Season 425: The Idiot Box

Desert Pavement

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Hello Seasonistas (and Seasonistas to be)!

First, I hope that everyone and their families and friends are doing well during this crazy, and let's face it, stressful time.

In addition to spending more time with family (even if only virtually), I imagine that many of us who are under shelter-in-place orders have found more time to play the ukulele or other instruments. I also imagine that many of us have been watching a bit more TV than we might have on the Time Before COVID-19. So, this Season's theme is

TV Theme Songs.

Please bring songs that played under either the opening or closing credits of TV shows. These can be songs that were written specifically as theme music for a given show (e.g., The Simpsons theme or Suicide is Painless for M*A*S*H), or songs that were repurposed as such (e.g., many of the CSI shows in the US use music by The Who for a theme song). Other songs by bands that performed more than just the TV theme (e.g., Day Dream Believer by the Monkees) or songs performed during an episode of a given show are out of bounds.

For the writers among us, please bring something having to do with some positive aspect(s) of having TV in our lives, be it educational, having to do with building community, etc. Songs simply about a TV show (e.g., how hot or not you might think Fox Mulder was) are also out of bounds.

:rulez:

1. The Season begins at 12:01 AM Hawaii time on Sunday, 5 April and ends at the stroke of midnight Sunday, 12 April.
2. Multi-tracks, other instruments, etc., are acceptable, as long as the ukeulele is front and center.
3. Collaborations are also most welcome, as long as they follow Rules 1 and 2.
4. No Song Limit
5. Please listen to and comment on everyone's videos. We all appreciate the feedback.
6. The Ukulele Underground Forum (this thread) will be the main space for this Season, but there will be parallel posts (see below for more details if interested).
7. The usual other rules that I just don't remember right now off of the top of my head.

Here is a place to get you started.

Here is the now active PLAYLIST!

Additional notes:
Most (all?) of you are aware by now that the UU Forum as we know it is on borrowed time. The UUF Moderators have been trying a chat solution called Discord, under the umbrella of which they have included a thread for the Seasons. Caz also started a sub-channel on Reddit for the Seasons. I do not know where we may end up in the long run. But, in the event that the UUF Mods don't find something other than Discord, consider this an opportunity to practice working with a different interface for the Seasons. Both of these services are free and work in both any browser or a stand alone app for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. They do however, require you to sign up for an account.

If Discord is your thing, go to the #seasons channel of the Ukulele Underground Forum at this link. This thread is completely unorganized and contains all chatter pertaining to the Seasons. However, you can use the search tool to find what you are interested within the #seasons thread. If you chose to post in Discord, please use the hashtag #season425 in your post. That hashtag, #season425, can be used to find all the posts having to do with this season.

If you are more of a Reddit person, go to this link to post your video in the Season 425 thread. I think by default the thread(s) are sorted by number of up votes. However, there is an option close at the top of a given thread to sort by time. It's sorted most recent to oldest (reverse of here) but it is at least chronological.
 
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Great idea, Andy! I, for one, have been watching far too much TV of late!
 
Great great great.

:)
 
i sometimes play a game while driving with a group (remember that?) - one hums or otherwise orally renders the melody of a theme song - the one who guesses correctly goes next....
I think I've found my first one to do.
 
Cool theme Andy! Like Val, i've been escaping a bit more into the tele of late.

After following all 3 threads early on this week, I kind of fell off. I'll try to get back to the habit of posting on all 3 just to help establish what works best between Discord and Reddit ~
 
i agree with keith, the best thing about the telly at the moment is you can play a bette davis film on it via dvd! getting through boxsets at a mile a minute at the moment (the ones really in a box, over there, on a shelf!)

good and timely theme idea, though!

and like mezcalero, i've signed up to reddit and discord, but after initially following the chat on both of them, as well as over here, i found it a bit overwhelming and am just sticking to UU and youtube for now.
 
Here's a Libertines song I've wanted to do for a while. Also just happens to have been used as the theme for one of my favourite comedies, Gavin and Stacey.


 
I think if I had to choose only one old TV show to watch for the rest of my life, it would be Cheers.

Hands up if you have ever heard verses 2 & 3 before.

 
Probably not not well known outside of Australia.This was a TV mini series from the '70's. A pretty good historical drama about colonial times called "Against the Wind". The lead actor Jon English, very talented guy wrote and sung the theme song - Six Ribbons. Written as a folk song for the times, it was a good fit for the series and became a minor hit.
Thanks Andy.A good challenging theme.Baritone and tenor uke here.
 
A staple of school holiday and Saturday morning TV when I was a kid was The Banana Splits Show - 4 guys dressed up in wacky costumes (a dog, a monkey, a lion and an elephant) acting rather stupidly and occasionally singing as a rock group, interspersed with cartoon adventures of The Arabian Nights and The Three Musketeers - which in retrospect were vastly better than the slapstick capers of the Banana Splits themselves. But we (my 3 brothers and I) loved the show and loved to sing along to the wonderful and very catchy theme song, which I’m covering here. Had a lot of fun doing this one - brought back some lovely childhood memories, so I’m very grateful to you Andy for inspiring me to do this one! :)

 
The closing credits for the Sopranos used lots of songs, chosen specifically to fit the theme of that week's episode. Indeed, sequences in some episodes were shot to match the music. Are they in or out?

My original intention was for the music you hear week in week out. But, in the name of more options - if it played under the opening or closing credits, even if just for an episode, then it is allowed. Just please, if you can, identify the show and the episode for which the song was used.

The key part is that the song was played under the opening or closing credits.
 
Rocks and Gravel a Bob Dylan song featured on True Detectives.



I’m going to add this to the playlist, but it was not the theme music to the show (unless it was a 1-off played under the end credits).

One more time, for the folks in the back:
The song MUST BE opening or closing credits tv show music. NOT songs played during an episode. THEME MUSIC ONLY.
 
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Although I'm obviously far too young to remember the original airing of Fireball XL5 it's something I remember that always seemed to be repeated in the summer holidays (along with Heidi and King of the Rocket Men...) I always loved the theme song and so here it is...in Supermarionation!
 
I guess they're doing a reunion show soon.

Anyway, as I was starting to record this on our patio, Grover discovered a 'possum. We had to clear him and let the marsupial find a safe place.

So I went indoors and did this in one take. Probably the adrenaline. The second verse, too! On my Gibson, which is becoming a favorite.

 
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