Live-Action TV/Awesome Music

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of awesome music in live action shows.

If any of these shows have an OST out, do yourself a favor and buy it.

Please don't introduce new examples by complaining that they're missing from the list. Once you add them, they won't be missing any more.



Mike Post


Buffy-Verse

  • Christophe Beck's music for Buffy the Vampire Slayer was beautiful, although it was Rob Duncan who scored the final episodes. They also had awesome song choices: Michelle Branch's "Goodbye To You" used in conjunction with Giles and Tara leaving at the end of Tabula Rasa, Sarah McLachlan's "Full Of Grace" at the end of "Becoming Part 2", Aimee Mann's "Pavlov's Bell" in "Sleeper", and Angie Hart's "Blue" in "Conversations With Dead People" were all awesome, awesome, awesome.
    • Many of Beck's individual scores are simply amazing such as Close Your Eyes used throughout Season 2 and coined as the Buffy/Angel Love Theme for good reason, Slayer's Elegy from Season 3, and Sacrifice from Season 5's "The Gift."
    • The Final Fight has been used in commercials unrelated to Buffy as well.
    • Darling Violetta's theme tune for Angel was amazing (especially the extended version), and the music used in that series was pretty neat too. The Kim Richey song "A Place Called Home" used over the montage of Fred being remembered at the end of "Shells" is also beautiful and heartbreaking.
    • The most awesome Musical Episode ever, "Once More, with Feeling." Specifically, "Rest In Peace," "Under Your Spell," "What You Feel," and "Walk Through the Fire."
    • All beaten out by Giles singing the "Exposition Song" in "Restless".
    • The music during the final battle in "Chosen" was truly epic.
    • "Passion". Giles walking up the stairs to what he thinks is going to be a romantic tryst with Jenny, only to find her corpse in the bedroom. All the while a beautiful rendition of "O soave fanciulla" from Puccini's "La Bohème" plays, one of the all time great love songs.
    • Get ready to weep copiously whenever 'Remembering Jenny' is played.
    • The 'Danse Macabre' in "Hush"? Creepy sinister music for the creepiest, most sinister episode of the show?
    • Sarah McLachlan's "Prayer of St. Francis" playing over the scenes of Buffy and Dawn crawling out of the grave and Willow and Xander up on the hilltop in "Grave".
    • The music playing right at the end of Smashed is stunning.
    • The Suite from "Hush".
    • How awesome is Beck's music? He'd left the show by season five, but they brought him back to score the final WB episode "The Gift."
    • This is all helped by the fact that both James Marsters and Anthony Stewart Head are talented musicians in their own right. This makes James Marsters' solo "Rest in Peace" all the more awesome.


Chuck

  • The opening song to Chuck.
    • That'd be some Cake there--"Short Skirt/Long Jacket", a song that only gets more epic once you've heard the whole thing.
    • The music that's used when they first discover Bryce is alive.
    • Or how about Twisted Sister's "We're not gonna take it anymore" when the employees rampage through the Buy More and Team Chuck is invading Fulcrum in "Chuck vs The First Kill." Doesn't get more awesome than that.
    • Halfway through the season 2 finale, "Chuck vs. The Ring", a firefight of epic proportions between Team Chuck and Evil!Chevy Chase is only make more awesome by the musical accompanyment, a live performance of Mr. Roboto by Jeffster. Just... yeah. Just watch.
    • Two words... Cobra Style.
    • The use of Crooked Fingers' "Luisa's Bones" in "Chuck vs. the Dream Job" perfectly underscores the scene's mix of mystery, intensity, and sheer badassery as Chuck figures out Roarke's plans and resolves to go after him on his own.
    • In "Chuck vs. the Suburbs," Chuck's introduction to the fake "American dream" life the CIA has created for his and Sarah's latest cover is accompanied by Talking Heads' "Once In A Lifetime." The music fades out shortly after "And you may say to yourself/'This is not my beautiful house/This is not my beautiful wife!'"
    • Any time Frightened Rabbit is used (which is a few times, Josh Schwartz is clearly a fan), particularly "Backwards Walk" when Chuck leaves Sarah in Prague in the season 3 opener, and probably the best example (in early-ish season 2): "Keep Yourself Warm", when Chuck is with Jill as Casey and Sarah find out who she really is. Truly awesome music used absolutely perfectly.
    • Arguably any song performed by Jeffster. Has to count as this as well as a Crowning Moment of Funny, such as their cover of Africa.
    • The song that seems to be the theme for the Ring in season three. It's simply called The Dark Side.
    • Chuck and Sarah's theme, apparently called "A Question and an Answer" is absolutely lovely.
    • The last three minutes of "Chuck Versus the Push Mix", in which Ellie gives birth to her baby, Alex and Casey reassure each other that they are both in each other's lives to stay, and Chuck, having defeated Volkoff and put his family back together, finally proposes to Sarah, is such a joyful scene for every single one of them, and that sense of jubilation is perfectly underscored by the use of "Young Blood" by The Naked and Famous.

Firefly

  • The Firefly soundtrack. Specifically, the legendary intro.
    • And the unbelievably beautiful and sad music during the funeral at the end of "The Message".
    • Even more so when you know that the composer was afraid it was too sad, because he wrote it to mourn the death of the series.
    • Ditto in "Safe", where Simon is prepared to die with his sister.
    • The Hero of Canton, the man they call Jaaaaaayne!
    • And the theme for Jubal Early, aka the Evil Oboe of Evilness from "Objects In Space".
    • The wonderfully upbeat village dance music during River's dance scene both highlighted one of River's first true moments of lucidity and happiness as well as providing great background for the simultaneous gunbattle. Its one of the best parts of the show and gives the viewer the feeling of the Firefly universe in one minute-long scene. Oh, and it gives us an awesome pun: Riverdance. And Simon's proud look.
    • Inara's theme is peaceful, elegant, and incredibly gorgeous.
    • In "The Train Job" when Mal, Zoe and Jayne are in a bar fight and they pull out a gun on the crew and then Wash comes and saves them with Serenity. Greatest entrance ever.
    • Also "River's Perception / Saffron", the first part of which is a perfect representation of the show's resident Ophelia and the second part is a spot-on character theme for the titular Manipulative Bitch.
  • The introductory scene of the Reavers gives us this. And it is awesomely menacing as you see that first Reaver ship in the series loom up out of nowhere.


