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eleven '80s Goggle box Theme Songs You Tin Still Hum From Memory

The '00s may be home to a new Gilt Age of goggle box, but while we're metaphorically knee-deep in non-sequiturs and cable-network antiheroes, we're ofttimes missing 1 major upside to watching weekly serial on the small screen: Classic theme songs. '80s television might be nostalgia's most fertile ground, yet its various theme songs (from the synth-loaded and sax-heavy to the genuinely charming and weirdly moving) suffer as hard-to-kill earworms that are almost impossible to stop humming one time they wiggle their way into your brain. Come on, show me that smile once more. Oh, show me that grinning!

1. The Gold Girls
Andrew Gold's "Thank Y'all for Being a Friend" was already a hit (reaching No. 25 on Billboard's Hot 100 listing in 1978) before it was rerecorded and repurposed to serve as the theme for the enduring NBC sitcom in 1985. When Cynthia Fee laid down her version for The Gilded Girls, it instantly became part of the popular-culture lexicon — where it remains to this day for about anyone over the historic period of 30. The song was so essential to the serial that when iii of the eponymous girls moved over to CBS's ill-fated spinoff, The Golden Palace, the theme came along, likewise.

2. The Greatest American Hero
Joey Scarbury's soft-rock jam may have reached the top of the charts in 1981 cheers to Stephen J. Cannell's short-lived superhero-axial dramedy, but the vocal has continued to live on (quite improbably) in the annals of pop culture, thanks to a random array of other appearances. "Believe It or Not" has popped in such shows as Seinfeld (George's answering automobile) and The Following (an apparent favorite of Joe's cult members), and was memorably included during a zippy montage in The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

3. The Cosby Show
There's no definitive version of "Kiss Me," the initially horns-heavy theme that Bill Cosby himself helped compose with the series' musical director, Stu Gardner, every bit seven different versions of the vocal were used during the show'due south eight-season run (presumably to allow for the creation of different thematic dance sequences). The virtually popular take on the cloth arrived during The Cosby Show's fourth flavour, when singer Bobby McFerrin put his ain spin on the song, one that quite handily proves the inherent hummability of what seemed to be a purely instrumental outing.

4. Growing Pains
The ABC sitcom's heartwarming theme song went through its own changes (certain, feel complimentary to calling them "growing pains") with nine dissimilar versions rolling out over the form of the serial' seven seasons ("As Long As Nosotros've Got Each Other" even got the spooky treatment, thanks to a Halloween episode that aired in 1990). Even so, flavor four does avowal a Dusty Springfield–voiced version, as the soul songstress duetted with B.J. Thomas for only her second tv set theme song (she previously lent her pipes to a pair of very special Six 1000000 Dollar Man episodes).

5. The Facts of Life
The Facts of Life's theme music had troubles of its own — talk about taking the proficient and the bad — cheers to lyric changes, vocaliser switches, and the eventual jettisoning of the unabridged enterprise (by the time the show ended its run in 1988, the original version of the song had been shoved into playing over the show's end credits, before it was washed away with altogether). Don't deny the jam's full-blooded, however: It was penned past rival sitcom star Alan Thicke (who likewise wrote the theme for Diff'rent Strokes, which he besides sang), along with Al Burton and Gloria Loring.

6. Miami Vice
Jan Hammer'south only named "Miami Vice Theme" proved to be and so popular, both critically and popularly, that information technology not simply hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, it also won 2 Grammys (Best Instrumental Composition and Best Pop Instrumental Performance, naturally). Hammer'due south synth-heavy song is so enduring, in fact, that it held the distinction of being the last instrumental to attain Billboard'southward pinnacle for almost thirty years, until Baauer'south "Harlem Shake" succeeded information technology in 2013. That'south more staying ability than a popped collar.

7. Cheers
Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo'southward archetype theme song goes downwardly almost as smoothly and soothingly as a large tumbler of rye, instantly setting up high levels of comfort and esprit before the prove kicks into the wacky shenanigans of the mainstays at Boston's best-known fictional bar. "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" may exist easy to accept, but information technology wasn't so easy to really make: The NBC brass roundly rejected Portnoy and Angelo's beginning two attempts earlier the duo penned an all-new song to back-trail what would become one of goggle box'due south near beloved series.

8. Knight Rider
When you lot're dealing with a talking car and David Hasselhoff — idiot box'due south most dynamic duo? — a regular old theme just won't exercise. Composer Stu Phillips was a mainstay of the '70s and '80s Idiot box theme scene (he also crafted opening songs for The Vi Million Dollar Human, Battlestar Galactica, and The Fall Guy, among others), and his fantastically modern instrumental reflected the forward-thinking (and, yeah, nonetheless featherbrained) nature of the series.

nine. The A-Team
This is a theme song that gets things done, much like the unexpected and unlikely heroes it helps to introduce. Mike Mail and Pete Carpenter'south instrumental was tasked with following two big and snappy elements: vox-over backstory (heavy on the unlawful imprisonment) and just a ton of gunfire. How do you even top that? Tones that scream take a chance, guitars that proclaim badass, and a few well-placed blast-y noises (thanks, Mr. T). Alan Silvestri adjusted the song for the 2010 moving-picture show adaptation, but his directly-laced version only couldn't compete with the A-Team of A-Team themes.

10. The Dukes of Hazzard
Stick Waylon Jennings on your soundtrack, and you've got instant country credibility. Jennings actually went whole-hog on this Hazzard thing, writing and recording "Good Ol' Boys" for the hit CBS sitcom, along with narrating the unabridged series. Jennings'due southHazzard roots ran deep, every bit the credited "Balladeer" also narrated 1975'southward feature movie Moonrunners, the Gy Waldron moving-picture show that was somewhen reshaped into the serial less than one-half a decade later.

eleven. Family Ties
After you inevitably spend the starting time half of the NBC sitcom'due south opening credits guffawing loudly at Michael Gross's hippie hair, the dulcet tones of Deneice Williams and Johnny Mathis (and, to be fair, Dennis Tufano and Mindy Sterling for the showtime ten episodes) inevitably wash over you in their soothing, indelible duet. This is the definitive family-friendly theme vocal, complete with that closing (and totally over-the-top) "sha-la-la-la" that sounds as if it should (and could) be sung by dads the world over.

11 '80s Television receiver Theme Songs You lot Can Hum From Memory