"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale" of a time when television shows began with awesome TV Theme Songs. "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name" and sometimes you want to go back to when TV Theme songs were special. "Here's a story... of a lovely" time when TV Theme Songs served to identify, distinguish and set the stage for the television program that followed. "You take the good, take the bad, take them both and there you have" what unfortunately has become a lost artform. "Believe it or not", sadly it seems no effort or pride is taken in the TV Theme Song ever since Seinfeld proved a short synth-bass riff could be used instead. “Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!” This regular feature may not "make all our dreams come true", but it will remember some of the best TV Theme Songs from years past (with a focus on the '80s decade). "Come aboard, we're expecting you."
This time we will cover the theme song for Hunter. The series created by Frank Lupo debuted on NBC in September of 1984 running seven seasons and 153 episodes. Hunter stars former NFL star Fred Dryer in the title role Sergeant Rick Hunter along with Stepfanie Kramer as Sergeant Dee Dee McCall. In the first season, the producers sought to create a hook by giving the main character a catchphrase, "Works for me", which was sometimes used two or three times in an episode and was even added to the end of the show's opening theme music.
Hunter's instrumental theme song was composed by the prolific Mike Post and Peter Carpenter. Mike Post is credited with many great television theme songs including co-writing one of my very favorites, The Greatest American Hero, with Stephen Geyer. He also created The Rockford Files, The White Shadow, Magnum, P.I., Hill Street Blues, The A-Team, L.A. Law, Doogie Howser, M.D. and Quantum Leap among many others. Carpenter previously collaborated with Post on the theme song for The Rockford Files as well as Magnum, P.I. and contributed to the scores on other '80s shows including CHiPs, The A-Team, and Hardcastle and McCormick, after work on shows like Bewitched, Gomer Pyle and The Andy Griffith Show in the '60s.
The opening changed over the course of the show, but the theme song pretty much stayed the same. Here is the opening for Hunter featuring the theme song...
The instrumental music feels pretty generic for the early '80s, but it is somewhat memorable at the same time. The openings are definitely reminiscent of all of the cop shows from the era.
Hope you enjoyed tuning in for another "episode" of TV Theme Songs!