A Noted Television Theme

 

Jerrold Immel (1936-) is an American television music composer, famous for his theme to the television series, Dallas. Accompanying sweeping aerial filming of the Ewing ranch, Immel captured the expanse of Texas in the fashion of an epic western but with a disco tempo and his use of soaring french horns to carry the melody. Lesser known is his theme to Voyagers!, the short-lived science fiction series about time travel that aired on NBC. Immel got his break into television scoring with CBS in the Seventies, composing for Gunsmoke, and contributed to Hawaii Five-O, Logan's Run, Walker, Texas Ranger, and Knots Landing. His film scores include Matilda (1978), Death Hunt (1981), Sourdough (1981), and Megaforce (1982).

Dallas theme

A Noted Television Composer

 

Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (1932-) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film scores incorporating jazz and Latin American musical elements alongside traditional orchestrations. He is a five-time Grammy Award winner, and has been nominated for six Academy Awards and four Emmy Awards. Among his best known film compositions include the scores to Cool Hand Luke (1967), Bullitt (1968), the Dirty Harry series (1971-1988), The Four Musketeers (1974), and the Rush Hour trilogy (1998-2007). 

Schifrin wrote one of the most iconic television themes for Mission: Impossible (1966), a distinctive tune written in the uncommon 5/4 time signature, last notably used by David Raksin's earlier theme to Ben Casey. Similarly, his theme for the hugely successful Mannix private eye show was composed a year later in a 3/4 waltz time. Lesser-known perhaps, is his up tempo theme to the medical drama, Medical Center (1969-1976). While electric guitars and drums crank out the rhythm over bright, high contrast graphics, a synthesized starts on a low note and gradually rises in pitch to become a "siren" and the instrument that carries the melody.

Medical Center theme

A Noted Television Composer

 

Jerry Goldsmith (Jerrald King Goldsmith 1929-2004) was an American composer and conductor known for his vast work in the film industry but also for television scoring and concert works. He composed scores for five films in the Star Trek franchise and three in the Rambo franchise, as well as for Logan's Run, Planet of the Apes, Patton, Chinatown, Alien, Poltergeist, Gremlins, Hoosiers, Air Force One, and many others. His 1997 opening fanfare for Universal Pictures debuted with the release of The Lost World: Jurassic Park. His silver screen compositions continued into the Twenty-first Century. "Among his many other works" is synonymous with Goldsmith. His film scores were not always identified with him, ranging from light and melodic to very dissonant scores in a style where the melody is nearly non-existent, like many of his influences of early 20th-century composers.

Goldsmith found early work at CBS in 1950 as a clerk typist in the network's music department under director Lud Gluskin. There he began writing scores for radio shows, later progressing into scoring live CBS television anthology series. As the decade progressed, he scored multiple episodes of the television series The Twilight Zone and Dr. Kildare. Goldsmith composed the theme for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in 1964 and later added his touch to the James Bond parody, Our Man Flint, 1966, and its sequel In Like Flint, 1967. His military/action flare with snare drums was sometimes a giveaway during this period. His most notable television theme in the Nineties was the theme for the UPN series Star Trek: Voyager in 1995. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music. It is the most beautifully constructed theme of any Star Trek television series. His score and theme for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 1979, was later used on the popular television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987 with an arrangement by Dennis McCarthy.

Note: Goldsmith was good friends with fellow composer, Morton Stevens, of Hawaii Five-O theme fame. Stevens also wrote the theme to television's Police Woman. Goldsmith confessed he used that theme for his Derek Flint character film series. He turned Steven's theme "inside-out" but the melody is lifted intact. Both composers were amused by the reuse.

A Noted Television Theme

 

Robert David Grusin (1934-) is an American composer, arranger, producer, and jazz pianist. He has composed scores for feature films and television and won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including ten Grammy Awards. Grusin has scored nearly 100 films, including his Oscar win for best original score for The Milagro Beanfield War, as well as Oscar nominations for The Champ, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Firm, Havana, Heaven Can Wait, and On Golden Pond.

His television work is equally expansive with music for numerous series from the Sixties through the Eighties. His themes for The Name of The Game and It Takes a Thief, both 1968, were particularly cool in their day. Though not the arrangement heard on the series, Johnny Gregory aka Chaquito is the definitive version for the Robert Wagner series here.

A Noted Television Composer

 

Artie Kane (Aaron Cohen 1929- ) is an American pianist, film score composer, and conductor with a career spanning over six decades. Kane composed the music for over 250 television shows including Wonder Woman, Vegas, Hotel, Dynasty, Matlock, A Question of Guilt, and Man Against the Mob. During his career, he conducted over sixty motion pictures at MGM, Disney, Universal, Fox, Warner Brothers, Sony, and Paramount.

Of special note was his Music Supervisor position on the first season of The Rockford Files. His chosen music for Rockford in his Firebird was unique for the series. Originally a ninety-minute episode, This Case is Closed (1974), is perhaps the best example. Rockford is staking out a suspect as an inventive heavy percussion score adds tension. As the chase begins, the brass and woodwinds kick in as the stunt driver and Garner speed through a residential neighborhood at a realistic pace. Kane's jazzy, seemingly Lalo Schifrin-inspired music during the chase, was, to my knowledge, never used again. The music chosen for the series was never the same after his tenure with the series eventually repeating the same music cues when the Firebird was in motion.

A Noted Television Theme

 

Dick DeBenedictis (1937-) is an American pianist and composer of music for numerous television series. The ten-time Emmy nominated musician composed music for Police Story, Columbo, Father Dowling Mysteries, The Rockford Files, Hawaii Five-O, Phyllis, and two Matlock spin-offs, Jake and the Fatman and Diagnosis: Murder. Upon retirement, he began a teaching career at universities in Los Angeles and New York City. 

