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Great TV composers.


Josh500

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Who is the best composer working for television???

I've been a fan of Dick DeBenedictis for a long time, who's been writing great orchestral scores for such TV shows as Columbo, Perry Mason, and Matlock. I think he's one of the best.

Also Mike Post, who wrote some of the great theme songs in the 80s and 90s (i.e. NYPD Blue, The A-Team, and Blossom), is one to remember.

I think that, while recent composers such as Sean Callery (24) and Michael Giacchino (Alias) are great in their own way, they're not as memorable as they could be. But, I guess, only time will tell.

What other good TV series composers can you think of???

:mrgreen:

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Speaking of the Simpsons, I really, really like Danny Elfman's Theme From The Simpsons. I think that's still one of Elfman's greatest achievements (along with his movie works like Batman, Edward the Scissorhands, and -- maybe -- Men in Black). I think everybody knows the Theme From the Simpsons.

:mrgreen:

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Oliver Nelson.He scored the first two seasons of The Six Million Dollar Man,then he died I think.I'm still waiting for a c.d. of this music.

K.M.

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Alf Clausen.

I would agree with you from seasons 1 to about 12. Then the music just got too loud, and too bombastic, and every little mood swing in a scene was accentuated by this heavy music. I think Clausen is a great composer, and I love the songs he wrote for the show, and the underscore in the early seasons. But in the last years, he's become a negative factor in the series.

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Howard Goodall does some good TV work. Such as Blackadder, and Red Dwarf etc. He's also a very skilled musician, and music historian. He's done some great shows here in the UK about Wagner, Mozart, etc. Recently a series on the music of the Beatles, Bernard Herrmann, and Cole Porter. I emailed him recently to congratulate him on his series, and for mentioning Jerry Goldsmith in one episode. I also suggested he might want to consider a series on such film composers some day. Because it would be very popular with many people.
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Christophe Beck.

The group who composed for DS9 were also very good, especially the last couple of years. I feel bad that I can't remember all their names other than Dennis McCarthy, but I think they've been mentioned here already.

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Howard Goodall does some good TV work. Such as Blackadder, and Red Dwarf etc.

That's very true! I thought he was also responsible, together with Shearmur of course, for the Johnny English theme? He's also behind the Mr Bean theme I believe. Much underrated (or rather 'unknown') composer.

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I remember a guy named Jerry Goldsmith, who wrote tv's best theme, from the Waltons.

another guy did a bang up job on a show called Lost in Space, he was so good at it, he did it a second time for the same show, starting with its 3rd and finale season. Both compliment each other well.

unfortunately both composers are now dead.

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That's very true! I thought he was also responsible, together with Shearmur of course, for the Johnny English theme? He's also behind the Mr Bean theme I believe. Much underrated (or rather 'unknown') composer.

I wouldn't say unknown. In Britain he's quite a big name in the industry. But he does work in the background very much. Plus he's more into theatre and other projects. But yes he did the Johnny English theme apparently (i've not seen the film). And Mr Bean. But for me, he's most interesting for his musical knowledge. His series have been very interesting and insightfull, and shows how much he understands the art of music.

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The current series where he went into depth about composers like Herrmann, Porter, and the Beatles, is finished now. But you can order Video of his series (expensive though, considering each episode is on individual videos) from Channel 4 Shop. Type Howard Goodall into the search box on the left (because the results page wont link). Each series has been shown on Channel 4. So i dont know if you'll see it on those international BBC channels. But you might be lucky.

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Howard Goodall does some good TV work. Such as Blackadder, and Red Dwarf etc. He's also a very skilled musician, and music historian. He's done some great shows here in the UK about Wagner, Mozart, etc. Recently a series on the music of the Beatles, Bernard Herrmann, and Cole Porter. I emailed him recently to congratulate him on his series, and for mentioning Jerry Goldsmith in one episode. I also suggested he might want to consider a series on such film composers some day. Because it would be very popular with many people.

:mrgreen: Yes I also love his hymn for The Vicar of Dibley and thoroughly enjoyed his TV series - specifically the Herrmann & Leonard Bernstein ones.

-Tim

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Dennis McCarthy, Jay Chattaway, Ron Jones.

