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.

Terriers is the latest great show to get poor ratings, and it’s really a shame. I can’t think of any show like it on TV right now, but if you watched Veronica Mars this is the show for you. It’s a PI show about the legwork involved with investigation, rather than the lab stuff, which everyone agrees is boring. Oh, and by the way, the theme song is terrific.

The song is “Gunfight Epiphany” by Robert Duncan, and here’s the full version:

An awesome little surf ditty telling a rambling shaggy dog story that excellently fits the tone of the show, which is pretty shaggy itself. You can get it in iTunes, because it’s your favorite song now.

When I was younger, I went over to my friend Dan’s house to watch Pulp Fiction. He had just seen it, and I hadn’t yet, and he was thrilled to show it to me. He shouted over the opening sequence “Look how small the letters are getting! This is great!”

That’s kind of how I feel about the Terriers titles. Look! The words are coming toward me a little! Awesome! Watch Terriers.

FX’s Louie was one of the best new shows of 2010 (okay, not a crowded field). The theme song is “Brother Louie” a song about a white guy who starts dating a black woman - written by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson and performed originally by Hot Chocolate. Louie uses the cover of the song by the band Stories, whose cover made the song chart in the US (blah blah blah, I know). The show’s original music is by the current Winner of the Most Genius Musician Award, Reggie Watts. (Do yourself a favor and watch that video and every other one related to him. In fact, here:):

Sorry, minor tangent. ANYWAY, the opening sequence has Louis CK (who stars in, writes, produces, directs and edits every single episode) walking around New York City, looking sort of sad, getting a pizza, then headed to a comedy club. First of all, I may never forgive him for throwing away a half-eaten pizza. Second, a guy totally gives the camera the finger. The entire budget for the pilot was $200,000, including Louis CK’s pay, and the show has a generally extremely small budget. To wit: they could not reshoot the title sequence. That bird was going in the show. Here’s Louis CK on the subject:

“During the opening credits of the show, some guy flips off the camera. There was a young, NYU-looking kid — spiky hair and just real contrary. He was walking with some real “yeah fuck everything” type guy. I was eating the pizza and I saw them, and I was already thought ‘Jeeesus.’ I think they saw a camera and they saw people making a sincere effort in something… So one of them went ‘YEAHHHH’ and he flipped off the camera. And I remember that moment very well because I was eating pizza and I watched him flip off the camera and I could tell by the angle that we caught it. And I thought — when that happened, I knew we were gonna be on TV. Because that was when we were shooting the pilot, and it was a test. For some reason I remember seeing that and thinking, ‘That’s just meant to be. That’s gonna be in the opening credits. It’ll be fuzzy because I fucking know how the camera works. It’s gonna be a little fuzzy because it’s out of the depth of field and people are going to see it.’ I just knew. That was just a sign to me. That we were going to get to be on TV.”

(Quoted via FunnyorDie)

Touches like this make the show seem very homemade, in a good way. Incidentally, the song ends with “Louie, Louie, you’re gonna cry.” For the show’s theme, this was changed to “Louie, Louie, you’re gonna die.”

The Shield actually had a full-length song, written for the show about the characters, called “Just Another Day” by Vivian Ann Romero, Ernesto J Bautista, and Rodney Alejandro. Here’s that:

It’s unfortunate that they couldn’t use the whole song, but it does make sense. There was no time. The Shield was a fast-moving show about how easy it is to put complete faith into the people charged with defending us, and how easy it is for them to abuse that power. It was kind of the perfect Bush-era show, sincerely. And it ended the same month we elected Obama, and decided to put all our faith into him.

I know not everyone’s a fan, but I am among that small number of people who LOVE Damages. And I don’t know if anyone could argue that its opening sequence (song “When I Am Through With You” by The VLA) doesn’t suit the show perfectly. 

I mean, we’ve all seen legal dramas. Like, every episode or so the characters argue an Important Case that makes a point about America Today. Damages is a vicious, often upsetting show basically about gangsters. These characters use the law to destroy each other. Sometimes they act outside the law, usually with murder, but they do it with almost complete impunity because they are high-profile lawyers with a ton of money. It’s never about serving justice with these characters. It’s about getting someone so good that when you’re through, there won’t be anything left.

It’s also such a creepy show so often, and this is maybe the scariest opening credits sequence ever. It starts foreboding and gets MORE foreboding, until its imagery begins to turn explicitly violent. Courtroom steps, dude with blood on his hands. Did Ellen kill someone? What’s the deal?

In case you’re interested, here’s the full song:

FOCUS ON THE EMMYS. This is the theme song to the show Justified - it’s a snippet of the song “Long Hard Times to Come,” by Gangstagrass, featuring T.O.N.E-z. Apparently Elmore Leonard is actually a fan of the band, saying,

Rench and his friends have done nothing short of creating a new form of music. Gangstagrass takes two types of music that are opposites and mixes them together brilliantly in a way that is natural and enjoyable.

I don’t know that I agree that rap and bluegrass are “opposites,” (can any genre really have opposites? Come on) but they definitely developed in two different communities, and this song is great. Nominated for the Emmy are producer Rench and rapper T.O.N.E-z, under the names “Oscar Owens” and “Jason Keaton.”

What’s kind of cool is that Gangstagrass is a band out of New York City, and GUESS WHAT I think that is representative of the series as a whole. Raylan Givens is obviously a man out of his time, but more important than that is how little he likes being in Harlan County, KY. He’s a guy who wants to be in Miami. It’s about intranational culture clashes, and that almost always leads to some pretty cool music.