He wrote the theme to Andy Griffith's second hit series, a composition that is easy to remember but difficult to forget: http://www.televisiontunes.com/Matlock.html

A Noted Television Composer

 

Richard Markowitz (1926-1994) was an American film and television composer. After composing for numerous low-budget films in the late Fifties and a hand full in the Sixties and Seventies, it was television that provided him steady work, composing for popular series between the Sixties to the Eighties, everything from Ben Casey, Mission: Impossible to Murder, She Wrote in which he received the ASCAP Film and Television Music Award for 1988, 1989, and 1990. But it was his unusual western theme for an unusual series, The Wild Wild West, for which he is best remembered. Prior, he wrote the theme for, The Rebel, most notable for it being sung by Johnny Cash.

A Noted Television Theme

 

Beside the intelligent scripts and David Janssen's iconic portrayal of Dr. Richard Kimball, The Fugitive is memorable for its distinctive theme and music cues written by Pete Rugolo. The fast-paced "running" music of the theme perfectly matched the title character. He wrote cues for Barry Morse's character, a contemplative cue for Kimball, as well as numerous cues ranging from sad to exciting chase moments. Being good friends and a Rugolo fan, it was Janssen's hope to have Rugolo work for his first series, Richard Diamond. The series put him at the forefront of television composers. Combined with Maurice Binder's opening graphic sequence, it set the jazzy tone of the series in the beginning. His theme and music cues for Thriller, hosted by Boris Karloff, was his next milepost. Roy Huggins, creator of The Fugitive concept, would twist the idea around for his next series, Run For Your Life. Having a second title character "running for his life" simultaneously was not as successful, however.

Note: Pietro "Pete" Rugolo (1915-2011) was a Sicilian-born jazz composer who settled in the US in 1921. He wrote music for many series in television's early days which were as diverse as Leave It To Beaver or Felony Squad. Maurice Binder would gain international fame for his creative opening titles for the early James Bond films.

Low Profile. High Output.

George Duning (1908-2000) was an American musician and highly respected film composer, working on over 300 film and television scores. Nominated five times for an Academy Award, Duning never won. Born in Richmond, Indiana, Duning played trumpet and piano for the Kay Kyser band in the 1940s, later arranging most of the music for Kyser's radio program, Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge. His name may not come to mind as readily as a few other film composers, due to his early uncredited stock music supplied for countless low-budget films of the Forties and Fifties. 

Duning signed on with Columbia Pictures in 1946, where he worked almost exclusively through the early Sixties, collaborating often with director Richard Quine and actor, Glenn Ford. His scores for the original 3:10 to Yuma, and Cowboy are two of the best examples of the western genre. His diversity is displayed in such notable films as Picnic, From Here To Eternity, The World of Suzie Wong, The Devil at Four O'Clock, and Bell, Book, and Candle. Though too numerous to mention, other notable films include his first film score for Johnny O'Clock, followed by Lust for Gold, The Mob, The Brothers Rico, That Touch of Mink, and The Man with Bogart's Face. His work for television, notably The Big Valley, is nearly as prolific, spanning the Fifties through the Eighties. 

Organist Transplant

 

London-born musician/composer Rex Koury (1911-2006) and family came to the United States in 1913, settling n New Jersey. He was an organist during the silent film era from 1927-1929 and featured organ soloist throughout New York state from 1929-1934. He held cinema organ positions at several theaters, including a contract with RKO Proctor's Fourth Street Theatre in Troy, Ohio where he was billed by the theatre as "The Youngest Professional Organist in America." As the cinema organ industry was starting to wind down, he moved to Hollywood and worked as a conductor, pianist, and composer for movie studios. He found steady work composing music for numerous popular radio programs. By the early Fifties, he composed his most famous theme, the slow western melody "The Long Trail," for the CBS radio show "Gunsmoke" (above with William Conrad)  A theme that continued for the half-hour television CBS show in 1955. Eventually, a faster-paced version was created then a more contemporary arrangement for the remainder of the show's run. Koury had a long association with church music as an organist. He retired to Casper, Wyoming in the Seventies where he commanded one of the largest pipe organs at the First Presbyterian Church.

A Noted Television Composer

 

Patrick Williams (1939-2018) was an American composer, arranger, and conductor who worked in many genres of music for film and television. The Missouri-born Williams grew up in Connecticut and received a degree in history from Duke University. However, music being his first passion, he went on to Columbia University to study music composition and conducting, making a career of just that. His music accompanied episodes of Columbo, every season of Lou Grant, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, and Monk among many others. He wrote a great theme with trumpet lead for the Bill Bixby's series, The Magician, and the funk-soul theme to Quinn Martin's The Streets of San Francisco with an unheard of twenty seconds of intro music before the melody and title voice-over begins. With all the extra commercials today, a full theme can be all of twenty seconds long.

A Noted Television Composer

 

A graduate of Juilliard School of Music, Herschel Burke Gilbert (1918-2003) was an orchestrator, musical supervisor, and composer of film and television scores and themes. It is estimated his compositions had been used in at least three thousand individual episodes of various television series. Many of these were produced by Four Star Television when Gilbert was the Music Director. Besides Burker's Law, the most notable is, The Rifleman, the first television series to have original music themes composed specifically for certain characters, moods, or scenes. Prior, the scores were chosen from CBS's music library. Gilbert wrote music cues for countless series as well, Gunsmoke, The Adventures of Superman, and Leave It to Beaver come to mind. His film work was just as diverse, the most popular being the classic, It's a Wonderful Life.