Coming This Fall on ABC!
The other day my older son and I were driving around when Queen‘s “Best Friend” came on the radio. He asked, “What was this, a TV sitcom theme?”
It does sound like it was written for a sitcom. We laughed as we imagined the opening montage of turned, smiling heads; pratfalls; and brightly colored credits.
What other songs sound like they were written to serve as original TV theme songs? What kind of show/opening clips would accompany this would-be theme song?
Steve Forrest, front left. James Coleman, back right.
It is with regret to inform you that S.W.A.T. opening theme song co-star Steve Forrest has died at 87. Any friend of Friend of the Hall James Coleman (née Lawrence), the actual S.W.A.T. cast member who shared his experiences with us, is a friend of ours! In honor of Hondo, “Let’s roll!”
ACTUAL S.W.A.T. ACTOR CHIMES IN WITH HIS MEMORIES OF THIS HISTORIC SHOOT! CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY BEHIND THE AMAZING OPENING SEQUENCE OF THIS LEGENDARY SHOW!
The television show S.W.A.T. debuted in 1975 and lasted just 2 years. Somewhere near the show’s brief run the school that Townsman andyr and I attended celebrated its 275th anniversary. To commemorate this occasion a reproduction of the school’s original one-room log cabin school was constructed. The windows were either smashed out immediately or the little log cabin never had glass windows installed. I remember the window frames being wide open—and not that high off the ground.
The windows were set low enough so that a group of 6th grade boys were capable of jumping through the windows and rolling into the building (a la Rod Perry at the 48-second mark of the show’s opening) while they hummed the theme from S.W.A.T. For a solid 3 weeks this recess activity took precedence over all other recess activities: football, soccer, kickball, “smear the queer”… Then the adults caught wind of our rough-and-tumble tuck-and-roll play. They thought it was dangerous—and disrespectful to this monument to our school’s humble Quaker roots.
For the next week teachers chased us from the log cabin on a regular basis, but we persisted. Then one night some local high school kids, maybe our own school’s kids, partied in the log cabin and set fire to it. There were empty cases of beer and ashes. There would be no more games of S.W.A.T. for recess. We resumed our slow-motion highlights reel reenactments to the theme of Monday Night Football.
View Director’s Cut…after the jump! Continue reading »
