Name That Show: Can You Recognize These Iconic TV Openings?

Many of us remember when TV show openings felt like, well, little TV shows themselves—setting the mood, giving a hint about the story, and often featuring an ear-worm theme song. You probably hear one in your head right now. ("Sunday, Monday...")

In those days, skipping ahead wasn’t an option unless you were "time-shifting" with your VCR (anyone else remember that?), and those moments were usually when you took a quick trip to the kitchen for a snack.

Skip Intro? Not When They’re This Good!

These action-packed intros set things up, introduced the main characters, and even summarized some of the previous episodes.

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Something changed in the '90s, though. Seinfeld threw out the playbook when the show went completely open-less, with only a few funky bass notes to signal the start of the show. Funnily enough, the show “about nothing” began with ... pretty much nothing.

Fast forward to today, and with the advent of prestige TV (serious in tone, high in production value, bonkers storylines), opening sequences have become their own art form.

Series like True Detective, Game of Thrones, and The Crown have put so much thought into their openings that some fans refuse to skip them (even though most streaming platforms now offer that as an option). Go big, or be forgotten.