My Life

100 Memorable TV Theme Songs – Part 6

I promised y’all we wouldn’t have another big delay, and I am a man of my word. Actually, now that my weekends will be filled with an abundance of football action (unless I receive an offer that just can’t be refused to actually leave the cozy confines of my humble abode), it is the perfect time to work on projects like this since I enjoy multitasking while in vegg mode. If you are new here please take a look around, and catch up with this series by going here…then here…then here…then here…and finally, here. Take your time…we’ll leave the light on for you.

50 Petticoat Junction (Petticoat Junction)

Come ride the litte train

That is rollin’ down the tracks to the junction

Forget about your cares

It is time to relax at the junction

This is another one of those shows that I admit to not watching much of, partly because its original run ended before I was born, but also because, even though reruns were available during my childhood, it just didn’t interest me. Having said that, the theme song is a fun little ditty with a bluegrass vibe.

49 Together (Silver Spoons)

Together, we’re going to find our way

Together, taking the time each day

To learn all about those things you just cant buy

I feel like Silver Spoons gets overlooked by those who fondly reminisce about great 80s sitcoms. Rick Schroder never really became the kind of big star that many expected after his Golden Globe winning performance in 1979’s The Champ when he was nine years old, and the show itself wasn’t a huge hit. However, it did launch the careers of Alfonso Ribeiro and Jason Bateman. The theme song is exactly the kind of schmaltzy, soft rock-esque vibe one would expect to find in an 80s time capsule.

48 Gomer Pyle, USMC (Gomer Pyle, USMC)

Gomer Pyle was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, and was almost as successful. One can enjoy Gomer Pyle on its own merits, even if you’ve never seen an episode of TAGS. However, in my humble opinion, the character works better as a supporting player amongst the hilarious antics in Mayberry, and I kind of wish he’d never left to join the service. Pyle’s theme song is NOT an official Marine tune, although composer Earle Hagen (who also wrote & whistled the TAGS theme) did a really nice job of capturing the essence of a military style march.

47 Suicide is Painless (MASH)

I freakin’ hated MASH when I was a kid. Not only did I not understand the humor (or drama) of the well written program, but I seem to recall it aired at 9pm on Mondays, when all I wanted to do was watch a little bit of Monday Night Football before I had to go to bed. Unfortunately my father loved MASH, and he had control of the only television in our house at the time. Having said that, I did develop an appreciation for the show as an adult, though it still isn’t something I seek out on streaming platforms. There are lots of other things I prefer for a jolt of nostalgia (although the 1970 film starring Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, and Robert Duvall is rather entertaining). The theme song’s title contains the word “suicide”, which is obviously a downer, but it’s one of the most memorable themes in television history.

46 I Love You (Barney)

I love you, you love me

We’re a happy family

With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you

Won’t you say you love me too

It haunts my dreams. That damn purple dinosaur was really popular when my nephew was a toddler, and he wanted to watch the videos over & over & over & over & over…😱.

45 Linus & Lucy (Peanuts)

When the first Peanuts holiday special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, was being produced in the 1960s, the comic strip’s creator Charles Schulz & TV producer Lee Mendelson battled network suits who were a bit hesitant about jazz musician Vince Guaraldi writing & performing the score. Needless to say the suits were wrong, and Generation X is thankful that Schulz & Mendelson got their way, with Linus & Lucy becoming the unofficial Peanuts theme song. I am the kind of dork who assigns various ringtones to my frequent contacts, and Linus & Lucy was my sister’s tone (because Lucy is Linus’ sister and that’s how my brain works). Though she passed more than two years ago I have not deleted the tune from my phone, and I never will.

44 All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight (Monday Night Football)

Are you ready for some football?

A Monday night party

Yes, sir, this is Hank and my mission is to get this party started

You know helmets crashin’, the crowd is psyched

Cause all my rowdy friends are here on Monday night

I had the opportunity to see Hank Williams Jr. in concert when I was in college. Unfortunately, because that was WAY before smart phones & social media, and due to enthusiastic “pre-gaming”, memories of the event are…vague. At any rate, a modified version of his 1984 Top Ten hit opened MNF from 1989-2011, until Williams dared to criticize President Obama with an analogy that “journalists” & Hollywood types now use routinely with President Trump, which prompted ABC/Disney to do that thing they do of ruining a perfectly good thing for no real reason.

