TVSquad

Lost is famous for not having a theme song. Or, more accurately, having a short theme song, one that's exactly one note long. J.J. Abrams wrote the song, but now producers of the show want you to come up with a theme song for them. The winning song will be played at this year's Comic-Con in front of many many fans of the show.

Here's a little ditty to get you started, if you want to do one with lyrics. Maybe Abrams can sing it (looks like he's singing in the pic).

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale
a tale of a doomed airplane...

In the closing credits of The Simpsons last night, this video was played instead of the usual closing theme song. It's not new (it was actually recorded in 2000), but it's the first time it was played on the show. It's the singing group Canvas, doing a rather clever a cappella version of the theme. For some reason, I thought the one shown last night was slightly different than this (more of the closing theme than the opening theme), but their web site says this is the one played last night.

The question I got this week almost stumped me...

James Thomas writes...
"There was a cartoon in the 80's where all the cars were made of vines. do you remember the name of it?"

Well, I was pretty sure of the answer but just to be positive, I did some research and dug up this clip from the opening of Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors.

For twelve seasons, ER used some of the most memorable and intense theme music heard during the last decade or so; it started soft, then pulsated to a climax that matched the frantic pace of a big-city emergency room and of the show itself. And the climax was usually punctuated visually, either by Eriq LaSalle's Benton punching the air after a surgery or Laura Innes' Weaver bursting through the door with her cane.

But for season thirteen? It's gone. We've got the cold open, a title card with generic music, and then a commercial. The credits are shown over the first act. It's the most glaring example of a trend that's been going on since the late '90s. Erin Carlson of the AP is the latest person to write about the death of the theme song. The article cites all the same reasons cited for years: an increase of commercials, a desire from networks and show-runners to keep people's attention, etc., etc.

The lead singer for the Wallflowers (and son of Bob) is writing music for the new ABC show, Six Degrees. More specifically, it's J.J. Abrams' newest show about six random people whose lives cross paths. Dylan performed the show's theme song, "Here Comes Now", and you can hear it this Thursday when episode two of Six Degrees airs on ABC at 10pm. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dylan is hard at work writing more music to fit with the overall tone of the show.

In a world where music is becoming increasingly important on television shows, this could put the Wallflowers back on the map. They had a couple big hits a few years ago but haven't seen much mainstream attention for a while. Then again, he's a Dylan so maybe he's just doing what he likes and, right now, that happens to be Six Degrees.

Reader Shannon sent us an e-mail asking:

Please help! I couldn't find anywhere to ask this. Does anyone know the theme song to the short running show Mr. Vegas with Rob Lowe?

Why yes, Shannon, we do. First of all, it was Dr. Vegas, not Mr. Vegas, but no worries, we knew what you meant. The song you're wondering about is a rollicking and infectious ditty by Stereo MCs called "Connected" off the album of the same name. I can't blame you for wondering about it, that song is going to be stuck in my head like taffy for the rest of the day. Here's the music video for the song, courtesy of YouTube. The theme was actually hand-picked by star Rob Lowe, who figured the catchy song would entice people to stay tuned in for the show. His plan worked, and people did stay tuned ... for about five episodes.