Life On Mars/Ashes to Ashes

  • Pick a soundtrack choice from Life On Mars or Ashes to Ashes, nearly any soundtrack choice from Life on Mars or Ashes to Ashes, but these two deserve special mention.
    • The use of the title song in the finale of Life On Mars is a bittersweet example of CMOA.
    • The use of Bowie's "The Jean Genie" in 1x04 (with Sam and Gene dancing in the club) and Clapton's "Crossroads" in 2x07 (where Sam and Gene escape from Chris and Ray).
    • Can we get some love for "Vienna" by Ultravox in A2A 1x06? ("This means nothing to meeeeeee!")
    • As well as the ending to A2A 1x08, using Supertramp's "Take The Long Way Home".
    • A2A 2x02 has the first appearance of a song many fans were waiting for: "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. The lights in CID going out as Gene exits to the drum solo is just the icing on the cake.
    • In Ep. 1 of season 3 we have Alex's fantasy of Gene in a car chase set to "Ride of the Valkyries".
    • The riot scene in 3x06, set to U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday".
    • 3x08's music choices: MJ's "Beat It", Wham!'s "Club Tropicana", Vangelis' "Chariots of Fire", and David Bowie's "Heroes". As well as the brief, apropos reprise of "In the Air Tonight".
  • While the opening theme to Ashes to Ashes is excedingly epic, this Tear Jerker piece of music is just... wow.


Scrubs


Supernatural


Lost

  • Lost: One of Losts most famous usages of non-original music was "Make Your Own Kind of Music" in the season 2 premiere, in which Desmond plays it in the hatch during the opening scene.
    • The opening of season 2, after we see Desmond in the hatch going about a normal life. After an explosion interrupts him, he uses a series of mirrors to look further and further through the complex. His gaze continues up a shaft to the faces of none other than our heroes throughout the first season, on the island.
    • Season 3, "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead:" Hurley and Charlie are trying to jumpstart a van by rolling it down a hill and popping the clutch. Just as they are about to crash into some big rocks, the engine fires up, and the car's tape deck starts playing "Shambala"
    • John Locke's second theme, which appears often during his flashbacks, is a fantastic, emotional piece that accurately portrays how far he's come.
    • The music from Exodus is stunning, especially over the saying goodbye montage in the episode.
    • Similarly Ben's theme, known as "Dharmacide" is almost perfect in representing Ben. There's the sinister first part, the tragic second part and a sort of mixing together for the thrid. Pure bliss. Also the S5 Ben centric version is even better
    • Jacob's wonderfully mysterious theme from The Incident, which goes with the opening scene perfectly.
    • "Hollywood and Vines", aka the "setting off" theme as it always plays when a group is going off to explore the jungle and has an air of adventure and mystery about it.
    • The haunting "Ocean's Apart", which plays at the end of "Stranger in a Strange Land," and is the only good thing about the episode. It serves as Juliet's character theme. Especially in The Incident when they combine the "Ocean's Apart" theme with the frantic strings and the "Life and Death" theme while Juliet is being pulled down into the Swan. Hauntingly poignant.
    • Desmond's theme, anyone? It most famously plays as he calls Penny in The Constant. It can be seen/heard in that context here.
    • The medley of themes from the final scene of the show as the various characters meet up in the afterlife and Jack dies peacefully on the island is a guaranteed tearjerker. 'Moving On'. You will be bawling by the seven minute mark.
  • The theme that frequently plays when important characters die or during other emotional moment is "Life and Death." Used when Jack resuscitates Charlie, when Shannon learns about Boone's death, when the passengers get onboard Flight 815 in the flashback in "Exodus, Part 2," when Charlie dies, when Sun brings Ji-Yeon to Jin's grave, when Juliet dies, when Sun and Jin dies, and when Jack 'remembers' his life on the island, among other moments.


Power Rangers and Super Sentai


Kamen Rider

The Ultra Series

Star Trek

  • Star Trek: The Original Series is a treasure trove of wonderfully over-the-top music, starting with the main theme.
    • The tense music in the closing moments of the Star Trek: The Original Series episode The Doomsday Machine is kickass, as is the swirling arrangement of the main theme used at the beginning of the teaser.
    • Vina's Dance. The original anthem for the Green-Skinned Space Babe.
    • Gerald Fried's brooding cello theme first heard in "Amok Time" (also played on electric guitar) does as much as anything else in defining the character of Spock. The iconic "Kirk Fight Music" was composed for the same episode and is probably the second most famous music cue for the series, after the main theme itself, having poppoed up in numerous other media.
    • Any episode scored by George Duning (e.g. "The Empath"). In fact, it can be argued that what salvages the generally weak third season is the lush, mystical music contributed both by Duning and primary composer Fred Steiner (whose eerie score for "Spock's Brain" is so much better than the episode itself it's almost tragic).
  • All the fan hate aside, "Faith of the Heart" (the Star Trek: Enterprise theme song) is a brilliant song.
  • Ron Jones's score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation epic "The Best of Both Worlds" is some of the best Trek music ever composed.
    • The Star Trek: The Next Generation main theme. Which is originally the theme to Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
    • The moment when Picard says "magnify" cues the creepiest, most-spine-chilling music ever heard in a Star Trek production. Gene Roddenberry's dream, say hello to George Orwell's nightmare. And it will never be topped...ever: they even made Wesley just another character who you'd pity if he was Assimilated Into The Hive Mind.
    • Ron Jones Needs More Love.
    • "Mister Worf. Fire." Add in the fan rumors that Patrick Stewart was looking to leave the show at the time, and you had one of the biggest "Oh, shit is ON!" moments of all time. (They completely torpedoed it at the start of the second half, but... there's a reason it's called the best cliffhanger of the series.)
    • One of the most touching episodes of TNG, "The Inner Light", has a beautiful flute score composed by Jay Chattaway. The music by itself is almost enough to make you cry on its own, but when combined with the story, it's overwhelming. A fan-created 40th anniversary tribute video used the "Inner Light" music very effectively.
    • "Picard Song".
  • The (first) DS9 (here) and Voyager (here) themes are contemplative yet memorable. As a matter of fact, they won the 1993 and 1995 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music, respectively.

