Best TV scores?

Walking with Beasts (Bartlett)

Miniseries:
Angels in America (Newman)
Salem's Lot (Gordon & Gerrard)
Ont The Beach (Gordon)

The X Files. Synthy, ok, bot overall Snow created the perfect mood for the show, with nice tunes / themes and, as usually happens with TV shows, improving season after season. The last theme of the last episode is still shocking today with its sense of hope and sadness at the same time.

Did somebody say "TV scores"? Why, this sounds like a job for ... JUSTIN BOGGAN!!!

swings into action


Okay, here you go, and in no particular order:

"Gunsmoke"
The show, over it's 20 or so season run, had 50 or so different composer, some only scoring one episode.
But people like Bruce Broughton, John Carl Parker ... did excellent jobs. I maintain a list with notes on which ones are good, after some of the scores:
http://www.tvscoring.150m.com/Gunsmoke.html


"Star Trek: The Next Generation"
How can you beat Lalo Scifrin protege Ron Jones' score to the two-parter "The Best of Both Worlds"[/b]? Jones consistantly provided what fans thought was the best work. Hard to believe after he was fired (or quit), he never returned and it's been three series over 10 years since he worked on Trek.
Dennis McCarthy provided what I believe, cue-for-cue, to be the single best scored episode of any TV series I have seen, when he worked on the dramatic [i]"Yesterday's Enterprise".
Even Don Davis, who I don't care for any of his other work (especially the overrated Matrix scores), did a heck of a job on "The Face of the Enemy".
And let's not forget often overlooked composer Jay Chattaway's efforts (also providing some of Voyager's memorable scores).


"Magnum, pi"
It goes without saying Mike Post & Pete Carpenter did some great work, but also don't overlook some good effort for the first few episodes, by composer Ian Freebairn-Smith (who, last time I checked, hosts a radio show now).
Even John Cacavas scored an episode.

"CHiPs"
Alan Silvestri does some of his funkiest, most fun scores ever. FSM passed over some good efforts from the first season by such composers as Post and John Carl Parker.


"Batman: The Animated Series"
The show had, on the original 100 or so episode run, 24 different composers; some only scoring a little, and some (Harvey Cohen [R.I.P.], Carlos Rodriguez) doing more than just a couple.
Shirley Walker provided some of her best work ever for any scoring.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
When Christophe Beck came in in season two, he his work for that and other seasons, eventually won him an Emmy; and deservedly so. His work on the series isn't quite like his film work. His BTVS work is more theme oriented, more orchestra based (though he does love interesting blends on electronics), piano, and so forth, creating some lovely stuff. Try some:
http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion. … ge%20Board
Thomas Wanker did some excellent work too (sadly unreleased; not even a promo. Damn FOX).
And Robert Duncan, who scored all episodes -- sans one or two -- of the last season, did a nifty job too. I defy you to listen to "choosen (longer version)" and tell me that isn't one of the best things on TV you've ever heard:
http://www.duncanmusic.com/buffy.html


That's it for now, as I got other things to do.

Rosenthal's and McNeely's The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles pretty much shifted the paradigm in tv scoring on a continental drift scale.

No TV series score has ever come close to my mind (though I'm excluding mini series here) with such a consistently intelligent, noticeable and powerfully symphonic approach (though I certainly think Murray Gold struck gold with his Doctor Who scores).

And I have to agree with Bregt on Bartlett's Walking With Beasts which is far more approachable than the -also very powerful- Walking With Dinosaurs.

I've never been impressed by the Star Trek: Next Generation scores, which I thought were way too subdued and in the background. I only found out later that this was exactly McCarthy's brief from the producers: to not produce any music that was too noticeable.
Well. Mission accomplished.
More's the pity.

Did the Young Indy Chronicles use any of Williams' themes?

TV music is a BIIIG category. Are we talking TV series here? Or TV films? Or TV documentaries? Or commercials? Or news broadcasts and jingles? Or all of this, i.e. ANYTHING produced for the small screen?

I tend to find TV movies/miniseries more satisfying than TV shows... I think ON THE BEACH (Gordon), MOBY DICK (Gordon), QB VII (Goldsmith), SALEM'S LOT (Gordon), NOSTROMO (Morricone), MOSES THE LAWGIVER (Morricone), KAROL UN DIVENTATO PAPA (Morricone), EAST OF EDEN (Holdridge), JESUS OF NAZARETH (Jarre), MERLIN (Jones), DINOTOPIA (Jones), MISTS OF AVALON (Holdridge), and IL CUORE NEL POZZO (Morricone) are some of the best I've heard.

I'd like to second Justin's comments on CHiPs. I won't admit at how often I play Silvestri's Disco grooves. Great driving music! Hopefully someday, FSM will release more CHiPs scores.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E: If you like 60's spy music, the FSM series (7 discs!) has a great variety of it. The first season tended to be more serious suspense spy music with scores by likes of Morton Stevens, Walter Scharf, and some unknown named Jerry Goldsmith. The later scores are more fun and jazzy and sometimes zany. Other composers on the series included Lalo Schifrin, Robert Drasnin and Gerald Fried, whose scores are my favorites from the series. There are many catchy melodies. I like the variety of the music and the variance in styles.

Knight Rider: I really dig this theme and there are a lot of good 80's style action cues on the soundtrack. You also get plenty of that keyboard ditty, especially for the many scenes of Michael Knight driving K.I.T.T. Again, good driving music.

Stargate Atlantis - Joel Goldsmith

Crikey...a rather paler shade of white!

I think Martijn's referring to Procul Harem's track A Whiter Shade Of Pale....not sure why because at least the World In Action theme is more original!

"Aujourd'Hui C'Est Toi" from Lai's A Man and a Woman was from Panorama.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/p … 154748.stm

Man Alive's theme tune was a Tony Hatch creation.

Tim, I can't remember what "Nantucket Sleighride" referred to.

24 wouldn't be an obvious choice in a thread that has "best tv scores" as a subject. Neither would be the other crap that is Prison Break.

Don't do it mate; i did (same for PRISON BREAK) and was left with traumatic experience after-effects. Seriously. Especially Prison Break, not that 24 is significantly better though.

These days, it´s easily Murray Gold´s scores for Doctor Who, and Bear McCreary´s scores for Battlestar Galactica. I really much loved Christopher Franke´s scores for Babylon 5 and Clannad´s songs for the eighties´ Robin of Sherwood. I agree though that the score for the BBC´s newest Robin Hood series is a very charming one that no fan of swashbuckling scores should miss.