A Sunday Kind Of Love: Play “Name That Tune! TV Theme Songs”

Before “Skip Intro,” Television Themes Had a Job to Do

A Sunday kind of love for anyone who can identify a television show before the first line of dialogue: CBS News Sunday Morning is playing “Name That Tune!” with the opening themes that once announced an entire world in a matter of seconds.

The feature originally aired on February 1, 2026, with correspondent David Pogue asking what makes a successful TV theme song—and why the increasingly tempting “Skip Intro” button may be robbing viewers of more than a few spare seconds.

Pogue speaks with composer Charles Fox, whose television work includes the themes for Wonder Woman and Laverne & Shirley; composer Theodore Shapiro, who created the music for Severance; and film-music historian Jon Burlingame, author of Music for Prime Time: A History of American Television Themes and Scoring.

Their examples stretch across very different eras, but the basic assignment remains remarkably consistent: catch the ear, establish the mood and tell the audience what kind of universe it has entered before the episode truly begins.

A great television theme can act like a miniature pilot. Wonder Woman arrives with heroic momentum. Laverne & Shirley sounds like friendship, ambition and a working-class promise that the two women are going to make their dreams come true. Severance uses something more uneasy and controlled, preparing viewers for an office world where every familiar surface feels faintly wrong.

Then there are themes whose melodies have become almost impossible to separate from their titles. A few notes can summon the horse from Mister Ed, the clap from Friends, the whistle of The Andy Griffith Show or the cheerfully unhinged promise that the Addams family is about to answer the door.

Those openings were not decorative leftovers. They helped establish characters, repeat a series’ identity and create the tiny ritual that told viewers they had arrived at the same place again. Before streaming made entire seasons available at once, theme songs also served as weekly memory triggers—musical front doors into worlds people visited on a schedule.

The modern urge to skip them makes practical sense. Viewers know the show, the next episode is waiting and the platform has thoughtfully provided a button. But repeated viewing is exactly how many themes become permanent. Remove the repetition and television loses one of its easiest routes into the collective memory.

So play along before Pogue and his guests reveal the answers. Some themes will announce themselves immediately. Others may leave one suspiciously familiar melody circling your mind for the rest of the day—which is generally how you know the composer did the job correctly.

Watch CBS Sunday Morning’s “Name That Tune! TV Theme Songs”

The 7-minute CBS News Sunday Morning feature includes David Pogue’s conversations with Charles Fox, Theodore Shapiro and Jon Burlingame about memorable openings and the decline of the TV theme song.

Source: CBS News Sunday Morning.