[quote name=\'Adam Nedeff\' date=\'Oct 10 2005, 02:03 AM\'][quote name=\'golden-road\' date=\'Oct 10 2005, 12:16 AM\']1. I listened to a clip of the Kennedy theme a few years ago, then listened to a clip of the Lange theme. To me, they sounded the same, the lyrics on the Kennedy theme being the difference. Were they the same, and was the Kennedy "Disco" theme any different?
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The "disco era" theme was actually an atrocious piece that started off with a great-sounding fanfare, then that fanfare repeated a couple of times, then the brass section would do this thing that sounded like they were trying to start a car. Not a good theme at all, and there wasn't really much of it. It only played during the opening and the fee plugs; during the end credits for the disco episodes, the band would play a medley of songs used in that episode.
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Yes, but that only applied to the second season Stan Worth was the musical director.
First season: after the fee plugs, John Harlan would again introduce Tom Kennedy, both bands and vocalists, and the dancers ("With Stan Worth and the Name That Tune Band! With Monica Burruss! Dan Sawyer and The Sound System! Steve March! Jerri Fiala and Dennon Rawles!") as Fred Seldin blew a long sax solo, then the credits ran.
Second season: the intros were replaced with the song medley over the credits then a brief tag of the theme song. What made this a hard job was that Worth often had to write a brief segue from the theme into his song snippet, which was often in a different key than the theme and involved tricky modulations.
And yes, the two Tommy Oliver-penned NTT themes were different, but you can hear the influence of the former on the latter. (The pilots and test shows, of which there were many, sometimes used a different musical theme and an entirely different intro.) Sort of like when John Fogerty stole from himself.
