10 TV Backstories Revealed In Opening Credits

What shows spelled it all out?

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Warner Bros.

These days, a TV show might throw its title on the screen for a few seconds after a brief cut, but that's usually about it. Things weren't always like that though; there was a time when the intro for a series explained what the whole show was about.

This has mostly gone away, so the series that once did it are pretty much stuck in the past. Still, every once in a while, a new program will dip into the creative juices of past series and throw up something similar, but it really is only once in a blue moon.

Back in the 1960s and well through the 1980s, television shows often opened with a theme song, and they were catchy. Viewers knew exactly what to expect from the opening of The Jeffersons, and that's hardly the only series that used a song to tell a story — there are dozens of excellent examples.

This list highlights some of the best TV shows that explained everything the viewer needed to know before seeing anything post-credits. There wasn't a need to do an origin episode on these programs, and that's what made them special and memorable.

10. The Six Million Dollar Man

Sometimes, a title and an opening sequence go together perfectly, and that's especially true of The Six Million Dollar Man. Even without knowing anything about the show, it's clear there's a man who's worth a hefty sum of cash, and within the first two minutes, every viewer knows exactly why.

The opening shows a title and aircraft operations with a man in a cockpit wearing what looks like an astronaut's helmer having some serious problems. His altitude is dropping, his vessel is breaking up, and he suffers a terrible crash. Immediately after, a narrator explains the whole thing:

"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better...stronger...faster."

This is followed by a montage of Austin performing feats no normal human could possibly undertake without a serious hardware upgrade. The music is compelling, and it, coupled with the images, generates an intense desire to see what Austin is capable of with his bionic implants. Every moment on the screen is important, and their meaning plays out through the course of what amounted to be an incredible series.

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Jonathan is a graphic artist, illustrator, writer, and game designer. Jonathan retired from the U.S. Army in 2017 and enjoys researching and writing about history, science, theology, and many other subjects. He writes for ScreenRant, CBR, NerdBastards, Listverse, Ranker, WhatCulture, and many other sites online. You can check out his latest on Twitter: @TalkingBull or on his blog: jonathanhkantor.com