Table of Contents

Introduction

1. "Hi-yo, Silver!": The Birth of TV Music
2. "Book 'em, Danno": Cop and Detective Shows
3. "Head 'em up! Move 'em out!" The Westerns
4. "You are traveling through another dimension": Fantasy and Science Fiction
5. "Man, woman, birth, death, infinity": Drama
6. "Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale": Comedy
7. "Your mission, should you decide to accept it": Action-Adventure
8. "You are there": Documentaries, News and Information Programming
9. "Flintstones! Meet the Flintstones!" Cartoons in Prime Time
10. "My name is Kunta Kinte": Made-for-TV Movies and Miniseries
11. "Mrs. Peel, we're needed": British shows aired in the U.S.
12. "I couldn't possibly comment": Music in contemporary television

Afterword
Acknowledgements
Bibliography/Sources
Photo Credits
Index

About the Author

Jon Burlingame is one of the nation's leading writers on the subject of music for films and television. He writes regularly for Variety and has also written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, The Hollywood Reporter and Premiere magazine. He teaches film-music history at the University of Southern California, hosts the "For Scores" podcast, and is the author of five books
including the best-selling and Deems Taylor Award-winning The Music of James Bond.

Reviews

Praise for the original edition, TV's Biggest Hits: "Impeccably researched... crammed with musical facts, footnotes, biographical data - but also, lucky for us tune-deaf types, tons of juicy anecdotes about the making of our favorite tunes."
*Newsday*

A far richer, more intelligent book.... Burlingame has had one of those so-obvious-it's-clever ideas and did a ton of research to dig up anecdotes about the theme songs and background music that are the soundtrack to a TV watcher's life."
*Entertainment Weekly*

"A serious, professional and comprehensive history of the songs and music that accompanied virtually every major show from Mr. Ed to The X-Files.... a required addition to any serious film or television library."
*Emmy*

Ranks among the essential contributions to television-music scholarship as a comprehensive, meticulously researched history that heavily relies on primary sources, whether archival documents or interviews with composers."
*James Deaville, editor, Music in Television*

Advance praise for this new, vastly expanded edition: "A remarkable history of music in American television from its infancy to the present day. The book connects every conceivable television genre with the composers who made these shows memorable to the viewing public. In each chapter, Burlingame creates compelling historical narratives while also spinning intimate portraits of its music makers. As informative as it is entertaining, this will be an invaluable resource for television studies for years to come."
*Ron Rodman, author, Tuning In: American Narrative Television Music*

Part analog database, part rollicking scavenger hunt (you can find nuggets like Henry Mancini's well-timed haircut, which led to the Peter Gunn theme and essentially Mancini's subsequent career, or Yul Brynner's surprising design skills), this fast-moving survey is a rich source of quick-fix facts, large-scale historical arcs, and more than a few enticing side trails for the rest of us to explore."
*Robynn J. Stilwell, co-editor, Music and the Moving Image*

In Music for Prime Time--rich with insight, detail, and information--Burlingame demonstrates that the world of television music is rife with opportunities for further research. This book is a welcome and indispensable first entry in an area of research that will continue to grow exponentially in the decades to come.
*Paul Allen Sommerfeld, Library of Congress, Notes: the Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association.*