TVSquad

This article by TV critic Alan Sepinwall, where he talks about really disliking USA's Psych but loving the theme song, got me thinking: what bad TV shows have really great theme songs?

This is really hard, actually. I'm sure there are more examples of the opposite, great shows that have bad theme songs (or no theme song at all), but trying to come up with a list of bad TV shows that have great theme songs...that's pretty hard. The first one that comes to mind is John From Cincinnati, a show that has really disappointed me but has a great theme song ("Johnny Appleseed," performed by Joe Strummer) and great opening credits (old surfing footage). But other shows that I come up with - Gilligan's Island, for example - don't exactly have "great" theme songs, they're more fun in a nostalgic sort of way (and I'm not even sure I would call Gilligan's Island a "bad" show, because it goes beyond that to simple entertainment in that nostalgic way).

So what about you, readers? What TV shows can you think of that are bad but just happen to have a really cool theme song? (Edit: The Psych theme embeded after the jump)

Fans of Veronica Mars can now rejoice, sort of. According to Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger, executive producer Rob Thomas has confirmed that the back seven episodes of the series have been picked up. This would make 20 episodes for this season. Traditionally, networks pickup the back nine episodes of a series to make it a 22-episode run.

Since this information is so brand new, Thomas says it will take some time to figure out how the last two story arcs will play out. However, he does confirm to the last arc will comprise of four-episodes. The second story-arc is currently being worked on.

Does this mean that Veronica Mars is in danger of not being renewed? Who knows this early in the season. Sepinwall thinks that the shortened order run may be due to penny pinching by the network, whose first year on the air has not been as stellar as they thought it would be.

I've never seen the show, but everything I've heard about the show - from people whose opinion I trust in these matters - rave about it. Every single review of the show uses the words "brilliant" and "great writing" and "great cast," and the writiers and directors on the show (including David Simon, who also worked on Homicide, and crime novelists George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane) are an interesting bunch. So why doesn't the show get the same massive buzz that The Sopranos and Deadwood do?

The Star-Ledger's Alan Sepinwall has a long essay about what makes The Wire so great. It makes me want to watch the show (I guess it did its job), and that's a good thing, since it looks like a final, fifth season will depend on how many viewers tune in to the long-delayed fourth season, which starts September 10.

• Ken Levine has an interesting post about the use of laugh tracks on sitcoms.
• Aaron Barnhart has a pic of Craig Ferguson's new set. I think it looks kinda Lettermanesque, only Hollywoodized.
• Defamer has a picture of the America's Next Top Model writers picket line.
• Why is FOX handing out free booze to TV critics at 9am? Tim Goodman investigates.
• Alan Sepinwall solves the Heroes mystery (if you've seen it, you know that Greg Grunberg isn't in the pilot like he was supposed to be).