This is the excellent opening sequence of Archer. You can read all about its inception here, at the very-helpful site The Art of the Title. As you can probably tell, it’s another Saul Bass-inspired piece, like this and this. In fact, two of the Bass-inspired movie opening credits sequences I cited for Chuck are referred to as influences for Neal Holman, Archer’s art director. What ties this closer to Mad Men, though, is that this sequence is meant also to recall the era of Saul Bass sequences, as Archer takes place in a kind of 1960’s/present-hybrid. In that sense, it probably has the most in common with The Venture Bros, a sequence meant to recall that same era’s action cartoons. The Venture Bros too takes place in a sort-of hybrid between a bygone era and the present. And both are terrific series (Adam Reed, creator of Archer, worked primarily on Adult Swim shows before bringing Archer to FX).
This very much of-the-era song was written by Scott Sims and arranged and recorded by Dominik Hauser. This is what you should be humming when you’re sneaking around corners pretending to be a spy.

The Venture Bros. returned to television last night, and if you don’t watch it then you’re sincerely missing the best animated show on Adult Swim. This isn’t a tough match, but it’s heads above the rest, seriously. If you like comics, or old Hanna-Barbera cartoons, or David Bowie, or anything from pop culture ever, you would like The Venture Bros. The opening credits here make it seem like it’s a 1960’s action series, which is what it’s parodying in an often dead-on way. The animation is so impressive, especially with its recreation of those old, crappy visuals.

The song was adapted by J.G. Thirwell from his own earlier recording under the name Steroid Maximus, “Fighteous.” You can see it here:

Watch this show, you guys. You’d love it.

The Boondocks’ theme song (“Judo Flip”) was written by Asheru, and is one of the rare current theme songs to be rap. But it is on Adult Swim, so that’s a little less rare. It’s a pretty good song, honestly, that kind of describes the mindset of the show’s ostensible lead character, Huey Freeman. The problem, however, is that the show has gravitated toward Riley-driven stories. Riley is a character who has a lot to say and through whose eyes we can see a lot of mainstream hip hop culture, but he’s not really as thoughtful or introspective as Huey, which may make him better suited toward leading status on a TV series. So the song’s a little misaligned, but that’s cool.

It’s written by Asheru, who’s the only rapper to win a Peabody, apparently, for his contributions to this (WARNING THIS CLIP DROPS THE N-BOMB A TON):

Now HERE’S a theme song by They Might Be Giants. This show was very short lived and part of Adult Swim’s goal to never stop producing content that hypnotizes and upsets me. The show was based on the comic strip Maakies, and Tony Millionaire + Adult Swim is kind of a perfect match. The little story told by the opening credits is a pretty fair example of the show as a whole: Terrible things happen to Drinky Crow and Uncle Gabby, and those two in turn act terrible. The song sounds sort of thrown-together, like one of those thirty second tracks in between the awesome songs on TMBG albums, which is deceptive because the show seemed to take a TREMENDOUS amount of work. Who knows, though? Cancelled after one upsetting season.