43 Big Bang (The Big Bang Theory)

Our whole universe was in a hot, dense state

Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started, wait

The earth began to cool, the autotrophs began to drool

Neanderthals developed tools

We built a wall (we built the pyramids)

Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries

That all started with the big bang

I LOVED TBBT and was glued to my TV every Thursday night for over a decade. There was a time when I used to watch a copious amount of reruns on TBS, although that phase seems to have passed. I was not a fan of 90s rock band Barenaked Ladies, but kudos to them for writing perhaps the last great television theme song.

42 The Addams Family (The Addams Family)

They’re creepy and they’re kooky

Mysterious and spooky

They’re all together ooky

The Addams Family

The Munsters (The Munsters)

Yes, I am aware that they are two different shows. However, it is difficult to overlook the similarities. Both featured odd, macabre, goth families seemingly unaware of their peculiarities. Both aired for only two seasons from 1964-66. Despite both shows producing less than 100 episodes, their popularity continues decades later thanks to almost always being aired somewhere on television. And finally, both had unique, infectious theme songs that everyone of a certain age remembers. The Addams Family theme has been used for various films & television revivals. The Munsters instrumental theme had a strangely effective surfer vibe and was actually nominated for Grammy.

41 My Life (Bosom Buddies)

I don’t need you to worry for me ’cause I’m alright
I don’t want you to tell me it’s time to come home
I don’t care what you say anymore, this is my life
Go ahead with your own life, leave me alone

Bosom Buddies’ most enduring legacy is introducing the world to Tom Hanks. It’s also a sitcom that’d never be greenlit in this day & age for fairly obvious reasons. The 1980s were just different. Anyway, My Life had been a Top 5 hit for Billy Joel in the late 70s, although it was performed by a different singer for the show and jettisoned altogether for syndication & home video. I am sure all of that is related to licensing, money, and legal mumbo jumbo.

We’re heading down the home stretch!! Please stay tuned for Part 7.

Reality and the Negative Spirit

(The following is reprinted from a post that first appeared in the original Manofesto over on MySpace on 9/20/08)


* Pragmatism is defined as “a practical approach to problems and affairs”.

* A realist has “concern for fact or reality and rejection of the impractical and visionary”.

* Optimism is the “inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome”.

* Pessimism is the “inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or to expect the worst possible outcome”.

* Negativity is “marked by denial, prohibition, or refusal, marked by absence, withholding, or removal of something positive”.

I give these definitions as a foundation for this particular invective because I reject each and every one of them. Each of these concepts is fundamentally flawed. By the end of today’s experience I hope to have the outline of a new philosophical approach, one that I can live with, one I will egotistically refer to as Samism.

Pragmatism offers the “practical approach”, which is fine for a lot of life’s issues. It is certainly better than sticking one’s head in the sand and ignoring a problem. However, it leaves no room for faith. It leaves no room for whimsy. It leaves no room for overcoming obstacles and achieving the impossible. It leaves no room for hope. I don’t like that at all. It may be the intelligent approach to life, but it’s also a rather somber and gloomy point of view.

I’ve always said I wasn’t a pessimist nor an optimist, but a realist. However, I am officially changing that attitude. Why? Well, look at the definition. A realist has no vision, which means they have no imagination. That too is a rather depressing outlook on life.

Optimism and pessimism are polar opposites of each other, and both are an illusion. One anticipates the worst possible outcome; one anticipates the best possible outcome. There are a couple different difficulties there. First of all, either way there is anticipation. I understand it is difficult not to anticipate, to think ahead, to worry and wonder how something is going to turn out. But it’s a losing proposition. If one always anticipates the worst possible outcome all the joy and happiness of life just dissipates into thin air. If one anticipates the best possible outcome they are setting themselves up for heartache and disappointment when things don’t go well. Secondly, anyone over the age of 5 has likely figured out, to varying degrees of awareness, that the upshot of a situation is most often neither the worst case scenario nor the best, most perfect solution. Life just doesn’t work that way. Does the absolute worst possible thing sometimes happen? Sure. Does something good, even better than the best thing one had hoped for, sometimes occur? Absolutely. But life usually isn’t that simple. The concepts of optimism and pessimism would dictate that, on a scale of 1 to 100, the result will always be either 1 or 100. An intelligent being with any type of life experience knows that is nearly impossible. It is extremely rare for one extreme or the other to transpire.

