Top Ten Animated Openings for Live Action Shows

This was a fun list to create because it took a lot of thinking... I struggled to come up with anything in the past decade that fit this category, though it seemed to be pretty prevalent in the 80s and 90s. I included youtube clips so that you could see the intros, in the event you haven't seen a few of the more obscure ones, like Even Stevens. In brainstorming and researching, I was surprised at how many of these I was already aware of... perhaps more shows should consider doing these types of openings - they're pretty memorable, apparently!

10. Batman (1966). Here we have a live-action drama based on a comic book, and they kept the original incarnation's feel in the opening titles, even incorporating the written sound effects like "WHAP!" and "POW!" The cape lives up to expectations, the relationship between Batman and Robin is clear, and the batmobile makes an appearance as Catwoman is mentioned but not seen. What more could you ask for?

9. The Partridge Family. How could I not include such a classic? The opening starts with a rumbling egg that hatches a partridge, which grows a family as you hear the song about the family. In between we have monochromatic portraits of the actors in a simple but fashionably photographed way. I like to watch the Mama partridge walk.

8. Desperate Housewives. Admittedly, this is one that I didn't know about before I started brainstorming for this post. Having never seen the show, I didn't know what to expect and was rather taken by the opening. I particularly liked the portraits of women through time, with stops in The Garden of Eden, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, the Rennaissance, and the twentieth century to today. Still not enough to make me tune in, but cute nonetheless.

7. Cheers. An iconic theme song with an old-time feel. Sure, we see a couple of modern cars in the opening two seconds, but then we're swept away to the world of horse-drawn carriages, the men at a bar all wearing suits, and the intermingling of black-and-white, sepia, and color. The still pictures cut into one another, zooming in and out on those before us who have had good times with those who know their names. The images changed throughout the series' eleven-year run, but the classic look did not.

6. The Mickey Mouse Club. Digging way back, this black-and-white opener even has the sponsored product depicted in animation! It's a longer intro but features the classic characters performing adorable marching band antics. This one holds a special place in my heart because it was a bedtime song what I was young, 

5. Bewitched. This one stands out in my memory because it was likely the first animated opening I ever saw for a series that wasn't actually a cartoon. I always found it funny that Sam would dress like a "traditional witch" and fly around on a broomstick in the opening when she didn't do that on the series. I particularly like the sparkly stars

4. Even Stevens. This one is technically stop-motion animation (or "claymation," if you will), but I think that's what makes it special. That, and the fact that it depicts how competitive Ren and Louis are from the time they get up until they're relaxing at home that night. The other family members only get tiny moments but they still encapsulate those personalities - Donnie is athletic, Steve is bewildered by his children's antics, and Eileen is constantly working.

3. I Dream of Jeannie. Some local station always had Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie back-to-back in syndication when I was a kid, and so I often caught the opening of Jeannie but didn't stick around to watch. I think the fact that her head came out of the bottle separately from her body freaked me out. The first season didn't have the very first part, with Major Nelson in the space capsule, but otherwise the sequence remained the same to my knowledge. This is the colorized version, rather than the original, because I found the quality better than any originals on YouTube.

2. The Nanny. Growing up, the only thing about this show's opener that I didn't like was the "joie de vivre" line - I hated that there was French in an English theme song! However, I was stunned at how much Niles, Mr. Sheffield, and Fran looked like their animated counterparts, so that made up for it. I think the funniest part of the sequence is that "she was there" and hence was hired in one of those "right-place-right-times" situations.

1. Home Improvement. The best of so many worlds... blueprints, collages, drawings, video games, sticks & stones spelling things, flashy graphics, and fade-ins all appear throughout the five different intros this series used over the course of its eight seasons. I always loved the gaming moments as a kid, but I think the quickly flashing collage for the look of the house most intrigues me now! The video for this one has the first 1:15 for the first season, then 2 & 3 until 2:30, then 4-6 until 3:23, then 7 until 4:15, then season 8 until the end. Also, be aware that the quality on this one isn't the greatest.

Comment below and let us know which animated titles are your favorites, especially if we left some out!

Switched at Birth: Bay Starts at Carlton, Daphne Starts the Truck

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

I'm a big fan of how packed this show is with drama. It's the exact reason why many people dislike ABC Family shows, but I get addicted. I'm especially intrigued to find out how John's candidacy will affect things around the household. With Kathryn heavily invested in the campaign as well, I'm thinking the Kennish kids are going to be fending for themselves much more than they're used to! Maybe Daphne will teach them to cook? Also, I'm trying to think of other television shows where a parent held a government office... only Even Stevens is coming to mind - anyone remember another? Regardless, I'm actually a bit nervous for Daphne being in the food truck alone, regardless of location. I'm not a frequenter to those establishments, but it seems to be a little unsafe for an individual, especially a young female. Although after this plot, I imagine John won't be allowing Daphne to be alone much anyway. A final thought... I found it kinda odd that Kathryn and John mentioned that it took them four years to conceive Toby... maybe they're setting up something in the future, because it seemed a little overkill to mention it just for the sake of Angelo's conquests.

Switched at Birth "The Awakening Conscience" (S02E02): Bay asks Kathryn and John if she can join the pilot program at Carlton, which accepts students who have deaf people in their immediate families. [I suppose they don't require any sort of actual confirmation. or because everyone around knows how odd their family make-up is, they don't question it.] Kathryn is more open to the idea than John, but eventually they decide to give it a try. [I loved how Daphne and Bay were signing to one another as they walked away.] Bay doesn't like her ID picture so Emmett hooks her up with a second shot at the photo. [lmao. when I was in ninth grade, replacement IDs were $5 AND got you a hall pass during lunch period. so, if you needed to meet someone or work on something or needed a little extra time away from everyone, all it took was $5 and a lie about the whereabouts of your ID. by the time I was a junior, however, it became a before-school thing only, so money couldn't buy you time anymore.] She and another hearing person struggle in class, especially because there's a culture clash going on with the deaf students feeling that it's unfair that they need to accommodate hearing people in school, their one refuge away from that world.

ABC Family

Bay begins to think that her ASL is terrible, plus she has to visit the Principal when she bumps another girl with a volleyball in gym. [At least her car is looking better now that she's spray-painted a "new look" for her new school!] At home, John announces his candidacy for state Senate, and there's a lot of excitement.
 
Regina tells Angelo about a state-of-the-art pool that has plants to filter the water instead of chemicals, but he has to break the news about his one-night-stand baby. [interesting aquatic system, though!] Regina then tells Kathryn (who tells John), unaware that Bay and Toby already know. [why haven't we seen Daphne really react??] Regina ends up meeting the woman in an elevator and learns that she's a medical student. [I'm not sure why that changed her thought process...]

Nikki tells Toby that, though she's cool with making out, she doesn't want to have sex again until she knows whom she'll marry. [oh that's right. She had a bad girl phase.] Nikki even suggests that Kathryn sing on a track when they go to the recording studio. [how awkward!] At another rehearsal, Emmett tells Toby that someone posted a photo online of Nikki topless at a party, again exposing her questionable past. Toby confronts Nikki, and she talks about how it was right after her dad died and she was drunk. [I liked Kathryn's comparison to Toby's mistakes, though they haven't been captured on film. At the same time, though, I wonder why she wasn't a little more taken aback by Nikki's past actions.]

Daphne wants to make a maiden voyage with her food truck at 11pm after a concert, but John asks her to try selling at the car wash first. He also has thoughts about the prices she should charge, which eliminates minimum-wage employees from being able to dine there. [interesting.]  Later, Daphne wants to do a "pay-what-you-can" event in her old neighborhood after she learns how much people are struggling over there. John accompanies her, but she's soon bullied by a kid who tells her to get out of the neighborhood because she's stopping the local entrepreneurs from getting any business. She doesn't stop, however, until the punk cuts the power lines to her truck. The situation gets Daphne wondering about how nice it is to be born to parents who can support whatever you want to do. [I could go on forever here, but I'll agree that there is still a large divide in many industries, where it's assumed you'll take an unpaid internship to get your foot in the door.]

Top 20 Television Sibling Rivalries! Part II

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Here we go, the top ten I chose for biggest sibling rivalries!

10. Doug & Judy Funnie. They're a pain in eachother's butts. They pick on one another, scheme to get the other's goat, and generally argue to no end. Doug tells a white lie to Judy about his Christmas List, and the next thing you know, Judy gets to name their baby sister Cleopatra, and Doug's joke of "Dirt Bike" becomes her middle name. Mom is too meek to really care about their arguments, and many times Doug and Judy just battle it out until the bitter end.

9. Marcia & Jan Brady. You should've seen this one coming. It's definitely one of the classic rivalries. We all know that Marcia is the pretty one and that Jan just gets ignored. Hating your glasses and wanting to wear a wig to get a different perspective is one thing, but inventing a fake boyfriend and having the operator call your house so you can pretend it's George Glass is another. Still, Marcia did a lot of showing off, whining, and proactivity to get her way in the family, so she deserved to be hated.

8. Raymond & Robert Barone. omg, who does Mom love more?!? such a big deal, for no reason at all! But, even when Robert manages to do something stellar enough for recognition, Raymond pretty much always manages to steal the spotlight in one way or another. There's not really a lot of different things that they fight eachother for, it's really a main focus on their "dear" mother.

7. Ren & Louis Stevens. I see this one as a real classic sibling rivalry. Ren was the smart one, Louis was the mischievous one. They often had to bribe eachother to get what they wanted, and the other would go along with it... sometimes. Rarely, they would actually go far to cover for one another, but generally speaking, they were cutthroat enemies. And they were CRAZY CREATIVE with how they got back at one another, which is something you see pretty rarely these days.

6. DJ & Stephanie Tanner. All Stephanie ever wanted to do was be just like DJ (except have a BFF smarter than Kimmy Gibbler. not that Gia was that great, but anyway...). Stephanie would con DJ into doing what she wanted (often because DJ would sneak out or make out or stop eating or get a bad grade or scratch the car or....). On MANY an occasion, Stephanie stole an article of clothing from DJ, only to have something go wrong (the mustard from the Funky Franks, for instance). Plus, how many times did Mr. Bear have to get thrown around to make a point?

5. Cory & Eric Matthews. They often fought over the use of their bedroom (and mysteriously switched sides of the room several times, so I guess their space issues carried on off-screen, LoL). They fought over belongings. They fought over girls. They each had their go-to parent, but sometimes wanted the attention of the other instead. Eric was the more athletic one, but Cory gave sports a try with wrestling at one point (although there was the baseball obsession, the failure at basketball, and the attempt of scuba diving in the first season... none of which really ever surfaced again). Lastly, I think part of the fact that Eric was so girl-crazy was that Cory always had the steady Topanga by his side.

4. Monica & Ross Gellar. Um, so the main reason they're so high up on the list is that they remind me of my relationship with my younger brother. As the eldest, I pretty much always got him to do what I wanted. We tricked eachother with trivia and played board games hardcore (even now, we rarely get together without playing a game of some sort). You might go as far to say that I'm the obvious favorite, and if my mom wanted to create an exercise room, there's a good chance she'd do it in my brother's room (since I have trophies and plaques and all that jazz). And if you didn't see the parallels and thought I was just talking about myself, you need to watch more Friends.

3. Becky & Darlene Connor. This one is a true favorite. Mostly because of the early years, when Becky was the smart perfectionist and Darlene was the tomboy who didn't give a damn. Becky's obsession with hair, clothes, and boys was often a subject of ridicule by Darlene. Likewise, Becky would tease Darlene for her drab clothes and pessimistic demeanor. Darlene would also make fun of Becky's "bubble butt," right up until "original Becky" left with eloped-husband Mark. Oh, and this is all before we consider their arguments over stuff like chores, the phone, and their generic, blue-collar, crappy life.

2. Mary & Lucy Camden. Yep, I'm totally defending how high I put them on the list. I don't even know that I can remember how many different boys they fought over. The same goes with outfits. And with the family's attention. And popularity. Plus, they have a full-out brawl at least twice. Even when they date separate boys, they still act in complete competition (think Ben and Kevin!).

1. Dana Foster & JT Lambert. They were enemies even before they were step-siblings! In the pilot episode we learn that JT put a (dead) rat in Dana's locker. Dana was definitely the smartass in the family, and would often come back at JT (and Frank and Cody) with witty insults. JT referred to Dana as "Barky," and she had an endless supply of nicknames for him, too. I don't know that I have a favorite interchange between the two, but this is from a very early episode, and it showcases the Lambert's famed way of consuming chocolate milk.


who didn't make the list? Tia and Tamara; Kim and Christine; Wally and the Beav; Mary & Laura. And many others, obviously. But these pairs were considered.

So what does this mean? There were no correct guesses. But never fear, a more exciting contest is in the making, to be brought to light as soon as I can secure a good number of players, so interested lurkers might want to consider sending me a message or making a comment! :)