Sports


News and Weather Programs

  • Even for a news show, Meet The Press has some pretty awesome opening music. It was composed by John muthaflippin' Williams. Yes, the same guy responsible for the music for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Superman, and a bazillion other awesome soundtracks. And the preposterously awesome theme for the NBC Nightly News.
    • Speaking of news themes, the old Wall Street Week theme was pretty badass for a show about money.
    • Where's the love for Philadelphia-based WPVI's theme song for Action News, called "Move Closer to Your World"? It's been used since the 1970s, with some updates here and there, and is still used to this day.
    • BBC News's kickass 1999 music, by David Lowe, who has done newer themes for them, still with the "countdown" motif. Yes.
    • For those of us who find the current BBC News themes too frivolous and/or ravey, the 90s versions are reminders of a simpler time, when news was serious shit.
    • Back to American network news, ABC's World News Tonight theme:
    • Another local news example: the closing theme used by KUSA in Denver from 1995-2009, at which time they unfortunately replaced it with another theme.
    • Yet another local news example: "The Spirit of Virginia", a song WSLS used officially from about 1990 to 1995, and continued to use in bumpers and station ID's up to its purchase by Media General and its revamp to its current format around April 1997. By the way, WSLS is an NBC station, AKA "The John Williams Channel" (as was previously mentioned).
    • Now, everyone might have heard Lalo Schifrin's "The Tar Sequence" under the Film section from Cool Hand Luke and how it became the theme song for the Eyewitness News format used in ABC Stations nationwide. At first they used it wholesale from 1968 to 1982. And then in 1983 Frank Gari remixed it (including a Texas custom version). The News Series 2000 package by Gari became widespread until Lalo Schifrin raised the royalites, forcing Gari and company to Jimmy Hart the new theme into Eyewitness News package. This theme was used until around 2008 when it updated to the New Generation theme.
    • Frank Gari's son, Chris, did an update of the package in 2005 for KABC in Los Angeles. The closing theme of Eyewitness News New Generation 1 is truly awesome.
  • This might be stretching it a bit, but The Weather Channel has some awesome "local forecast" music nowadays. For instance, there's nothing better than hearing the first minute and a half of the Home Alone theme while watching snow head towards your hometown on Doppler radar.
    • One of their forecasts was accompanied by the theme from Charlie Brown.
    • The Jurassic Park theme once played on TWC. Made a high of 43 with a light breeze sound incredibly epic, and slightly scary.
    • A local weather forecast (tracking thunderstorms, among other things) was once set to the "Solar Sailer" track of Tron: Legacy.
  • The Nightly Business Report theme, composed by Edd Kalehoff, who also did the themes to the aforementioned ABC, The Price Is Right, and Double Dare. Especially the second and third versions.
  • Channel 4 News has had the same theme music for most of it's existance. And It Is Pretty Damn Awesome.


