PERFORMING ARTS

Music for Prime Time: A History of American Television Themes and Scoring

by Jon Burlingame
Oxford Univ. Mar. 2023. 480p. ISBN 9780190618308. $35. MUSIC
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A revised, updated, and expanded version of Burlingame’s Sound and Vision of 2000, this work combines 20 extra years of new music and scholarship, chronicling the soundtracks from the earliest days of television (including 1949’s The Lone Ranger using Gioachino Rossini’s “The William Tell Overture”) to Downton Abbey. Burlingame comprehensively documents the themes and soundtracks that have become earworms for many TV viewers. The workload for composers was often rigorous, but the results speak for themselves and rare will be the reader who doesn’t find a connection to much of this music. Burlingame highlights theme song composers such as Nelson Riddle (Route 66), Lalo Shifrin (Mission: Impossible), Neal Hefti (Batman; The Odd Couple), Mike Post (Rockford Files; Hill Street Blues), and many talented but less heralded composers. This book also covers trends, successes, and failures.
VERDICT Burlingame has produced a thorough analysis of music composed for television that will probably remain in readers’ heads. Those seeking more information about these rerunning tunes will find it here.
Reviewed by Bill Baars , Feb 01, 2023
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