V is for The Virginian, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Vega$ #atozchallenge

STATEMENT THAT APPEARS AT THE BEGINNING OF ALL A-Z 2016 PAGES:

Welcome to the A-Z Classic TV Shows Theme Songs and Intros! Last year I did an A-Z Musical Tour of My Life and featured tons of classic rock music. I had so much fun with it that this year I decided to present classic television shows theme songs and intros. These are shows that I remember from my youth during the 60s and 70s…with an occasional 80s show thrown in. Each show is introduced with information (gathered primarily from my favorite go-to for info, Wikipedia) or associated memories, followed by a video of the TV show’s theme song intro. At first glance, the posts may seem long because of the number of videos included but it’s really laid out in a way that will enable you to scroll through and read, watch or hear just what you want and then either move on to the next A-Zer or linger and go back in time with all the fun theme song intros you’ll find here. Please leave a comment and share your favorite classic TV shows. By all means, bookmark my blog so you can come back! I hope you enjoy my collection. Now, let’s get started with…

V is for the Virginian:

The Virginian (known as The Men From Shiloh in its final year) is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. It was a spin-off from a 1958 summer series called Decision. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television’s first 90-minute western series (75 minutes excluding commercial breaks). Immensely successful, it ran for nine seasons—television’s third longest running western, behind Bonanza at fourteen seasons and 430 episodes, and Gunsmoke at twenty seasons and 635 episodes.

Set in the late nineteenth century, and loosely based on the 1902 novel by Owen Wister, the series revolved around the tough foreman of the Shiloh Ranch, played by James Drury. He and his top hand Trampas (Doug McClure) were the only characters to remain with the show for the entire run. As in the book, the foreman went only by the name “The Virginian.” The Virginian’s real name was never revealed in the nine years the show was on the air. The series was set in Medicine Bow, Wyoming.

 

V is for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea:

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a 1960s American science fiction television series based on the 1961 film of the same name. Both were created by Irwin Allen, which enabled the movie’s sets, costumes, props, special effects models, and sometimes footage, to be used in the production of the television series. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was the first of Irwin Allen’s four science fiction television series, as well as the longest-running. The show’s main theme was underwater adventure.

Voyage was broadcast on ABC from September 14, 1964 to March 31, 1968, and was the decade’s longest-running American science fiction television series with continuing characters. The 110 episodes produced included 32 shot in black-and-white (1964–1965), and 78 filmed in color (1965–1968). The first two seasons took place in the then future of the 1970s. The final two seasons took place in the 1980s. The show starred Richard Basehart and David Hedison.

The pilot sets the plot:

 

 

V is for VEGA$:

Vega$ is an American detective television drama series that aired on ABC from 1978 until 1981. It was produced by Aaron Spelling. The series (with the exception of special episodes filmed in Hawaii and San Francisco) was filmed in its entirety in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is believed to be the first television series produced entirely in Las Vegas.

The show stars Robert Urich as private detective Dan Tanna, who drove around the streets of Las Vegas in a red 1957 Ford Thunderbird solving crimes and making Las Vegas a better place for residents and tourists alike.

Plot: Dan Tanna is a private detective whose clients include Phillip Roth (Tony Curtis), aka Slick, the owner of multiple hotel casinos including the Maxim Hotel and Desert Inn Hotel & Country Club, in Las Vegas. Tanna is always called to investigate criminal cases or more absurd situations, such as a nun who claims to own the land on which the Desert Inn stands.

Tanna lives on the Las Vegas Strip next to Circus Circus Hotel/Casino, in the theatrical props warehouse owned by the Desert Inn Hotel and Country Club, which he converted into his living place. The design of Tanna’s pad allows him to park his T-bird in his living room. Tanna also uses gadgets that were very high-tech for the time such as a car-phone and an answering machine that physically picks the phone up off the hook and into the microphone of a tape recorder).

Tanna often does battle with many of the various criminal element that would threaten the desert oasis.

Tanna is a veteran of the Vietnam War. This is illustrated through flashbacks in various episodes.

 

Did you watch any of these shows? Can you think of any other V shows? What are your favorite TV shows, past and present?