Alf Clausen also did good work on Moonlighting, BTW.

Did Alf Clausen also do that catchy theme to Alf with the Muppet-like alien who ate cats sitcom - used to love that as a kid!

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I like Bill Conti's work, North & Southsprings to mind immediately - adore the LSO re-recording he did for Varese.

Bruce Borughton has done some decent stuff too, Jag and all of the countless TV Movies that get released on Intrada for instance.

Shaun Davey, Patrick Gowers (scored the best Holmes interpretations with Jeremy Brett IMO), Ron Goodwin and Laurie Johnson.

Anyone remember Alan Parker's music to Dempsey & Makepeace? That was great!

-Tim

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As a matter of fact, he did do that one, and I always liked it too. :mrgreen:

The concept of an alien eating cats disturbes me though.

Ha yes - Lucky was his name that's right ahhh memories!

-Tim

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Alf Clausen - The Simpsons

- When I mention his name, that's all anyone thinks about. They forget he did more, like: Moonlighting, additional for Ferris Bueller's Day Off, ALF and more.

When I talk about his scores for The Simpsons, no one recalls, or says they are too short. But there have been plenty of good length cues and some excellant score. Particularly in his earlier seasons.

Christophe Beck - FX: The Series, Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Seasons: half of 2, all of 3 & 4, handful from 5 and 1 from 6.)

- One of the best TV composers ever! "Sacrifce" (From tyhe "Once Mroe, With Feeling!..." CD is beautiful and still makes me teary eyed.) is an amazing piece and uses a varient theme from his earlier work.

His action music for the series was wonderful.

But I read that he done a little too much experimenting on "Elektra" and thus people who are not familiar with his work may not like him. Shame :-(

Thomas Wanker - Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Seasons: 5 & 6.)

- When mentioned, the first thing people want to do is make fun of his name, which I read he considers a Sir name.

His work for the series wasn't like anything he did with Harald Kloser on The Day After Tomorrow and other movies, so people put off by those scores might not know what they are missing.

Mike Post - TRULY one of the most UNDERAPPRECIATED COMPOSERS ON TV, E V E R!!!

- Magnum, pi, Quantum Leap, his list of credits go on and on. His work for Magnum, pi was simply excellant and so consistant that I can't name one that had a iffy score.

It seems the only one who appreciates him is Ballserio.

Joel Goldsmith - Has provided some good consistant stuff, with some excellant stuff, for Stargate: SG1 for several years. And what do we get? A few clumpy suites on one CD and his score for the Pilot butchered.

Ron Jones - Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Best OF Both Wordls" twp-parter shows the freshness and talent of an underappreciated man.

But it doesn't stop there with his work for ST: TNG, we can goi forward and bakc with The Family guy and Ducktales: The Series.

Dennis McCarthy - His work for all the spin off Star Trek series has been consistantly good to excellant and his score for the ST: TNG episode: "Yesterdyas' Enterprise" is my sngle most favorite entire episode score of ANY TV SHOW EPISODE EVER. It's going to be hard to beat that.

Velton Ray Bunch - Here's another guy. While some of his work didn't really fit the visuals on season 3 and onword of Quantum Leap, some did and was truly excellant. Like the evil Montage piece for the JFK episode.

And his work on Enterprise has been fantastic! With suck notable epsiode scores as:

"Silent Enemy"

"Similatude"

All of which deserve a CD release. I can only hope and wait sadly. :-( But Paramount's track record with Trek scores lately hasn't been bright.

And The Pretender. "Jarod's Mom" is a beautful cue with female vocals.

Joseph LoDuca - Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - this man has talent and should have scored Spider-Man 2.

"Faith" and "Zoombie Attack" from the Volume 3 release from Varese Sarabande are nothing short of AMAZING!

Joe Harnell: - The Bionic Women.

- As I discovered yesterday, in some funky fantastic stuff!

Alan Silvestri - Before his hughely popular movie career and after his band, there was "CHiPs" and his provided wonderful funk on regular basis.

Don Peake - Knight rider.