Reality, Game and Talk Shows


Other Awesome Music

  • For starters, George Thorogood's "Bad to the Bone" as a theme song for Al Bundy's Crowning Moments of Awesome, the ones where a bone is thrown to him.
  • Chrissie Hyndes version of Angel of the Morning in season 2 of Friends
  • The theme song from the "1975 T.V Show S.W.A.T.".
  • Music from the original miniseries V, and V: The Final Battle. Especially the opening themes for both.
  • The second opening credit theme for White Collar—it's halfway through rock and funk and fits the tone of the series perfectly.
  • The soundtrack to 24
    • "Alexis' Theme".
    • "Palmer's Theme" takes on greater significance especially since a certain Senator from Illinois became Commander-In-Chief. There's greater significance in it when its main motif was reprised over Palmer's wake near the end of Season 5--at the same time that Jack Bauer and CTU were collecting evidence against then-current President Logan. It was the greatest combination of Tear Jerker and almost sadistic irony that he's ever seen.
  • Even if you aren't a fan of LazyTown, you might have heard some of their infamous songs. You are a Pirate and Cooking by the Book are easily the most well-known amongst internet-goers.
  • Cold Case. Sample a little of its CMOA here.
  • In Farscape, when Talyn sacrifices himself to destroy Scorpius's command carrier, the music for the ship's destruction is truly awesome.
    • Further, the music when John and Aeryn's baby is born in The Peacekeeper Wars is so over-the-top you'd think it was the third coming of Christ. (The second? Jim Belushi.) Then again, the odds of that kid getting conceived, let alone surviving to birth, were pretty astronomical. He earned that overture.
    • Really, Farscape's opening themes are among the best idea of what the show is about. Somehow they combine cheesy sci-fi with weird-as-hell crazy awesome.
    • When the music swelled during the explosion of the Gammac Base in the Season one finale.
  • The theme tune to Airwolf. Hell yeah.
  • The haunting opening theme to Forever Knight. Heck, a lot of the other music too.
  • The Brunnen-G's song from Lexx, sung when going into battle expecting to die. You can see on Joost - There are whole episodes to watch! here
    • The fact that a soundtrack for the episode "Brigadoom" (the musical ep) has not been released is criminal.
  • The intro song to Jack of All Trades. For obvious reasons, whenever Bruce Campbell gets a theme song it ends up awesome.
  • It's only fitting that a miniseries that is made of pure win should have an awesome title theme. Sleazy yet spine-chilling, The opening to I, Claudius fits the bill rather nicely... and that snake!
  • Ultraman Nexus opens every episode with DOA's Eiyuu, which is even more epic at full-length.
  • The Wire barely ever had a score at all, so each season's opening credit sequence and each season finale's closing montage had to make up for this. Be warned, each montage contains massive spoilers for the season.
  • The Band of Brothers intro. Just goes to show that you can have AMAZING war music without breaking out the heavy drums.
    • But you still got to have the Horns of Heroism, though.
    • The use of "Blood on the Risers" in "Why We Fight" was pretty awesome. Also, so much of an Ear Worm.
  • Jan Hammer's KickAss theme to Miami Vice.
    • Miami Vice did it so often it could've been a trope namer. But some standouts are
      • Phil Collins "In The Air Tonight" from the pilot episode
      • Russ Ballard's "Voices"
      • Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do With It?"
      • Laura Brannigan's "Self Control"
      • Dire Straits' "Brothers In Arms"
  • "Got Yourself a Gun" by Alabama 3, as seen in The Sopranos.
  • The Heroes theme.
    • The rest of the show's soundtrack is low-key, but very nice though.
    • The climax of the episode "Company Man" when Claire is trying to get closer to an uncontrollable Ted Sprague, and we see parts of the house burn down. Chilling and gorgeous music plays in the background, which eventually silences all the destruction and mayhem happening. A true CMOA if there ever was one.
    • Anything involving Sylar's theme, usually played on church bells. Towards the end of "Trust and Blood", Peter explains to other heroes they are fugitives now, and an omnious rock tune starts playing in the background. In the next scene, Sylar and Luke are driving a car, the music continues and segues into the Sylar theme. This rock version of Sylar theme, even if it lasted only a few seconds, was a true CMOA.
    • The music playing during "Nathan's" suicide in The Fifth Stage. And the music playing during his funeral in Upon This Rock. ... In fact, a lot of fans of the character were annoyed that he didn't get his own theme when even Maya got one.
  • Babylon 5 started off with pretty cheesy music. But they kept the same composer, and he grew the beard along with the rest of the crew. The third season opening was damned good... and then there's the series finale, one of the most heartbreaking pieces of music ever.
    • Season 5's theme qualifies as well... that tune combined with the quotes outlining the past 4 seasons in 20 seconds. Fantastic.
    • "I went to the rock to hide my face, and the rock cried out 'No Hiding Place'. There's no hiding place down here..."
    • One of the scenes frequently mentioned as an Awesome Moment in Babylon 5 is when Londo is watching, utterly repelled, as the Centauri fleet uses Mass Drivers to pound the Narn homeworld into the stone age. One of the reasons this scene is so poignant is because of the music—an almost-unrecognizable variation on Franke's Battle of the Line theme.
    • Londo seems to attract a lot of Crowning Music; in the In the Beginning prequel telemovie, when he narrates about the Earth-Minbari War, he is accompanied by some of the most tragically heroic bagpipe music you've ever, ever heard.
  • Stargate Atlantis, "Beyond the Night", as sung by Teyla.
  • Stargate SG-1 brings us Camelot, from the episode of the same name, played over the Battle of the Supergate.
    • Stargate Atlantis also brings us this awesome battle theme.
  • Stargate Universe has a funny, and touching use of 'The Worst Day Since Yesterday'.
  • This bit from the Japanese talent show Kasou Taishou.
  • Jeff Beal's magnificent music for Rome, which manages to sound plausibly ancient and yet seductive at the same time. Highlights include the percussive title theme, the Egyptian remix of same, and the deviously catchy "Janus Breaks".
  • Jeff Beal's brilliant work on Carnivale. The opening credits are the most gorgeous blend of art and music ever, and nearly every episode has Beal's beautiful original music in it.
    • "The Battle Is Not Over", which plays over the very end of the season 2 finale. The opening music for Carnivale is actually by Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman (Tim Kring's composers of choice). It is, however, indeed wonderful.
  • Part of The OC 's popularity stemmed from its brilliant soundtrack choices. For some, it ended up being a Gateway Series into indie music. A very considerate person on Youtube has thoughtfully culled the most memorable CMOAs from The OC onto one channel. The song "Dice", used in the New Year's Eve episode, is particularly sublime.
