Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
You know, a great TV theme song is more than just an earworm. The best of the best rewire your brain so that, decades later, hearing it, you’re teleported straight back to the year you first heard it. We’ve had a lot of fun with this TV theme song series, covering tracks from all across the rock era. Today, we’re at it again, counting down the Top 10 picks for the best modern themes… We’ve got the Duffer brothers who stole an indie song off Bandcamp to use as the music for their series Stranger Things that they pitched to the biggest streamer in Hollywood… It not only got their show greenlit, but it became the biggest show of its time. But what happened to the band that wrote the song? Find out. Plus, the band Alabama 3, who sold their song for 500 bucks to The Sopranos, a TV show that became one of HBO’s biggest ever. They regretted it when the Theme song made Millions. And finally, a singer forgot that he had a meeting with a TV producer about writing the Big Bang Theory theme song. He only had 15 mins before the meeting was going to start, so he wrote a song in 5 minutes and recorded it in less time than that. It became so big it made more money than the #1 band's entire catalog combined! Let’s do it.
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Executive Producer
Brandon Fugal
Honorary Producers
Frank Kuna, zachery perry, Shayne Smith, Tom Stokes, Walter O. Wright II
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to the Professor of Rock Podcast
Apple: apple.co/445fVov
Spotify: spoti.fi/42JpfvU
Amazon: amzn.to/44b5D6m
iHeartRadio: bit.ly/444h8MO
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patreon: bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan
Merch Store: professor-of-rock-lsn-shop.fourthwall.com/'
Instagram: bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of_Rock
#classicrock #80smusic #vinylstory
Hey Music Junkies Alright I’ve got some great stories and themes as we count down the greatest TV themes of the last few deacdes in our modern TV countdown: Kicking off the countdown at #10 I want to shine the spotlight on Arrested Development… the satirical sitcom that follows Michael B a level-headed widower trying to manage his dysfunctional, formerly wealthy family. Set in Orange County, California, the series chronicles Michael's exasperating attempts to keep the family’s real estate business afloat while dealing with his self-absorbed, eccentric family members. Despite struggling with low broadcast ratings during its initial 3-season run on Fox from 2003 to 2006, the show earned an intense cult following and massive critical praise. Its enduring popularity prompted Netflix to revive the series for 2 more seasons starting in 2013.
The Arrested Development theme song is a brief, upbeat instrumental track composed by David Schwartz. And it perfectly captures the show's quirky, chaotic energy. Anchored by a bouncy, ukulele melody and backed by driving acoustic guitar strumming and whistled accents, the tune feels simultaneously whimsical and unhinged. It plays over a stylized title card sequence while Ron Howard, serving as the show's deadpan narrator, delivers the iconic opening line: "Now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together." This voiceover bridges the theme music directly into the episode's plot, making the song less of a traditional musical intro and more of a narrative springboard that sets a fast-paced, satirical tone. In 2003, the ukulele was widely considered a musical joke—a dead novelty instrument. But when tasked with writing the theme, David Schwartz grabbed a cheap ukulele and casually whistled a tune over it in his home studio. He intended this unpolished track as a "placeholder joke" to show creator Mitch Hurwitz what not to do. Hurwitz didn't realize it was a joke and fell in love with it. And well... so did the rest of us and in the process the joke song spawned the huge Ukulele fad that exploded across indie music.
Coming in at #9 I’ve got the Barenaked Ladies with the Big Bang Theory theme song. Big Bang tells the story of the socially awkward physicists, Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper, played by Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons. The two share an apartment in Pasadena as well as an affinity for comic books, video games, and scientific research. But their nerd-centric world is turned upside down when Penny moves in across the hall. As worlds collide, the show charts the guys’ introduction to social norms and romance. Rounding out the inner circle is aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz, his diminutive but fiery beau Bernadette, astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali, and Sheldon’s unexpected romantic counterpart Amy Farrah Fowler.