- Hey, so I like it! Stu Philips for the series as well

Robert Duncan - You NEED to go to duncanmusic.com and:

- Click on music

- then > buffy the vampire slayer

- And lastely: > Choosen (Long version)

If you even SP MUCH as bad mouth it, you shall die. ;)

Jay Chattaway - Again, ST: TNG and othe Trek series. My favorite so far is from Enterprise:

"Vanishing Point"

James L. Venable - RARELY, I mean RARELY does a TV series provide such consistantly EXCELLANTY scores. This man needs more work and STAT! And a half a dozen CD releases of it.

I'm sure there is more, I just can't recall at the moment.

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There was one guy, but I don't remember his name right now, for the later series of MacGyver, I thought did a very excellent job. I would love to get my hands on that music - there were some excellent themes in there. I think they were used in the Trail to Doomsday film, but if they weren't, that film also had an amazing score. Damn, somebody release the music from MacGyver!

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Yeah, the MacGyver Theme is one of the best!!! I really love that piece by Randy Edelman!!! Did he also write the actual score??? I don't think so, isn't he actually a film composer???

;)

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I didn't know the McGyver theme was composed by Randy Edelman! He did "The Last of the Mohicans" too, which is pretty different!!

Yeah!!!

Great film composers who wrote TV Themes:

James Newton Howard: ER

Randy Edelman: MacGyver

Jerry Goldsmith: Star Trek

Danny Elfman: The Simpsons

Thomas Newman: Six Feet Under

John Williams: Amazing Stories

Can you think of anything else???

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James Newton Howard: ER

Randy Edelman: MacGyver

Jerry Goldsmith: Star Trek

Danny Elfman: The Simpsons

Thomas Newman: Six Feet Under

John Williams: Amazing Stories

I knew every of those. Now I also know who did the main theme for McGyver! ;)

Can you think of anything else???

Yes...

Joe Harnell: The Incredible Hulk

Donald Quan: Relic Hunter

Also, Alan Silvestri scored some episodes of "Tales from the Crypt" and "Starsky & Hutch".

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Bernard Herrmann wrote an alternate theme to the Twilight Zone which was used during the second and third season, if my memory serves me correctly.

Dave Grusin wrote the terrifically catchy theme to St. Elsewhere which ran for eight (correct me if I am wrong) seasons.

Jerry Goldsmith is responsible for some of the best TV themes of the 1970s, including Barnaby Jones and The Waltons.

Henry Mancini is responsible for one of the best known TV themes of all time, The Peter Gunn theme. However, he also wrote the lovely, pastoral theme to, the 80s hit series, Newhart.

Just a few...

BKL

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Christophe Beck.

Him and Wanker are awesome. Was it Wanker who did The Gift (season 5 finale)? Becasue that was some of the best I've heard. The Buffy/Angel love theme (cornily titled "Close Your Eyes") is also great, but nothing will beat Beck's score for "Hush". It's very Elfman and very cinematic. It would have been this score that made everyone notice his talent.

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So anyone knows anything about Dick DeBenedictis??? I was really impressed with his work on Columbo (the new specials). I'd love to see him work on movies sometime.

:|

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Christophe Beck.

Him and Wanker are awesome. Was it Wanker who did The Gift (season 5 finale)? Becasue that was some of the best I've heard. The Buffy/Angel love theme (cornily titled "Close Your Eyes") is also great, but nothing will beat Beck's score for "Hush". It's very Elfman and very cinematic. It would have been this score that made everyone notice his talent.

Beck did "The Gift" and the cue from the very end, "Sacrifce" is on the "Once More, With Feeling!..." CD - the Buffy musical.

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Actual TV scores were mostly done by Dennis McCarthy and a second composer who's name I forgot.

That's right. It was the second composer I was hinting at by the way, who was brought on later in the series - an improvement over McCarthy's (respectable) work.

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No, that's not what I ment.

During the course of most of the series McCarthy alternated with another composer (much like he alternated with Ron Jones and later Jay Chattaway on TNG)

I never found out who composed the last few seasons, cause they for some reason started to cut of the end credits :mrgreen:

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Silders had some good scores. Particularly Dennis McCarthy's work. He used the theme from his trailer to the last episode of TNG, in one of the episodes. It worked quite well as a mellow piece.

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