"Let's Be Careful Out There": The Best TV Theme Songs: Drama

Take the poll: what's your favorite drama TV theme song past or present?

Jun 19, 2024

Since last week’s post on the best TV comedy theme songs was so much fun to compile (and from the clicks it received, a lot of you liked it, too), let’s dive into some of the best of the best in drama TV series.

First, we’ll start with the Drama TV theme song survey since I know I probably missed some key drama themes. Just click on the tab below and tell me your favorite past theme song and one that’s from a show currently on the air. It’s quick and easy and I’ll post results in a future post.

Start Survey

Now, let’s dive into the world of drama, which often took their opening theme songs as serious as the plots on their respective shows. A good theme song sets the mood for the show and these shows all did that and more. Enjoy!

True story - when I thought about Drama TV theme songs, *Buffy the Vampire Slayer* was the first one that came to me. It’s just perfect, don’t ya think? (Photo: 20th Century TV)

Let’s get things started with one of the best, shall we? Hawaii Five-0 (1968-80) is one of the longest running series that kept viewers’ fascination with Hawaii alive for over a decade. (Other shows like Magnum P.I., Lost and a few others would keep the love alive for years). But the 5-0 theme song, by The Ventures, is kick ass and went beyond TV and spent 14 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart (where it went as high as #4 in May of 1969). Book ‘em, Dano!

Talk about a theme song that just fit its show perfectly. The animated images feel Hitchcockian to me as a single male figure (Hi, Don Draper) falling against a building with images of an advertising firm’s work as well as the foreboding score of “A Beautiful Mine” by RJD2 helped make AMC’s Mad Men (2007-15) a huge hit.

When a show is unsettling and consistently keeps you emotionally on the edge of your seat like Succession (2018-23), you need a theme song that gives the same mood. Nicholas Britell’s composition hits the mark.

Nothing like taking a classic song like Del Shannon’s “Runaway” and making it fit perfectly with this short-lived gem from the 1980s. Anyone remember Crime Story (1986-88)?

If you know me, you know I loved my 80s soaps so much and Knots Landing (1979-93) was just the best of the best, in my opinion…and it helped that it had a great opening theme, which was retooled many times over the show’s 14 seasons (!!!) but always maintained a familiarity.

And you knew I couldn’t mention Knots but leave the show it was spun-off from, right? Here ya go, Dallas (1978-91)

and I can’t leave Dynasty (1981-89) off with Bill Conti’s memorable theme song, right?

…and while we’re on the prime time soap train….one of my favorite 80s soaps - Flamingo Road (1981-82) - didn’t have a long run but, come on, classic movie stars like Howard Duff, Barbara Rush, Kevin McCarthy and Stella Stevens as well as a pre-NCIS Mark Harmon and Morgan Fairchild?! What a cast!

I had to include Buffy (1997-2003) since it’s an awesome opening and one that I never skip over…and while I wasn’t as big of an Angel (1999-2004) fan, my pal Tina Charles is so I’ve included here based on her suggestion.

In the 1960s, the Lost in Space (1965-68) intro started in black and white with a less exciting version that this season 3 opening when the show was in color and went for a quicker pace that fit the show.

Supernatural is one of those shows with a rabid fanbase but didn’t have a true main titles sequence (it does have the perfect anthem in Kansas’s “Carry on Wayward Son” that is heard often in the show) but what it did have were title cards reflecting the themes in each of its 15 seasons. Ride on, Sam and Dean!

And, sadly, while main titles have gotten shorter over the years to leave more time for advertisers, there’s clearly more leeway with streaming since they aren’t locked into a tight run-time for most shows and, well, they have no advertisers (or, well, they used to not have them…) Like Succession, this one from Big Little Lies first season captures the mood of the entire show (and I love seeing a pre-Young Sheldon Iain Armitage here!)

You just can’t talk TV drama theme songs without mentioning Mike Post, who is credited with some of the best of all time. Post won several Grammys, including one each for Hill Street Blues (1981-87) and another for L.A. Law (1986-94). He also composed so many more including The Rockford Files (1974-1980) and Magnum P.I. (1980-88)

…and just for kicks, here’s the Magnum reboot (2018-24) with the same theme song but, like with some of the comedy openings, here’s what you get for a :20 opening credit sequence:

There’s something about a police procedural’s opening number. They’re always full of authority and, like the characters in them, they mean serious business. Case in a point, a few of the best.

…and who’d of thought Heather Lockler would make it twice in this post? But she did!

Compiling all these YouTube TV posts makes me realize dramas tend to go with instrumental, I guess to convey a serious or adventurous spirit. But there are some with vocals like these two…