It's About Time. (1 Viewer)

[Joe Lugoff]

And "Mister Ed" and "Green Acres."


I sat down to watch "It's About Time" the first night it was on, after watching CBS Sundays at 7:30 EST for years ("Dennis the Menace" and "My Favorite Martian" had preceded it in that time slot) and I thought it was probably the stupidest thing I had ever seen (and I was only 16). It was due to shows like this that I began to lose interest in network television.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Originally Posted by Rob_Ray ) And Gilligan got by mostly on the charm of its characters. That was one of the problems with It's About Time. While some of the performers were arguably better than those on other shows, the characters weren't as likeable and there wasn't the chemistry between the actors that lifted a Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, or I Dream of Jeannie above their goofy premises. Beyond Imogene Coca and Joe E. Ross, I don't even remember who was in It's About Time. I could name most of the regulars and many recurring guest stars from the other shows I mentioned. (I thought William Schallert did an especially nice job as Patty's father/Cathy's uncle, now that I think about it.)


In the "theme song was better than the show" category, I'd nominate Gidget. I "really liked" Sally Field a lot better in The Flying Nun (not to mention Smokey and the Bandit and Norma Rae) than in her first series, but the theme song was great. Replace the name "Gidget" with something else and that pseudo-Nelson Riddle arrangement wouldn't have sounded out of place on a Sinatra album.

Regards,


Joe

 

[Rob_Ray]

"The Patty Duke Show" and "Gilligan's Island" are two fine examples of the type of family-oriented non-offensive shows which dominated the airwaves in the sixties and I didn't mean to denigrate either of them. However, it's hard to overpraise the impact that their tuneful theme songs had in their longevity. F-Troop and The Beverly Hillbillies are other examples and Green Acres is the perfect one. Green Acres is an unabashed classic, filled with zany, surreal humor that plays as well today as it did forty-five (!) years ago. But that theme song sung by Eddie and Eva went a long, long way in keeping the show alive in people's memories.


And in the case of "It's About Time" I'd wager that NObody would remember the show at all today if it weren't for the wonderfully insidious "It's About Time, it's about space. About two men in the strangest place..." against those cartoon titles that ingrained itself for life in the impressable minds of every ten-year-old in the U.S. at the time.


It's a lost art, really. And a sad loss it is.

 

[Gary OS]

My sentiments pretty much mirror Joseph's. I thought the first seasons of both Gilligan's Island and Patty Duke were actually pretty solid, all things considered. Especially Patty Duke's series. I think you hit on a huge part of the difference when you mentioned the interaction of the cast and the "likeability" of the characters. I'm not trying to be a downer with It's About Time, but I have to admit that after seeing a couple of episodes again about a year ago it was horrible. There's a reason some shows survive in syndication and others don't. I think the reason is pretty obvious in the case of the three shows I've mentioned above. Yes, they all had interesting and somewhat catchy theme songs, but the similarities end there.


Gary "I also like the theme song to Gidget and have to agree it was the best part of that series" O.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

However, it's hard to overpraise the impact that their tuneful theme songs had in their longevity.

I have to dissent slightly, because I think it is easy to overpraise the theme songs. Yes, they are one of the elements that people remember fondly, but the reason these shows lasted long enough to accumulate enough episodes to be viable for daily syndication in the first place is that they were good shows. (Unlike It's About Time which flopped despite a format-ectomy 2/3rds of the way through its only season.) The songs, which were all very good, were icing on the cake - or maybe the sizzle that accompanies the steak, rather than a reason the shows succeeded. I don't think people came back to Gilligan's Island week after week during its initial run because they wanted to hear that song again. Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, after all, were similar shows to all of the ones discussed here, and also shows I watched with the whole family as a kid, and they had pleasant, but not great instrumental theme music. They weren't iconic in the way the great TV songs or great TV themes are. (I'm thinking the ones discussed in this thread plus things like Peter Gunn, Perry Mason and the soon-to-be-remade Hawaii 5-0.)


Hmmm...


Great idea for a new thread. See you guys later...



Joe

 

[Rob_Ray]

I'm not saying a great theme song made these shows hits in their day or in syndication. You're right -- if a show is lousy ("It's About Time") it's a lousy show and it's going to fail on the network and never reach syndication. What I'm saying is that a catchy (or an insidious) theme song will make a show more *memorable* long after its initial run, whether that run was one season or twenty. Nobody would remember "It's About Time" if it weren't for its theme song. (Does anybody remember "Glynis"?)


"Gilligan's Island" didn't need its theme song to achieve TV immortality, but that song further ingrained "Gilligan's Island" into the popular culture to the point that even people who hated the show could sing that opening theme.


Another one-season flop with a catchy Vic Mizzy theme song "The Pruitts of Southampton." -- ("The Pruitts of Southampton live like the richest folk. But what those folk don't know is that the Pruitts are flat broke!") The show probably hasn't met a TV antenna since 1968, but I'll bet there are more than a few boomers who can sing the opening credits.


And how about "The Addams Family" with that wonderful harpsichord (snap! snap!). Neat!

 

[Rick Thompson]

True, a great theme song won't make a show a hit, but it can sure set the stage, especially if complemented with arresting visuals. Who can forget "Hawaii Five-O" and "Mary Tyler Moore" -- both edited by Reza Badiyi to that grab-you-by-the-shoulders music?


Other openings that set the stage: "The Fugitive," "Hill Street Blues," "St. Elsewhere." There are more, but you get the point. But they only set the stage. The writers, actors and directors have to make it worth your time to stay.


Finally, there is one theme that has caused more sleepless nights by not going away and running around in your brain. You can't shut it off. It's music's gift to sleeping pills.


"A horse is a horse,

Of course, of course . . ."

 

[Dan-P]

One thing I hadn't remembered about this show (since I was about 5 or 6 when it was on tv in first run), is how tied it was to Gilligan's Island. Not only the Sherward Schwartz connection, but even much of the incidental music in the episodes was exactly the same as on Gilligan's Island. However, in comparison, the writing and acting on Gilligan's Island was "Citizen Kane" compared to this show. I actually really like Gilligan's Island and sometimes still enjoy watching it - I know a lot of episodes pretty much by heart and can even sing the "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" song straight through ... however, trust me ... It's About Time sucks.


Dan

 

[Neil Brock]

Sherwood Schwartz shows were insipid and written for elementary school kids. So yes, I watched It's About Time and Gilligan's Island because I was the right age for them. By the time The Brady Bunch came on, I was 12 and a little too old for his brand of "humor", and I use that term loosely. He did have a knack for theme songs though. Another horrendously bad show with a great theme was Ugliest Girl in Town.

 

[Tony J Case]

The right theme can sometimes be one of the most memorable and iconic parts of a show. I give you exhibit A, m'lard - a theme that's known for sending kids scurrying in terror from just the first note: