Monthly Archives: September 2020

Mount Rushmore Ranker, New Reppin the 403 Articles

The Mount Rushmore of TV Theme Songs – Comedy

Leave a comment

In the history of TV, there have been thousands of shows that have come and gone, some memorable and others, not so much. If we were to try and narrow the thousands of quality shows down to 4, we could be here all year.  There are several qualities that make a TV show great. A great cast, a great plot, great visuals and maybe above all, a great theme song. For this Mount Rushmore, we can debate the greatest comedy theme songs in the history of TV.

  1. The Greatest American Hero – Mike Post and sung by Joey Scarbury

This show could easily have been a forgotten piece of TV history without it’s incredible theme song. The show ran for 3 years during the early 80’s and featured William Katt as a high school teacher who get a superhero suit from aliens and can’t ever figure out truly how to function in it. I know what you’re thinking, how the hell can that plot make a great comedy? Well, it didn’t last long and was largely full of scenes of the affable Katt flying around in front of green screens and usually crashing somewhere. In the meantime, the theme song sung by Joey Scarburywas a legit top 100 hit on Billboard and rose all the way to #11 in the USA in 1981. It remains a staple of the “one hit wonder” genre and while the show is gone, the song still gets you singing along to it’s catchy tune. Soak it in one more time.

2. WKRP in Cincinatti – Tom Wells/Hugh Wilson and sung by Steve Carlisle

Conversely to The Greatest American Hero, WKRP was a popular hit TV comedy throughout the 80’s with a great cast and some of the fullest scenes in the history of TV comedy. The show revolves around a Cincinnati radio station and the cast of characters from management to the on-air personalities who work there. Johnny Fever, Herb Tarlec and Les Nessman roll right off your tongue when you think of the show and if you think hard enough, you can recall the fantastic theme song that revolves around the program director making his way to his new opportunity in the ‘Natti. Enjoy!

3. Welcome Back Kotter – John Sebastien

This is the gold standard for what should happen with a them song. The show Welcome Back Kotter was a smash in the late 70’s with the launching point of John Travola and his amazing character Vinnie Barbarino. The show revolved around Mr. Kotter (Gabe Kaplan) coming to an inner city school in Brooklyn and taming a group of “Sweathogs” that resided there. The show was funny, had great characters (Horshack was the man!) and was a TV Guide smash in 1977. John Sebastien, who was an accomplished artist throughout the 1970’s was tasked to write the song for the new show “Kotter”. The producers loved the song so much, they added “Welcome Back” to the title and the rest was history. The song hit #1 on the Billboard US charts in May 1976 and it lives on in it’s soft rock all-time classics.

4. The Dukes of Hazzard – Waylon Jennings

The show lives on in the annals of TV history. A tale of two Georgia boys (were we really supposed to believe they were young) who “had trouble with the law since the day they were born”. The show was a going concern from 1979-1985 and has left us with defining characters like Cooter, Boss Hogg and Rosco P Coltrane, sliding across car hoods to jump through welded door windows and the defining teenager image of Daisy Duke in her well, Daisy Duke’s. The show always kicked off with a couple of amazing moments: they always jump a car over a bridge and essentially destroy it’s front end (they had to have killed a million General Lee ’69 Dodge Chargers) and the Balladeer, Waylon Jennings, weave us though the ballad of the “Gold Ole’ boys”. If you don’t love this show, there is no hope for you in the world and if you can’t sign the first verse of this classic, I feel sad for your childhood. Yea haw hoo.

To me, these were a slam dunk top 4 TV themes. There have been many other great ones but it seems that as the years have gone on, the art of of great theme song has been lost to simple tunes, easily skipped on Netflix and cold opens where you couldn’t care less what the cast was. You can differ with me and that’s what makes the debate fun. Hit me with your additions or subtractions and let the debate roll on.

New Reppin the 403 Articles, Our 403 Life Articles

The summer is over. Let the fun begin.

Leave a comment

It used to be this easy. Roll back into town, make a few lunches and send the squirts back to class. This classic Staples commercial is my favourite reminder of what back to school joy to mean for us parents and the faces on most of our kids. 2020 is going to be a completely different ballgame.

Where do go from here? Kids are back in class in most areas, being eased in before the long weekend with a whole bunch of new rules to manage around, no lockers to store stuff and a whole bunch of face masks that make it hard to know what anyone is smiling and saying. In Alberta, we have just seen a spree of teachers and support staff come through pharmacies to get swabbed and tested for COVID with the hope that they can set a baseline for themselves starting the year. We have also now had the first of the school outbreaks in some schools and the uncertainty starts from here. Only a small percentage of parents opted for their kids to school from home and the rest of the kids are in class again starting tomorrow.

There is no right or wrong answer here for parents or kids. Our experience with the web-based schooling in the fall was a difficult one. The teachers did a great job adapting to the style and preparing a new way of teaching. The issue was more so the fact that as working parents, we did a poor job of managing the boys through the challenges involved, starting with getting their asses on the computer! Hard to know what’s right for each family and if you are blessed with an educator at home, you may be smarter to keep the kids there too. For those of us who work, we rely on the school system to teach our kids while we keep the economy moving. What are the best steps to take:

  1. Continue to get tested

In Alberta, I applaud the Government for making testing readily available for those that need it (symptomatic) but also for those who are forced to work in larger cohorts (asymptomatic) and have the risk attached to that. Armed with that, parents can have their kids tested as frequently as desired and better manage the seasonal cold realities. Your local pharmacies can test for people who have not been in contact with a positive case and who have no symptoms as listed by AHS. Set up a plan with your family to have them tested as often as possible.

2. Stay home if you have any of the symptoms

Seems obvious now but that makes for some tough decisions for parents. It is the only thing to do when faced with a child who has the seasonal flu and we should all take the decision out of the school’s hands. If you have older children, the issue is often whether they are telling you how they are feeling so we need to create some honest communication with kids along the way.

3. Get the Flu shot in October

This is essential for protection against the regular flu and this year you will not want to face the problems related to COVID compounded with the seasonal flu. Some reports out of South America are reporting that the strains of flu are responding to the vaccine this year. There are also studies that show that getting the vaccine is helping lessen the effects of COVID, should you contract the virus. Alberta has purchased only enough vaccine for 45% of Albertans and this will put demand on the vaccine. Get this as early as you can when it launches in October.

All we can do is do the right things at home and protect your family from COVID, through the interactions we have daily. Educate the kids on the things they can do and the importance of why school being open is important. If the cases jump and the schools close up, we will all face a challenge that will hamper the kids for years to come. Do the right thing now.