  • Life is uniformly kick-ass with its musical choices, but the best remains the scene in the first season finale, after Charlie's car gets T-boned and he shoots the two fake cops, when he climbs out of the wreckage to "Down Boy" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, while the sun sets and the traffic light changes in the distance. Fabulous song, beautifully shot, emotional gut-punch. Also, the use of The Frames' "Finally" in the near-to-last scene of that episode, when he, Reese, and Stark bring Kyle Hollis into the precinct—a nice full-circle with the use of their song "Dream Awake" at the end of the pilot.
    • What was the other song in the 'climbing out of the wrecked car/shooting the fake cops' scene?'
      • The alternate song, used in the DVD set and the streaming video on NBC's website, is "No Time Left" by Gush. All of the music from Life, both original and alternate, is listed on on this site.
    • There's a really nice use of Priscilla Ahn's Dream when Charlie finally finds Rachel and carries her out into the sunlight.
  • The opening theme for the HBO miniseries John Adams, by Rob Lane, is pure Patriotic Fervor, minus the Eagle Land, in a fiddle solo. While mentioning John Adams, there is also the cue called "Declaration of Independence", which manages to go from triumphant to intimate to epic.
  • The theme song to The Office (US).
  • Parallax. They made the Australian national anthem into one of the most stirring pieces of music ever. Although...
  • "My Lovely Horse" from Father Ted and, to a lesser extent, Dick Byrne's "losing" Eurosong entry from the same episode.
  • The opening theme for House.
  • IT'S... Monty Python's Flying Circus. It sounds like it was written for the show, and is nearly impossible to find a copy without the trademark raspberry at the end. It is actually the Liberty Bell March, written by John Philip Sousa, used both for its bright, energetic sound, and because they didn't have to pay royalties on it.
  • Turn the World Around on The Muppet Show. Could be considered one of the CMoAs of the show as well.
  • Dexter's main theme is Affably Evil incarnate, an effect only cranked up to 11 when combined with the visuals.
    • Hide Your Tears is a wonderful example of the genius that is the "Dexter" soundtrack.
    • Blood Theme is pretty good, too.
    • Trinity Suite is extremely creepy. If only Trinity's theme and Dexter's theme were playing during their showdown. "Hello, Dexter Morgan."
  • In the episode "Judas On A Pole" of Bones, Max Keenan's big damn Papa Wolf moment is backed by Placebo's cover of Running Up That Hill.
    • "A Pain That I'm Used To", by Depeche Mode in the Bones episode "Two Bodies in the Lab" fits. Besides being a great song, the way it was set was perfect.
    • "Bring on the Wonder" by Susan Enan, used in the episode "The Boy in the Shroud". It can be found here.
  • The theme to The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. So awesome, they just HAVE to use it for the Olympic Games coverage on NBC!
  • The Knight Rider theme. It was so awesome that people felt they needed to sample it.
  • The theme to CHiPs must have Took a Level in Badass, it's so mind-blowingly awesome. (Oh, wait - it did.)
  • The Simon & Simon theme. Rocks your socks off.
  • The title theme for Randall and Hopkirk Deceased is delicious.
  • Theme song from Malcolm in the Middle by They Might Be Giants. Also Dewey's Opera.
  • "The History Of Everything" by the Barenaked Ladies. Better known as the theme song from The Big Bang Theory.
    • The full version that the band played to open the show's panel at Comic Con turned the epicness up to 11. As if the fact that they showed up period wasn't epic enough! There's a clip somewhere where Simon Helberg said the accordian solo made him cry with joy.
    • "You Can Be My Yoko Ono" being used in the episode where Sheldon had a lady friend (for lack of a better word) who wouldn't let him out the apartment for anything except work. So fitting for the montage and so awesome!
  • The theme song from Rawhide.
  • Wiseguy: Nights in White Satin playing on the jukebox at the conclusion of the Sonny Steelgrave arc. The Dead Dog Records arc had some good music too, for obvious reasons.
  • Both ALF themes, especially the 1988 saxophone version: This.
  • The National Geographic Specials won't be complete without its theme composed by the great Elmer Bernstein.
  • Bryan Tyler's soundtracks to the Sci Fi... sorry, Syfy... Channel's Dune and Children of Dune are TV Tropes Made of Win Archive, but Summon The Worms is surely one of the best tracks EVER. See if you can count how many other movie trailers have used the first minute or so for their music.
  • The Diff'rent Strokes main theme. "'Cause what's right for you / May not be right for some...".
  • Finland's entry to the 2006 Eurovision song contest, none other than Lordi's Hard Rock Hallelujah. This won by the biggest margin to date; the record has since been surpassed by Norway, but it took a change in voting procedure to bring about that result.
  • "They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky. They're all together ooky, The Addams Family." * SNAP* * SNAP*
  • The miniseries From the Earth to the Moon had more than its fair share of awesome music, including the intro music and when Neil Armstrong steps onto the Moon.
  • The theme music for The West Wing. Performed live for your listening pleasure.
    • "Brothers in Arms", the time Charlie runs out in the rain with Bartlet's coat and the guitar kicks in. And the power walking.
    • Josh, Sam, CJ, and Toby welcoming Ainsley to the team with Gilbert and Sullivan posters and a rendition of "He is an Englishman".
    • And the military funeral of a homeless vet juxtaposed with The Little Drummer Boy. The West Wing was always fabulous with song juxtaposition.
    • The lead-in to the theme tune in the episode "25", which was helped by brilliant cinematography. Bartlet finds out that Zoey has been kidnapped and he immediately drops the photos of her he's been sorting and his glass of scotch. He then glances at Abbey, and as the background music crescendos, the camera zooms in on one of the pictures. The entire sequence takes twenty seconds, but it's a brilliant 20 seconds.
    • The Jackal as performed by C.J.
    • The bit towards the end of "20 Hours in America, Part II", where the staff find out that a pipe bomb has been set off in a university sports facility and Bartlet gives a beautiful and moving speech written on the fly by Sam, and all accompanied by the Tori Amos cover of "I Don't Like Mondays".
    • The use of Massive Attack's "Angel" at the end of "Commencement". It's the perfect balance of creepy, tense and trippy as Zoey realises she's been drugged and then her Secret Service detail realise she's missing, and the repetition of "Love you, love you, love you" as Amy questions Donna's feelings for Josh.
    • The scene in "Noel" where Stanley pushes Josh to tell him how he really cut his hand and it's shown that music is making him relive the shooting. It's an amazing scene, if more than a little heartbreaking, and the music that helps make it so great?

