Unusual Euphemism|shell]] of a town!''"
** Also both of the direct sequels to the 2000 series, ''Fast Forward'' and ''Back to the Sewer'', have this.
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'': "''Yo Danny Fenton he was just fourteen/when his parents built a very strange machine...''"
* ''[[O'Grady]]''
* ''[[Clone High]]'': "''Way way back in the 1980s / secret government employees / Dug up famous guys and ladies / and made amusing genetic copies...''"
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George, George, George of the Jungle!<br />
Friend to you and me! }}
** The other segments in the show had 'em
* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'': "''When there's trouble you know who to call/Teen Titans!''"
** According to the first season DVD bonus features, Glen Murakami ([[A Mere Servant Of God|I]] believe) lamented the fact that "cartoons don't have theme songs nowadays" like "''[[The Brady Bunch]]'' or ''[[The Partridge Family]]''" and actually set out to make sure ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' would. So there you go.
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Leapin' up with no surprise
Arrivin' in the speed of time.'' }}
* The barely-animated ''Marvel Super Heroes'' cartoons of 1967 had
** "''[[Iron Man|Tony Stark]] makes you feel/He's a cool exec with a heart of steel...''"
** "''Doc [[Incredible Hulk|Bruce Banner]]/Pelted by Gamma Rays/ changes to the Hulk/Ain't he unglamorous?''" They actually manage to ALMOST make "Gamma" rhyme with "Banner", while making "unglamorous" rhyme with "Gamma Rays" ''at the same time.''
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* ''[[Cro]]'', one of the few theme songs to admit, however euphemistically, that most of the characters had been dead since the late Stone Age and were being remembered by a [[Human Popsicle|Talking Mammoth Popsicle]].
** Cro was a smart boy, he had a lot on the ball. But the family that took him in was total Neanderthal.
* ''[[Conan the Adventurer (animation)|Conan the Adventurer]]'', in between [[Badass Boast
* ''[[Word Girl]]'' had a theme song about the characters of the show and such.
* "''He's a Superdog / He's a Superhero / He came to Earth from outer space / And his name is [[Krypto the Superdog (animation)|Krypto the Superdog]].''"
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There's a family by a landfill with hazardous foam
In their happy glowing home! }}
* Do fake products count? If so, an in-universe example comes from ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show]]'': ''It's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP0kWqJJZa4 lo[[og
* ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]''
{{quote|Five o'clock, get a call to go blading at the skate park down by the mall
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