TV THEMES-THE '80s

The '80s
Classic TV theme: Cheers
Written by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name.
Leonardo DiCaprio went rogue in his 2010 Rolling Stone interview and delivered this brilliant non-sequitur in a piece designed to promote his movie Inception: "What is the Ninth Symphony of '80s sitcom theme songs? There's 'Movin' On Up,' and there's 'Welcome Back.' But they don't have the weight that Cheers does, the emotional depth, the undercurrent of sadness, life, happiness, all rolled into one area where a man can have a beer."

The song is called "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" and it was written by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo, who got the attention of the Cheers producers for their work scoring a musical called Preppies. Gary came up with the idea when he got in the mindset of a late-night bar patron, and in the process created one of the great TV theme songs, and a piano bar mainstay. The producers thought about having someone famous sing it, but when they heard Gary's demo, it captured the feel of Cheers - a bunch of regular guys in a home away from home. They chose intimate over polished, and the voice you hear is Gary's.

We wondered if writing a TV theme would be difficult because so many previously-written theme songs would be dancing in your head, making it impossible to write something original, so we asked Gary how he handles this. Said Gary:

Cheers was the first TV theme I ever co-wrote. Coming from a background as a pop songwriter - as opposed to say, a jingle writer - I approached the Cheers theme - and all that followed - as 'songs' rather than 'themes.' I was never that cognizant of how long they ran until we were done with the writing. Most were born as full length songs that were than edited down to a minute. I never had to clear my head of past TV themes because I was never really thinking in that vein while we were working.
Cheers ran from 1982-1993, anchoring NBC's "Must See TV" Thursday night lineup. But it almost didn't make it past the first season, since it was one of the worst-rated shows that year. The theme song, however, caught on, and NBC got plenty of requests for the sheet music and recording. They brought Portnoy back to record a full version of the song, which was released as a single. He had some fun with that one, including lyrics like, "And your husband wants to be a girl..."

Other famous theme songs from the '80s:
•"With A Little Help From My Friends" from The Wonder Years - Joe Cocker's version of the Beatles classic was used in this one.


•"Paint It Black" from Tour of Duty - Long before The Who sold out to CSI, this Rolling Stones song fit perfectly with a show about the Vietnam War.


•"Miami Vice Theme" from Miami Vice - Jan Hammer's keyboard-driven instrumental was a #1 hit, and gave Crockett and Tubbs their sound.