6) You’re Gonna Make It After All
The theme song from the Mary Tyler Moore Show is all about positivity and girl power and, in my opinion, one of the greatest television theme songs ever written. In only four stanzas, songwriter Paul Williams (“We’ve Only Just Begun” and “Just An Old Fashioned Love Song”) delivers the message that not only is our star Mary special, but she’s gonna make it! She’s gonna take this town! And it’s time for her start living for herself and stop giving to everyone else, damnit! When you listen to the words, you almost have to wonder if Phil Hartman got inspiration for Stuart Smalley from this song. Mary, you’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and goshdarnit, people like you!
7) We’re Movin’ On Up
I’m not a New Yorker, but I’m guessing it’s still pretty exciting to move on up to a deluxe apartment on the east side. But perhaps the most heart-warming thought behind the Jeffersons theme song (and the show itself) is the notion that you’ve got to have someone to share all that with in order to appreciate it (“As long as we live, it’s you and me, baby, ain’t nothin’ wrong with that). Now if somebody could just explain why fish don’t fry in the kitchen and beans don’t burn on the grill …
8) Come and Knock On Our Door
What I loved most about the Three’s Company theme song wasn’t the message of community, but more the encouragement to try something different (“Take a step that is new”). Who can argue with the logic that trying new things can help you to see that “Life is a ball again and laughter is calling for you?” Certainly not anyone who snorts when she laughs and wears her hair in a side ponytail, or who frequents a watering hole called The Regal Beagle.
9) Making Their Way the Only Way They Know How
I’ve always wondered about the process songwriters use when writing for TV shows. Are they given a brief about the show? Do they know who’s been cast as the characters before they start writing? Whatever process Waylon Jennings used, he nailed it when he wrote and performed the Dukes of Hazzard theme song. Modern day Robin Hoods and good old boys who don’t mean no harm. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that, Waylon.
10) You Take the Good, You Take the Bad
It was a tough call between Facts of Life and Diff’rent Strokes (both co-written by Alan Thicke of Growing Pains fame), but the Facts of Life theme songs wins for its no-nonsense encouragement to do some inner therapy when things aren’t going so well, and to ultimately realize that sometimes, well, that’s just the way life goes. I’m sure that logic came in handy for Tootie, when she tried to come to terms with why she was nicknamed after flatulence.
