The Dying-slash-Thriving Art of the TV Title Sequence

It has been a thing as long as I can remember that a TV show will start off in its first couple seasons with a nice long title sequence, and then gradually cut it shorter and lamer and shorter and lamer as the series goes on.  It seems to me that that trend has reached an extreme in modern television, with shows keeping title sequences to the bare minimum to allow themselves more time for storytelling.

Err, but wait ... then why are there so many fantastic title sequences out there right now??  Oh right, it's the difference between shows that have a strict time constraint with ad time + traditional 30-60 minute slot, vs. the shows that ... don't.  Shows on premium channels like HBO and Showtime usually still stick to the traditional 30-60 minute slot, but they have the luxury of zero commercials taking away from their story-telling time.  And then you've got the basic cable networks, which can go either way - a channel like USA sticks to the traditional formula, where as a network like FX lets some of their shows (e.g. Sons of Anarchy and The Americans) take up all the time they damn well please.  Sure they've still gotta deal with commercials, but they also regularly run like 5-15 minutes past the hour mark.  Not all networks give their shows that luxury.  Oh and don't forget about Netflix!!  Talk about being able to do whatever the hell you want - these guys have it better than anyone in that category.  Must be nice.

The Dying Theme Song

On one hand, let's take a show like Castle, which I'm pretty sure never even bothered with a full title sequence in the first place, right?  Wasn't it always just that quickie little ditty with the ... OH wait!!  I just remembered, they used to start every episode off with that little backstory first!  But yeah, they stopped doing that quite a while back.

And then there's Louie, whose theme song was catchy as hell, but they seem to have cut it out entirely for its most recent season.  And New Girl, which started off with a pretty short opening theme, and only shortened it from there (it's gotta be like 10 seconds long at this point right?).  Didn't Breaking Bad go that same route?  Also Covert Affairs, which kept its full sequence for its first three seasons, but then just pulled the cord and cut it out completely in season 4.  Now they just do a fade in and fade out of the title.  In their case I was actually fine with the elimination of it, because I was never a huge fan of the original theme/sequence to begin with.  It was pretty cheesy.

Even over on HBO, some comedy series don't want to mess with long title sequences either, I guess because they only have a half hour of time for their story.  GIRLS has always just flashed the title up similar to CA as far as I can remember, with various different short clips of songs playing behind it.  And Silicon Valley's title sequence is actually really good (and they cleverly change it up on some eps similar to GIRLS), but it's still extremely short (this video manages to make it even shorter by cutting off the last few beats at the end).

Watch these shows, and you'd be convinced that the long, sprawling snazzy TV opening credits sequence is a lost relic of the past. 

The Thriving TV Theme Song

But holy shit what about Game of Thrones, True Detective, Dexter, Homeland, etc.??  I don't actually love all these title sequences, but there is no arguing that they are all memorable and long and they've never been compromised for time regardless of how many seasons the show is/was on the air (well, at least we can certainly say that for Dexter and its 800 seasons).

I like the title sequences for The Americans, Orphan Black, and Dexter.  I'm not head-over-heels in love with them, but they are good (or were good in the case of Dexter - the show itself is another story entirely). Homeland is just aiight.  But the dramas on HBO have been absolutely KILLING it these days in this arena.  Game of Thrones has one so fantastic that it has inspired countless covers of it all over YouTube.  And True Detective, holy shit.  One of the best I've ever seen.  It's not easy to find these ones online ... OH actually here's GoT on their official account (as if you haven't already seen it a million times):

And True Detective refuses to embed here.  ARRGH.  Just watch here, seriously, if you haven't seen it.  It's worth it. 

On network TV, there are still some hold-outs that haven't sacrificed their openers too badly.  Parks and Rec is a great example.  I find it quite literally (LITrally!!) impossible to NOT sing with it when it comes on, even when my mouth is full of food.  Community shortens theirs pretty often, but not always and I've always loved it (also I just remembered it was canceled so I won't be seeing it anymore I guess).  :(  That one won't embed here.  Jerks.  And I know Chuck has already been off the air for 2+ years now, but can we just take a moment to remember how amazing its title sequence was??  Sniffle.

And Netflix.  Oh, Netflix.  The lucky bastards who have the luxury of NO rules at all.  Well o.k. Orange is the New Black is the only Netflix series we've watched, and it does generally stick within the 60 minute rule (but it can vary its running time between 50-60 minutes each ep with no issues), and it has ALL the freedom in the world to have a long, brilliant title sequence. 

Tell me that shit doesn't get in your head like a catchy lovable parasite??  We purposely watch it every single time even when we're watching 3 eps in a row, because it's just that fun to sing with.  And dance with.

Ahhh ... So I guess my point is ... Can't all TV shows just stop showing commercials and have as much airtime as they want, please!?  Well, unless the title sequence is lame.  But even then, we can just fast forward through it.  Maybe we should just move to the damn Netflix model for everything.  No one watches shows the old school way anymore anyway.  O.k. I partially take that back - there are still a few shows I really enjoy watching live.  And waiting until the entire season is produced and in the can before you even get to see ep 1 is frustrating.  It also forces the writers and directors and cast to work in a complete vacuum with zero audience feedback until the season is over.  So it does have its drawbacks (though Orange is the New Black seems to have done just fine with that so far).  Maybe what I really want is for the networks of my favorite shows to give them 5-10 extra minutes to play with every episode, like the FX model hahah.

Essentially what I'm asking for is for every episode of every TV show I love to just keep going for as long as I want, until I feel like I've gotten everything out of it I'm looking for, LOL.  Yeah, that's it.  Anyone have a magic wand?