You know, a great TV theme song is more than just an earworm. The best of the best rewire your brain so that, decades later, hearing it, you’re teleported straight back to the year you first heard it. We’ve had a lot of fun with this TV theme song series, covering tracks from all across the rock era. Today, we’re at it again, counting down the Top 10 picks for the best modern themes… We’ve got the Duffer brothers who stole an indie song off Bandcamp to use as the music for their series Stranger Things that they pitched to the biggest streamer in Hollywood… It not only got their show greenlit, but it became the biggest show of its time. But what happened to the band that wrote the song? Find out. Plus, the band Alabama 3, who sold their song for 500 bucks to The Sopranos, a TV show that became one of HBO’s biggest ever. They regretted it when the Theme song made Millions. And finally, a singer forgot that he had a meeting with a TV producer about writing the Big Bang Theory theme song. He only had 15 mins before the meeting was going to start, so he wrote a song in 5 minutes and recorded it in less time than that. It became so big it made more money than the #1 band's entire catalog combined! Let’s do it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Executive Producer
Brandon Fugal
Honorary Producers
Frank Kuna, zachery perry, Shayne Smith, Tom Stokes, Walter O. Wright II
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to the Professor of Rock Podcast
Apple: apple.co/445fVov
Spotify: spoti.fi/42JpfvU
Amazon: amzn.to/44b5D6m
iHeartRadio: bit.ly/444h8MO
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Patreon: bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan
Merch Store: professor-of-rock-lsn-shop.fourthwall.com/'
Instagram: bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of_Rock
#classicrock #80smusic #vinylstory
Hey Music Junkies Alright I’ve got some great stories and themes as we count down the greatest TV themes of the last few deacdes in our modern TV countdown: Kicking off the countdown at #10 I want to shine the spotlight on Arrested Development… the satirical sitcom that follows Michael B a level-headed widower trying to manage his dysfunctional, formerly wealthy family. Set in Orange County, California, the series chronicles Michael's exasperating attempts to keep the family’s real estate business afloat while dealing with his self-absorbed, eccentric family members. Despite struggling with low broadcast ratings during its initial 3-season run on Fox from 2003 to 2006, the show earned an intense cult following and massive critical praise. Its enduring popularity prompted Netflix to revive the series for 2 more seasons starting in 2013.
The Arrested Development theme song is a brief, upbeat instrumental track composed by David Schwartz. And it perfectly captures the show's quirky, chaotic energy. Anchored by a bouncy, ukulele melody and backed by driving acoustic guitar strumming and whistled accents, the tune feels simultaneously whimsical and unhinged. It plays over a stylized title card sequence while Ron Howard, serving as the show's deadpan narrator, delivers the iconic opening line: "Now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together." This voiceover bridges the theme music directly into the episode's plot, making the song less of a traditional musical intro and more of a narrative springboard that sets a fast-paced, satirical tone. In 2003, the ukulele was widely considered a musical joke—a dead novelty instrument. But when tasked with writing the theme, David Schwartz grabbed a cheap ukulele and casually whistled a tune over it in his home studio. He intended this unpolished track as a "placeholder joke" to show creator Mitch Hurwitz what not to do. Hurwitz didn't realize it was a joke and fell in love with it. And well... so did the rest of us and in the process the joke song spawned the huge Ukulele fad that exploded across indie music.
Coming in at #9 I’ve got the Barenaked Ladies with the Big Bang Theory theme song. Big Bang tells the story of the socially awkward physicists, Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper, played by Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons. The two share an apartment in Pasadena as well as an affinity for comic books, video games, and scientific research. But their nerd-centric world is turned upside down when Penny moves in across the hall. As worlds collide, the show charts the guys’ introduction to social norms and romance. Rounding out the inner circle is aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz, his diminutive but fiery beau Bernadette, astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali, and Sheldon’s unexpected romantic counterpart Amy Farrah Fowler.
