How Bout’ It, Ya Think Ya Know ‘Em

How Bout’ It, Ya Think Ya Know ‘Em

Theme Songs From the 1960’s & 70’s T. V. Shows

By Jack Coll

9-10-14

Someone had mentioned to me recently that they have 9,000 channels on their big screen television and they sit and watch reruns of “Mr. Ed,” (for the young-on’s’ out there Mr. Ed was a 1960’s TV show about a talking horse) so of course when I think of Mr. Ed, I think about the show’s theme song, “HELLO, I’m Mr. Ed. A horse is a horse of course of course” and so on. And I got to thinking about how many theme songs from TV shows would I recognize, well I think I would recognize a good many of them, I think.

I mean if someone whistled the theme to the Andy Griffin Show, I would recognize that, I would also recognize “Bonanza,” “Gomer Pyle” and “My Three Sons.” Well I put together 17 sets of lyrics from television shows theme songs and we’ll test you to see how many you recognize. Why 17 sets of lyrics, you might be thinking, why not 15, or 20, why 17, well as a writer/historian, parent and grandparent, and someone who works 20 hours a day, I just got tired after looking up 17 sets of lyrics and quit, that’s why we’re gonna look at 17 sets of lyrics, so the question is, can you put the written lyric to the T. V. show? We’re gonna give you eight lyrics this week and the other nine lyrics next week, other-wise the column gets way too long and you forget the question before you get to the answer.

A lot of the shows are from the 1960’s, 1970,s and a few from the 1980’s or later, I’ll drop you little hints and clues along the way. We should also keep in mind that I’m not always starting at the beginning of the song, in some cases that might be a dead giveaway, so you might try singing the lyrics or humming them to pick up the show. I’ll start you with an easy one, and maybe get a little tougher as we go, if you get ‘em all right that means you spent way too much time in front of the TV and you need to get out a little more often.

1     This show ran from 1969-1974, one of the characters recently passed away, on June 1, 2014.

Here’s the story of a lovely lady

Who was bringing up three very lovely girls

All of them had hair of gold, like their mother

The youngest one in curls

Here’s the story???????????

2     This is from a long running series where 125 million viewers watched the final episode, called

“Goodbye, Farewell and Amen.”

Through early morning fog I see

Visions of the things to be

The pains that are withheld from me

I realize and I can see

That Suicide is painless

It brings on many changes

And I can take it or leave it if I please

3    This show had a Boss, a General, and lots of action from 1979-1985, come ‘on you know this one!

Just the good ol’ boys

Never meanin’ no harm

Beats all you’ve ever saw

Been in trouble with the law

Since the day they were born

Straight’nin the curve

Flat’nin the hills

Someday the mountain might get ‘em

But the law never will

4   Jerry Van Dyke turned down the role of one of the main characters. This show ran from 1964-1967.

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale

A tale of a fateful trip

That started from this tropic port

Aboard this tiny ship

5     Okay, if you ever watched this show that ran from 1978-1982, this hint should be a dead giveaway,

Season one, episode 7, was called “Turkey’s Away.”

Baby, if you’ve ever wondered

Wondered whatever became of me

I’m living on the air in Cincinnati

?????????????????????????

6     All right, you’ll only need four words to figure this theme song out from the show that ran from

1976-1983, only I’m not gonna give the four words, so try this:

Give us any chanced, we’ll take it

Give us any rule, we’ll break it

We’re gonna make our dreams come true

Doin’ it our way

Nothin’s gonna turn us back now

Straight ahead on the track now

We’re gonna make our dreams come true

Doin’ it our way

Well, ya got-it! Check the answer, you’ll know it.

7     This show ran throughout the 1970’s and for several years was part of a powerful Saturday night

Line-up along with Mash and the Bob Newhart Show.

Who can turn the world on with her smile?

Who can take nothing day,

And suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?

8     This sitcom took place in Brooklyn New York and ran from 1975-1979, we pick the theme song up

on the third line of the song, other-wise it’s a dead giveaway!

To that same old place that you laughed about

Well the names have all changed since you hung around

But those dreams have remained and they’ve turned around

Here are your Answers, how did you do?

I hope you named them all, but if you struggled with a few, well, here they are!

• “Here’s the story, of a man named Brady, who was busy with three boys of his own,” well that would be “The Brady Bunch,” you of course would remember Robert Reed as Mike Brady and Florence Henderson as Carol Ann but do you remember the name of the boy’s dog? That would be “Tiger.” Ann B. Davis recently passed away, she played Alice on the show and married Sam the butcher. Ann B. Davis/Alice also was the center square during the theme song.
• “Suicide is Painless” was the theme song for “Mash,” a series that ran for eleven seasons.

From 1972-1983. You might remember Alan Alda, Wayne Rodgers, McLean Stevenson,

                       Loretta Swift, Jamie Foxx and Gary Burghoff just to name a few of the cast members.  

• The “Boss” in the show would be Boss Hogg, and the “General” in the show would be the

General Lee, a 1969 Dodge Charger, an estimated 309 Chargers were used for the show. Seventeen of them are still known to exist in various states of repair. The highlight of the show, “The Dukes of Hazzard” wasn’t necessarily the two boys, Bo and Luke jumping from hill to hill in the Dodge Charger, but Catherine Bach in her Daisy Dukes, if you’re a man and don’t know what Daisy Dukes are, you might want to look it up!

• Perhaps the second verse of this theme song will help you!!

The mate was a mighty sailing man

The skipper brave and sure

Five passengers set sail that day

For a three hour tour, a three hour tour

Of course the song is from “Gilligans Island,” Jerry Van Dyke turned down the roll of Gilligan. Bob Denver was Gilligan, Alan Hale was the Captain of the S.S. Minnow, and the hook for the show were Ginger and Maryann.

• “WKRP In Cincinnati” with Howard Hessman as Dr. Johnny Fever, the clueless News

Director was played by Less Nessman, and the daffy but beautiful receptionist was

         played by Loni Anderson. A number of the stunts including dropping turkey’s from a

         Helicopter were true stunts performed at a Cincinnati Radio station. The final line we

         left out of the question above was:

Baby, if you’ve ever wondered

Wondered whatever became of me

I’m living on the air in Cincinnati

Cincinnati W K R P

• Before giving you the answer to number 6 let’s give the four words that will give it

away, let’s count it off:

One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight

Sclemeel, Schlemazel, Hasenffer Incorporated:

How about it! Sound familiar, Laverne & Shirley starring Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, the two played Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney with their sidekicks Lenny and Squiggy. The two worked at Shotz Brewery and the show was set in Milwaukee.

• “You’re gonna make it after all!” That would be “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” Mary played “Mary Richards” and the show ran from 1970-1977. The theme song “Love is All Around” was written and performed by Sonny Curtis.

• “Welcome Back

Your dreams were your ticket out

Welcome Back

To that same old place that you laughed about.”

That was John Sebastian singing the theme song to “Welcome Back Kotter” starring Gabe Kaplan, John Travolta and all the rest of the Sweathogs that attended the fictional James Buchanan High School in Brooklyn New York.

Well!, eight for eight, seven of eight? You at least had to get six of the eight!

We’ll see you next week for the other nine theme songs

This week’s TV Theme Song column was brought to you by:

Matt Siletta Plumbing &

Jennifer Lynn Photography