Josh: It was the Bach G Major.
Stanley: Did he play it well?
Josh: It was Yo-Yo Ma.

  • The theme music from Seven Days. Just listen to it! It got a slight upgrade in Season 3 if you ignore Parker's naff narration.
  • {Ideal}: has plenty of good examples, but the musical segments Jenny hallucinates, the karaoke at the end of the Christmas episode, and Psycho Paul's theme are among the best.
  • The Sarah Connor Chronicles is another (excellent) Bear McCreary project, but the few instances where licensed music is used are epic, particularly Johnny Cash's "When The Man Comes Around" and Shirley Manson's version of "Samson and Delilah," both over slow motion action scenes.
  • The Pushing Daisies Instrumental Theme Tune, along with the "danger music" that shows up in some episodes (the one that sounds like Ominous Latin Chanting). And the several Leitmotifs and any time Aunt Vivian and/or Olive sings.
  • The grandiose, ominous, occult-sounding music whenever something grandiose, ominous and occult happens in Bortko's television series of The Master and Margarita.
  • The Kids in The Hall's groovy, surf-rock theme tune Having an Average Weekend
  • Though the show itself is simply stupid-yet-fun in retrospect (with the ratio of stupid to fun varying by episode), the original music composed for The Sentinel kind of rocks in its own right; check out the "Red Dust Suite" and the '97/'98 end theme in particular.
  • At the end of the 2008 series of Good News Week, Paul McDermott sang a touching, melancholy rendition of a certain popular song reflecting on the nature of the news of the year. That song? I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry. See it here, with the joke spoiled. Around the chorus, it becomes awesome. Incidentally, this is also a Crowning Moment of Funny.
    • Also, this cover of Oops I Did It Again, where halfway through the song becomes a hard rock song. At the end, Paul's screaming is a thing of beauty.
    • At the end of 2009, Paul, Tim Ferguson, Joseph Tawadros and Tripod played an original song, Oh, My Stars. It's a serious and beautiful song.
  • Dollhouse features Greg Laswell's "Sweet Dream" at the end of Man Of The Street (also, every bit of the sweet but depressing lyrics is a ridiculously perfect fit for the situation depicted in the scene), the song "Lonely Ghosts" by O+S in the episode Needs, and Beck's "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime" to finish off Omega, with the bonus that it was also prominently used in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which has a premise similar to the one for Dollhouse. Finally, there's "Remains," written by show writers Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon, used at the end of Epitaph One.
    • "What You Don't Know" by Jonatha Brooke is pretty brilliant, as well as being a Grade A Ear Worm.
    • The series finale "Epitaph Two: Return" concludes with Lissie's "Everywhere I Go."
  • Ken Burns is known for the meticulous selection of the soundtracks for his documentaries, but nothing quite matches "Ashokan Farewell" from The Civil War.
  • Skins and As If both have unbelievably awesome soundtracks. Skins's peak is probably Glasvegas' epic "It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry", from the ending of Katie And Emily in series 3.
    • Or possibly at the end of series 1, where Sid, Chris, Angie, a bus driver and the comatose Tony start singing Cat Steven's Wild World.
    • Dinosaur Jr.'s "Said The People" at the end of Series 4 episode "Emily" where Emily walks back into Naomi's house to, presumably, make up with her for cheating displays the angst of the moment perfectly.
    • MGMT's "Time to Pretend" during the very last shot of the Series 2 finale, where Effy smiles into the camera, essentially ascending to her throne as main character of the next generation. Epic.
  • The diabolically fun "Funeral March of the Marionettes", also known as the theme from Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Goood eeeevning, ladies and gentlemen...., along with the shadowy visuals, one of the best openings ever.
  • The theme from Inspector Morse is just beautifully haunting. The Genius Bonus—the rythym of the violins spells out the Inspector's name in... wait for it... Morse code.
  • Mark Snow. The X-Files. Because whistling is always scary.
    • Also, the music that was playing during ghostly children scenes in "Closure, part 2."
      • The music you refer to that scene in "Closure, Part 2" was actually by Moby—it was "My Weakness," off his album PLAY. At the time of filming, PLAY was on its way to becoming a hit, mainly because Moby gave lots of shows carte blanche in using the tracks for anything (trailers for episodes of PARTY OF FIVE, incidental music for BUFFY, car ads, etc.). Another X-Files episode to use Moby's work was the Gillian Anderson-directed "all things", which used "The Sky Is Breaking."
    • Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand" for the Mulder/Barry chase up the ski lift in "Ascension".
    • Soul Coughing's "Unmarked Helicopters", which shows up in "Max".
    • There were also two excellent CD's, "Songs in the Key of X" and the soundtrack of the film.
  • The Russian TV miniseries Seventeen Moments of Spring has two awesome songs: Moments and Somewhere Far Away.
  • Several songs from The Mighty Boosh could qualify as awesome songs, and categorizing them as either merely "awesome" and Crazy Awesome is a bit of a challenge. But the Tundra Rap and Mod Wolves dance are pretty ear-catching.
  • The Trouble With Mr. Bean began with Mr. Bean himself waking up late, realises that he's running late for his appointment with the dentist, and decides to get dressed and brush his teeth while driving to the appointment... all while an awesome remix of the show's theme song plays. Have a listen here.
  • The opening episode of the sixth season of Charmed, "Valhalley of the Dolls", included a wonderful mix of Crowning Music of Awesome, Crowning Moment of Awesome, and Crowning Moment of Funny all at once: the leather-clad, biker-chick Valkyries riding their motorcycles to a kick-ass, rockified version of Ride of the Valkyries. Updating Wagner never sounded so good.
  • The HBO Miniseries adaptation of Angels in America has a score written by Thomas Newman. Had this music been nominated, the show's 11 Emmy wins would have been 12.
  • The Season 2 finale of Grey's Anatomy had the amazing song Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol playing at the end, with the chorus beginning as Izzie breaks down lying next to Denny... The song also became a huge hit after appearing in this episode.
  • The Tudors title theme is just amazingly beautiful.
    • As is the theme "Anne's Final Walk", which plays when Anne Boleyn is executed. This one is haunting as anything - appropriate, isn't it? Here
  • The Theme from the BBC Documentary Series, written by George Fenton, is just... ah, just Listen to it.
  • The "Theme From Red Dwarf". It segues from your ordinary sci-fi spaced-out theme to the most over-the-top rock and roll craziness imaginable. Pity the full thing was rarely shown on the show.
    • "Tongue-tied" manages to be Music of Awesome and Crowning music of Funny! And, wow, can John-Jules strut!
    • The episode "Gunmen of the Apocalypse" gives the theme tune a western spin, resulting in one of the best and most spine-tinglingly awesome pieces in the history of Red Dwarf.
  • Veronica Mars - the use of The Pixies "Where Is My Mind?" at the end of episode 2, season 2, combining the Last-Note Nightmare with the finding of the dead guy with Veronica's name on his hand.
    • Veronica singing "One Way or Another" and Aaron Echols beating the snot out of his daughter's abusive boyfriend to "That's Amore!" are also very much awesome.
    • The jaw-droppingly intense use of "Right Here, Right Now" in conclusion to season 3's serial rapist arc.
  • How I Met Your Mother is usually pretty modest with the music. But when the characters sing, you'd better listen. Exhibit A: You Just Got Slapped.
  • In 2009 the Swedish Eurovision Song Contest finally included a halftime show number called Tingaling. The song became incredibly popular, in fact so popular it was the most downloaded song from Swedish iTunes for weeks after the show aired. The comedy group behind the number also released a CD, "Absolute Tingaling", which consisted of nothing but different versions and remixes of the song. You'd think it would stop there, but the song actually managed to cause a political conflict between Sweden and Russia (the hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest that year). Try listening to it, it's quite catchy.
  • The theme for The Prisoner contains dangerous quantities of bongos, spy guitar, and badassery.
  • The Criminal Minds opening theme is appropriately creepy, but you've got to give it to Patterson Hood's Heavy and Hanging, which plays over the final scenes of season five's "Hopeless". Hotch, Rossi, and Prentiss's Power Walk to the opening chords just makes it even more awesome.
    • It's more terrifying than awesome, but the best musical choice is the family who burn to death to the sound of Enya's "Boadicea."
    • Gary Louris’ "We’ll Get By" at the end of "Damaged". The grown children of the murdered parents have closure after 20 years, and they know that the killer, a mentally-challenged carnival worker, didn’t mean to do what he did. The team arrives back in Virginia after a job well done, as Hotch signs his divorce papers in his office. The song is perfect for the ending—it’s melancholy but hopeful at the same time, more of a feeling of "Life is uncertain, bad things happen, but the fight continues."
    • TV on the Radio's "Wolf Like Me" at the beginning of "Doubt", with the campus killings and Gideon's slow downward spiral.
    • There's also Johnny Cash's "When the Man Comes Around" in "Elephant's Memory".
    • Kevin and Garcia's first face-to-face meeting in "Penelope", set to the excellently apropos "Heroes" by David Bowie.
  • The opening theme to Psych. Which was written and performed by the band of the creator.
  • Due South was particularly good at this. Henry Martin, Eia Mater, and any use of a Loreena McKennitt song. Also, Victoria's Secret, composed for the episodes dealing with Fraser's (not lost enough) love Victoria, is a heartbreaking piano piece that sums up all the emotion in that relationship.
  • The soundtrack of Green Wing. It is an appropriately odd soundtrack for an utterly bizarre show.
  • The 90's live-action Flash TV series came and went.. really quickly.. but Danny Elfman's theme tune is still some of the best superhero music ever composed for any medium.
    • As are the episode scores (and that of the pilot) by the late great Shirley Walker.
  • The theme from Van Der Valk is almost absurdly OTT for a Police Procedural.
  • The theme from 1960s and 70s Australian Cop Show Division 4 is awesome, so much so that T.I.S.M. sampled it for the song Thunderbirds are Coming Out.
  • 1970s Sci Fi series UFO, created by Gerry Anderson, had a theme of great awesomeness - John Barry would have been proud. It was writen by Barry Gray, whose themes for Fireball XL 5, Stingray and Thunderbirds were equally awesome if not more so. His theme for Space1999 is arguably the best theme tune ever to a bad series.
    • Gray's music for Thunderbirds is pretty awesome to begin with, but there's a particular theme that usually kicks in just after International Rescue have saved the day, which raises the score to a whole new level of awesomeness.
    • Specifically used in Spaced as music inspiring enough to launch Brian ("Are you a man or a mouse?" "Meep.") into action.
      • (Mike switches on his tape of the Thunderbirds main theme. Several seconds of it pass. A huge grin slowly spreads across Brian's face...) "...I'm a MAN!"
    • And "Dangerous Games" from "The Cham-Cham". Especially when Penny sings it.
  • Don't lie, Bill Nye the Science Guy had a kick-ass theme song.
  • BEAKMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!
  • Alias had amazing music:
    • The pilot. The entire pilot. Vertical Horizon's "You're a God" (when Danny proposes to Sydney) and "Give You Back" (when Jack tells Sydney he's a double agent); Sinead O'Connor's "No Man's Woman" (when Sydney walks out with the Mueller device), and Peter Gabriel's "Here Comes the Flood" (Danny's funeral).
    • "Delicate" in the episode where Jack meets Irina's sister Katya.
    • U2's "Walk On" in "Passage, Pt. 1". One does not simply walk into Kashmir. The Bristow-Derevkos Power Walk into Kashmir, just after blowing a large hole in some PRF goons. In the same episode, Sark and Sydney driving along to "Bad Moon Rising".
    • January 26, 2003. ABC needs to figure out a way to keep audiences tuned in after Super Bowl XXXVII. 1. 2. 3.- HIT IT!
    • Matthew Good Band's "Weapon" over the ending to "A Higher Echelon".
    • Bob Dylan's "Shelter from the Storm" playing over the end of "Trust Me", when Sydney confronts Irina.
    • The opening theme! 30 seconds of techno-y goodness. And then surpassed by Michael Giacchino's awesome scores. High paced and a perfect fit for the tension building.
  • The opening themes to CSI, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY. Why? Because they pulled three of the The Who's greatest hits ("Who Are You," "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Baba O'Riley" respectively) and distilled their awesomeness.
    • Grissom's Overture is a great piece of instrumental music used in the show. Another really cool instrumental track is Investigation Suite.
    • The Who played all three songs at the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show, see it here! Hugely appropriate since the Super Bowl was in Miami and shown on CBS.
  • "Kung Fu".
  • When Sean Hayes hosted Saturday Night Live back in February 2001, he started his monologue segment by playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on the piano. Then outta nowhere, the SNL Band joined in, and it segued into a rocking cover of Walter Murphy's "A Fifth of Beethoven". (And just to show off, Hayes kept playing as he shaved, signed autographs, and took a cell phone call).
  • SNL's closing theme music. It's the sound of a party breaking up. Very effective.
  • Human Target has music by Bear McCreary. This is automatic awesome. The end theme is just as good.
  • The House of Cards Trilogy has some fantastic music by Jim Parker. The fact it has never been made widely available is just criminal.
  • The famous four-note riff from The Twilight Zone. The classic theme by Marius Constant started with it, just before Rod Serling's voiceover narration; the 1980s revival built up to it as the climax, by which time it was so famous that they didn't need narration any more.
  • The show Northern Exposure was regularly praised for having amazing incidental music, usually broadcast by the local DJ Chris Stevens' on the show's fictional radio station, KBHR. The show used everything from Miriam Makeba to Lynard Skynard to Enya to Cajun folk songs to Etta James...one well-regarded scene featured the free-spiritish Stevens advising Ed, a local boy, about how to care for a wounded whooping crane he was nursing back to health; at some point they try to teach the crane to "dance" to the tune of Brian Eno and John Cale's "Lay My Love".
  • Community has some pretty awesome musical moments, namely from Those Two Guys Abed and Troy. For example:
    • Their duet of Somewhere Out There while trying to coax a mouse or rat which gets an awesome Celtic kick to it. The music also perfectly weaves together the three scenes.
    • And also the Biblioteca Rap
    • In general, the decision to score the zombie-movie episode (2.06) entirely to ABBA songs. It lands somewhere between this and Crazy Awesome.
    • The show's usual theme song is pretty good, but it becomes truly epic as a fantasy-esque piece at the beginning of "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons".
  • While as a whole the show Mysterious Ways was primo Snark Bait, Natalie Maines' rendition of Amazing Grace in the pilot is nothing short of incredible.
  • Sesame Street gives us Rebel L.
    • That song is actually a parody of Billy Idol's Rebel Yell. Sesame Street has done a lot of these parodies. Measure, Yeah, Measure (based on Justin Bieber's Never Say Never) isn't half bad either, although Elmo's unsuitably high-pitched voice is a bit of a Level Breaker.
    • Sesame Street's originals are good, too, although their subject matter tends to be somewhat unorthodox. Case in point: Put Down the Duckie, a whole song about telling Ernie to get his rubber duck out of his hand so he can play the saxophone properly.
    • Telephone Rock qualifies as well. As does Rock & Roll Readers. And It's Hip to be a Square. Could go on all day.
  • One episode of Boston Legal featured an epic cover of "War (What Is It Good For?)" crossed with "Over There", representing anti-war and pro-war testimony, respectively. Yes, this was performed in a courtroom, why do you ask?
  • The 1980s TV show Misfits of Science had a memorable scene of the electrically charged 'Johnny Be Good' giving a few hundred soldiers a concert starts at about 5.25.
  • BBC's Top Gear has some awesome music sampled into the BGM for things like their regular challenges, super/hypercar laps and to generally live up the the general level of awesome. The one that stands out most is the use of Globus' Preliator during the Race Across London challenge in Series 10, Ep 5.
    • Top Gear is more or less a continuous CMOA, as evidenced in this short clip featuring a Lotus Elise, an Boeing Apache AH-64, Black Sabbath's Paranoid and finally Motörhead's Ace of Spades!
    • The series 13 finale, closing with the piece about the Aston Martin V12 Vantage possibly representing the end of an era and during a period where rumours abounded that the show - or at least Jeremy Clarkson's tenure on it - was finishing, was epic in scope and cinematography and writing all on its own. But mix in Brian Eno's An Ending (Ascent) and the result is breathtaking.
  • Several theme songs from Guiding Light qualify.
