Vincent Young

AM New York ran two highly entertaining and highly distracting (and highly debatable) articles: A timeline of TV theme songs and a ranking of the Top 5 TV themes. Another reader (@KENNECTED) and I have been a little perplexed by the writer Robert Spuhler’s choices (or more accurately, omissions).

I am not sure I trust the criteria Robert used to determine his Top 5 lists. For example, how did the Cheers theme end up in the Top 5 while the Facts of Life theme languishes in the Worst 5? I am pretty sure if you brought a couple of 40s into Tompkins Square and emptied them into your average punk rocker, you would have an easier time getting him to sing the latter over than the former!

Also, while he included cartoons (a list that omits the Spiderman cartoon theme, the Hulk theme, and the Star Blazers theme), the category is too narrow. Instead of debating with him and other readers about the lists he created, I’m going to suggest a new list —

Here are my Top 5 Children’s Educational TV Show Theme Songs:

My Number ONE hands down is the song I grew up to (and my sons are growing up to):

The Sesame Street theme.

Number TWO is The Electric Company theme (the show that spurred my love of language and literature by introducing me to Easy Reader):

The theme to the Magic Garden (the show that nurtured my fascination with storytelling) is my Number THREE:

3-2-1 Contact, my Number FOUR, made me want to be a physicist – Actually taking a Physics class made me realize that science was not the profession for me:

Number FIVE is Zoom, the show that taught me Pig Latin and introduced me to kids who I’d never have contact with or talk to (or talk to me):

What are your Top 5 Children’s Educational TV Show Theme Songs? I realize that my list is dominated by shows from the 70s (when I was a kid). Are there 90s and 2000 shows that have catchy themes?