The Art of the Title
Why TV’s Opening Credits Are Making a Comeback
One of the surprises behind America’s recent obsession with “Stranger Things”, now playing on Netflix, is the fascination with the show’s opening credits — an ethereal revelation of red letters, set to a synthesizer score.
It’s been celebrated, and dissected, by reviewers at CNET and The AV Club. Some point to a typeface that unmistakeably pays homage to Stephen King. When asked about the sequence, Ross Duffer (one half of the showrunning team The Duffer Brothers), called it the latest in a series of TV openings that attempt to use credits as art — an emotional entry into the episode.
“People keep trying to one-up one another other on these,” he said, “and like who can make the craziest title sequence. And I love stuff like that, I love True Detective, I love Game Of Thrones. But we wanted something that would convey a simpler type of storytelling we were trying to experience.”
That’s a major change in the way TV treats its audiences, and we should applaud it. For the past decade, maybe more, shows have layered opening credits over live action — trying to squeeze in just a few more valuable seconds of “story”, as TV networks loaded up primetime with ads. We used to have 24 minutes to spin our tale. Now we have 21?, was the popular complaint among showrunners. Something had to give.
Their solution: ditching what had become a staple of popular culture — think the opening themes to “All in the Family”, “M*A*S*H”, “The Odd Couple”, “Cheers”, “Barney Miller”, “Hill Street Blues”, “St. Elsewhere”, “Baretta”, “Happy Days”, “Laverne & Shirley”, “Dallas”, “The Simpsons”, and on and on — and going bare.
Gone was the minute-long jingle. Some programs simply settled for a 9-second slate. “Frasier” is the classic example.
We asked producer Garry Marshall (“Happy Days”, “Mork & Mindy”) about this phenomenon over the summer, on our @CNBC digital series “BINGE”.
“It’s so competitive now,” he told us. “There are so many channels. They want to start with a big joke and there’s no time.” (His answer is here at the 9:30 mark. We were glad to get a chance to meet him before he passed away weeks later. A giant.)
The streaming era has upended the commercial side of television, but as we document in our ongoing “BINGE” series, it has upended artistic choices, too. We can now point to a generation of shows in which the opening credits are inextricably linked to the narrative: “Mad Men”, “Game of Thrones”, “Breaking Bad”, “House of Cards”.
As producers become less reliant on their primetime slot for viewership (in an on-demand, streaming world), they can afford to take chances on an extended ‘welcome’, unafraid the viewer will desert them on their detour.
(It’s also led to what I maintain is the best opening of any modern TV show ever: “Six Feet Under”.)
Oh, and by the way, if there’s any doubt about the “Stranger Things” craze, check out this generator that allows you to type your own title into the show’s design. That’s the ultimate compliment.
