Wrap Up
Sherwood Schwartz, Steven Bochco, More Celebrate and Honor Great TV Music
By Libby Slate
When he was creating theme songs for such series as The Addams Family and Green Acres, composer Vic Mizzy had the foresight to retain the publishing rights to his music.
So when
The Addams Family became a hit, “Two finger snaps, and you live in Bel-Air,” said Mizzy, referring to the catchy refrain performed by the ghoulish clan. And with the theme’s current use in an M & M’s commercial, “I’ve got a condo in Santa Monica now!”
Mizzy – who also directed the
Addams main title sequence and for
Green Acres, told star Eva Gabor to “Talk it!” upon hearing her sing – shared his stories before a sold-out house when the Television Academy presented
Another Opening, Another Show: A Celebration of TV Theme Music, October 11 at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre.
Months in the planning by members of the Academy’s music peer group and the Society of Composers & Lyricists, the evening featured a roster almost as full as the auditorium. Television icons introduced clip montages of the various genres – westerns, sci-fi, comedy – of the music that has become, as host Monica Mancini termed it, “the soundtracks of our lives.”
Jean Louisa Kelly and John Schneider sung a rousing medley of enduring favorites, and Stacy Keach showed his skills on the piano. And
TV’s Biggest Hits author Jon Burlingame led Mizzy and others in insightful conversations about their craft and careers.
The audience got in on the act as well, joining in for a sing along of
The Brady Bunch theme led by Maureen McCormick during the night’s first genre segment, on comedies. Sherwood Schwartz, creator and lyricist of
Brady and
Gilligan’s Island, took a well-applauded bow from his seat.
Other show segments included:
- doctors and lawyers, introduced by Bonnie Bartlett and William Daniels
- westerns, introduced by Mancini (in place of the previously announced Robert Conrad)
- action and spies, by Robert Vaughn
- science fiction, fantasy and heroes by Lindsay Wagner
- drama series and anthologies, by Stacy Keach, who noted, “Perhaps more than any other genre, drama has attracted our finest composers”
- cops and detective shows, introduced by Mancini
The host’s late father, Henry Mancini, helped changed the sound of television music with his jazz score to the detective series Peter Gunn. His daughter recalled the composer’s running into producer Blake Edwards, who asked him to do the show. Based on the title, “My father said he always wanted to do a western,” she recalled.
Mizzy was the first composer to discuss the creation of the music that sets the tone for the story to follow. Burlingame next chatted with Mike Post and producer Steven Bochco, whose thirty-year association includes Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue and Murder One; Post won an Emmy for the latter’s main title.
Of the decidedly non-action-oriented Hill Street, Bochco said, “We had images of cops and bums. I wanted the music to be counterintuitive, to play the melancholy underbelly of that world. Mike sat at the piano, and played that theme.” Then, Post related, Bochco said, “That’s my show. Thanks. Bye.”
Post was influenced by Peter Gunn – “one of the first that sent them out whistling” – and mentored by early partner Pete Carpenter. “I was trying to be tuneful,” he said. “Thank God I had a partner who taught me how to do it in terms of television.”
The final interviewee, Earle Hagen, began composing for television in 1953, and won an Emmy for his score for I Spy. Hagen's themes include The Andy Griffith Show–for which he was also the whistler–The Dick Van Dyke Show, That Girl and The Mod Squad.
For I Spy, filmed around the globe, Hagen had “the best collection of ethnic music in the world, and I didn’t hesitate to use it,” he said. “Each show has a character. You try to lock into the character of the show.”
The night ended with a surprise: Because there was no Emmy Award for main title composition during Hagen’s era, he was presented with a special award for his “pioneering work and enduring contributions” by Academy chief operating officer Alan Perris.
The evening was co-produced by Academy music governor Ray Colcord and Arthur Greenwald; Greenwald wrote the show. Stan Beard was music director and medley arranger. Barbara Wellner is chair of the activities committee. Robert O’Donnell is director of activities for the Television Academy.
READ MORE ABOUT THIS TV MUSIC GALA AT
FILM MUSIC SOCIETY NEWS — CLICK HERE
