What happened to the sitcom theme song?

The sitcom is a seemingly dying breed. I'm not talking about half hour comedies. I'm referring to traditional multi-camera situation comedies, like Roseanne or Growing Pains.



It seems now the majority of new comedy shows are turning to the single camera, non studio audience style. More similar to The Office, 30 Rock, or Malcolm in the Middle.

There are still traditional sitcoms made now but it seems no one is really able to do it anymore. Not the way it used to be.

One casualty of this is the TV Theme Song. When is the last time you have heard a truly memorable TV theme song? Friends? Malcolm in the Middle?



Have we the viewing masses simply outgrown theme songs? I would like to think not. Hearing these old theme songs always gives me a warm glow of nostalgia. I'd love for the TV theme song to come back. It just seems in this day and age with the instant opening credits, that we won't be getting a true TV theme song for a while. I don't really understand why that is?

My guess? Execs think we don't want it, or they don't want to spend the money creating one. As our attention spans shrink to milliseconds, the need for a theme song becomes non-existant.

I think the truth of the matter is that without a theme song for the opening credits, that gives the networks extra time to sell advertising.



That would be the cynical assumption anyway and in the world of TV theme songs, is there room for cynicism?

I for one want the TV theme song back. TV is doing great things with music nowadays using it to make dramas better. Why can't we go back to the days when a show was opened with a great song?