  • Joey Tabolt's "Theme from The League of Gentlemen" is amazing, mainly because it seems better suited for an action or detective show and yet manages to feel very much in place in the opening montages.
  • It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is unique in that the calm, classical music used on the show is a massive contrast to the actual content. All the same, you can't say music playing over the car crash at the end of "The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis" doesn't somehow seem to fit perfectly.
  • Likewise, the Soundtrack Dissonance with the Fawlty Towers intro music - a genteel, tranquil string quartet tune completely at odds with the agitating stories.
  • Dead Like Me's theme isn't anything particularly special but their sort of "unofficial theme" is Metisse's Boom Boom Ba. Watch the final scene where this song plays as George is walking away from her grade and just casually says "It's not so bad, being dead like me and try not to Squee.
    • Stewart Copeland (and Emilio Kauderer)'s theme isn't anything particularly special? As the fragrant Piper Halliwell once put it, "You. Me. Issues."
  • Tropers and Tropettes! The best TV theme song ever! Hawaii 5-0 (full version. And the "reimagined", new version: which is almost as good, partly because they actually had three of the original musicians play on it!
  • Ryan Star's Brand New Day from the Lie to Me opening credits.
  • My Name Is Earl is a fantastic show already, but even moreso if you're a fan of classic rock. Highway Star set during a drag race? Oh yeah. Fat Bottom Girls accompanies a montage of Earl mocking Joy's pregnacy weight. And End of the World as We Know It when Earl and friends believe that they're the last people alive on Earth. And Freebird shows up.
  • Fringe's theme music is awesome and wonderfully captures the crazy nature of the show. Just watch...
  • The theme for Baywatch; here's the full version.
  • The season three premiere of The Sopranos features a killer mashup of the Peter Gunn theme and "Every Breath You Take"; the two songs have the exact same beat and fit together perfectly.
  • The 62nd Annual Emmy Awards opened with this. Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Joel McHale, Jon Hamm, Jane Lynch, and the cast of Glee all performing Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run. Wow.
  • The theme to the short-lived crime drama Department S. Arguably the best TV theme most people have never heard.
  • Peep Show and Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger rarely has a show and a non-original theme song been so perfectly matched...
  • It might not be the best show on British TV, but Merlin has some great music. Have a mix!
  • The American QaF. It's really hard to find one song that isn't awesome. In five seasons!
  • The British miniseries Sherlock has some amazingly catchy, occasionally tear-jerking and all-around awesome music throughout.
  • Mission: Impossible has its theme music, the various motifs for phases of the plot, and the birdsong in outdoor scenes.
  • Anything by Joseph LoDuca, but especially his EPIC themes for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess
  • Castle has made great use of well and lesser known artists. So far the most outstanding would have been Unthought Known by Pearl Jam and "Rise" by The Frames. The latter was played over the powerful, touching ending of "Knockdown" and fit the mood just perfectly
  • The theme for the 80's Japanese cop show Dai Gekitou - Mad Police. Composed by the great Yuji Ohno.
  • Any of the music from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Admit it.
  • Carl Davis's theme from The World at War is guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes.
    • His theme for the Thames TV documentary series Hollywood is, astonishingly, even better.
  • Michael Kamen's theme for Band of Brothers is an astonishingly emotional piece to begin with, but on the closing credits of one particularly emotional episode it's played by the string section alone and becomes a massive Tear Jerker.
  • The entire score of The Pacific by Hans Zimmer, Blake Neely and Geoff Zanelli is heartbreakingly beautiful, but nothing so much as the main theme, "Honor." Especially next to the imagery of the lovely opening credits, featuring charcoal drawings transforming into real images.
  • The opening for Game of Thrones. Awesome music plus Clock Punk Scenery Porn equals win.
    • Also from the show, the music for the final moments of season 1 (carrying into the end credits), featuring Dany and the return of dragons to the world. The strains of the opening theme for the show at different points just makes it more awesome.
    • Another piece from the season 1 finale, as the Night's Watch prepare to go beyond the Wall to face whatever lies behind it.
    • This all-violin cover of the main theme. Holy SHIT.
    • "Warrior of Light", the theme of Stannis and Melisandre. In a creepy way.
  • The main theme for a Chinese television adaptation of Journey to the West.
  • Parks and Recreation's theme song could make even Eeyore beam with delight, and their genius use of Tom Petty's "American Girl" in season 3's "Harvest Festival."
  • A lot of the Dark Angel score counts, like the Expanded Space Needle Theme (unused in the pilot, but heard in "...And Jesus Brought a Casserole" and "Freak Nation", the two season finales.
  • The opening titles of The Borgias, composed by Trevor Morris and featuring Spanish guitar, a haunting choir and Gregorian-like chanting, is spine-tinglingly awesome.
  • The NOVA theme is 43 seconds of awesome. Made even better with the opening.
  • The atmospheric lighting and surreal music of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction? turned what was occasionally a by the numbers anthology series into something awesome.
  • The Vampire Diaries tends to do very well on the music front, but a standout scene is in the penultimate episode of season two, where British singer Birdy's beautiful, mournful cover of Bon Iver's "Skinny Love" plays while Elena reads John's letter and puts flowers on the graves of Jenna, John and her parents.
    • Placebo's cover of Running Up That Hill in the pilot episode, as Stefan talks to Zach, then opens a cupboard, picks out a journal and looks at the picture of Katherine from 1864.
    • Wires by Athlete in 2.06 Plan B, as Elena insists she and Stefan break up because of Katherine.
    • Of the instances in 'Masquerade' that really stand out are the use of Tawgs Salter's "Brave" while Stefan and Elena talk about their relationship, and Elena repeats that she needs to stay away from him, as well as Digital Daggers' gorgeous cover of Tears for Fears ' "Head Over Heels" while Stefan and Katherine dance.
  • Harry's Dream Sequence Musical Number, "Life Has Been Good to Me", from 3rdRockFromTheSun. He's not a bad singer, actually.
  • 3-2-1 Contact:
  • Square One TV': Opening theme and extended closing theme.
  • John William's Superman theme plays at the very end of Smallville.
  • Mark Mancina and Trevor Rabin's Soldier Of Fortune.
  • Was Threat Matrix a good show? No. Was its theme by Hans Zimmer and Steve Jablonsky too good for it? Yes.
  • The Planet Earth Theme, and it really gets epic at 1:14.
  • Walking with Dinosaurs has some awesome music:
  • WWD's sequel, Walking with Beasts also has awesome music:
  • Both Jeeves and Wooster and Poirot have wonderfully quirky main titles that capture the flavour and style of each series beautfully.
  • The Horrible Histories live-action adaptation, which matches historical figures to the appropriate modern genre. A good many are flat-out brilliant parodies, and all of them are Earworms. Among, many, many others:
  • Bruce Broughton's theme for JAG. Why did it take so long to have a soundtrack album?
  • The BBC and DK series Eyewitness opens with a famously badass theme song.
  • The Cosby Show had a different opening for each season, but the opening for season 5 is definitely the most epic. The arrangement that played during the end credits is a little more easygoing, but it has quite a catchy groove.
  • Al Hirt's trumpet heavy score for The Green Hornet is Rule of Cool made into music form.
    • You mean Billy May's score for The Green Hornet. Hirt only played on the theme tune.
  • From Misfits, Simon and Alisha's theme
  • Garth Marenghi's Darkplace has a spectacularly cheesy (and brilliant) soundtrack, particularly the opening theme. The show was designed to mock 80s action dramas.
  • The telemusical from 1966 Evening Primrose obviously has this because the songs were written by Stephen Sondheim, but Take Me to the World is the most prominent, regardless if it is Anthony Perkins (yes, that Anthony Perkins) or Neil Patrick Harris belting out that ending.
  • The Mahabharat War Song. Ten and a half minutes of pure awesomeness, and most of it is simply listing the major players of the Kurukshetra War.
  • Reading Rainbow ("Take a look, it's in a book...").
  • David Schwartz wrote the intros for Deadwood, Arrested Development and Northern Exposure, and is therefore an unsung television theme genius.
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