One of the saddest changes in the television landscape has been the disappearance of the theme song. They're really not that important to the people who create TV shows now (or the networks who want to get more commercials in). Lost has just a single note as their theme song, ER has changed and shortened their theme song, Jericho has static, and Heroes doesn't have a theme song or credits either.

Luckily, the shows that still have theme songs also have opening credits. Shows like The Office and Dexter all have theme songs and opening credits. They're classic TV openings. Of course, it's nothing like years gone by, where almost all shows had theme song and opening credits. The Onion has picked 22 that they feel fit their shows perfectly. I don't know if that is the same as "best opening sequences," but the choices are interesting, quirky, a little maddening, and they left out a few, as I'm sure you'll agree.

What the hell is up with the beginnings and endings of shows nowadays? First they just about get rid of TV theme songs altogether, and now at the end of shows they are scrolling the credits at light-speed, usually shrunk down to a really small size in a side box on the screen (so they can promote another show in a bigger box in the screen, of course).

Isn't there some sort of rule about this in the industry, that the names of the people who work on the show have to actually be on the screen and legible for a certain amount of time? I watched Entertainment Tonight one night and the credits went by so fast I couldn't even tell if they were actually letters or not. And the same thing is happening on prime time shows. Even if the credits scroll by at a normal speed, they'll shove them to the a corner of the screen while they promote another show. What's up with that?

I know, more time for commercials and more opportunity to plug another show. But still...grrrrrrrrr.