Negativity I suppose could be lumped in with pessimism. But I examine it separately for this reason…it is more active than pessimism. Pessimism is an attitude. Negativity integrates effort. By definition it requires one to “deny, prohibit, refuse, withhold, and remove”. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a lot of work to me, and I’m far too languid for such a task.

All this deep introspection comes as a result of becoming fed up with negative, pessimistic, unimaginative, unenthusiastic, downtrodden forces within my orbit. I’m just tired of it. I am a person with a physical disability. I was raised with love and kindness, proper discipline, and a certain level of support, though I am at a point in my life where I realize I wasn’t challenged and uplifted as much as might have been possible. I am coming to grips with the fact that I have been influenced by dark forces that have, to a degree, shaped my life in a way that has limited me and had a negative impact on my emotional health and social productivity. Are some of these issues a result of my own shortcomings, mistakes, and attitudes? There’s no doubt about that. But it saddens me when I realize just how low the expectations of others are and continue to be about the possibilities not only of my life, but of life in general. When I look back I can see I was really only encouraged in the area of academia. Thankfully I was always an inquisitive, creative, nerdy kid who enjoyed school and learned things with relative ease. I was always expected to do well in school, get good grades, make the honor roll, etc. And that I did. As a result, I’m perfectly content with sedentary pursuits such as reading, being online, listening to music, and watching television. My intellectual curiosity has never been absent, and for that I am thankful. It is no one’s fault but my own that I have not used these skills and aptitudes to their maximum potential. That being said though, it must also be stated that phrases like “the shape you’re in” and “it’s all work” permeate my environment. It’s been pounded into my skull over and over and over again that I have “two strikes” against me. I suppose in a way this was done as a way to protect me from harsh disappointment and rejection and to make sure I understood clearly the challenges I would face. While I appreciate the shelter and the love with which it was undoubtedly intended, I am only now beginning to fully grasp, too late I suspect, the consequences of such a guarded and trepidatious path.

But I don’t want to make this all about me. I know there are many others that have been held down in one way or another for various reasons by well meaning people or possibly by not so well meaning people who knew full well what they were doing and had selfish reasons for doing it. Most of us are products of our environment, and whether it’s an individual, a neighborhood, a family, or a town full of the oppressed and demoralized, negativity breeds negativity and vice versa. So, what to do?

I wish I had all the answers, but I don’t. I’m still trying to figure it out myself. However, I suppose a good way to begin is to train our mind, and for the purposes of the present discourse we must start with discarding all the old definitions I previously mentioned. Don’t be a pragmatist…it forces you to crush dreams and have no faith. Don’t be a realist…it eliminates vision. Don’t be an optimist…you will be disappointed often. Don’t be a pessimist…it destroys hope. Don’t engage in negativity…it uses far too much unconstructive energy. Be a Samist. The question is, what the heck is that? Well…..

Samism addresses problems, issues, and concerns head on in an intelligent manner. Samism has vision but engages that vision with reason and common sense. Samism recognizes that having expectations is unavoidable but seeks to employ critical thinking to temper such expectations so they do not lean to one extreme or another. Samism is open minded enough to welcome possibilities. Samism has faith in an omnipotent and just God that allows us the free will to screw up, grants us grace when we do fall short, and desires a relationship with us so we can learn better each day how to get it right. Samism believes in dreams but doesn’t allow one to be crushed by their weight.

This is a work in progress and the final working definition will most assuredly evolve. I just know that changing one’s own mindset is a jumping off point for changing one’s life, which is a jumping off point for changing the lives of others and the world around you.

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