Crazy Credits

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
“Superstar”



This is possibly the cleverest example of “one night only” opening title-fiddling in the history of TV, not just reflecting the episode in question, but actually forming part of the narrative. After a teaser showing the Scooby Gang fighting vampires, deciding they need some help and then, bizarrely, going to geeky bit-player Jonathan Levinson for back-up (what the Hell?), most viewers would have been a bit wrong-footed already… But as the credits roll it’s clear that something HUGE is up.

Clips of Jonathan have been inserted willy-nilly throughout the sequence, as though he’s been part of the show for years. He’s shown defusing a bomb! Wearing a sharp suit! Climbing into a limo surrounded by screaming fans! Firing a crossbow! Holding a gun like James Bond! The final few seconds of the theme song even play out to a shot of him walking towards the camera with his coat billowing out behind him, like a cross between Angel and Neo!

Of course, it’s merely a clever set-up for an episode in which poor downtrodden Jonathan has cast a spell to make him a superstar, but it’s the way the spell breaks the fourth wall and leeches into the credits that makes it such a joy.

One thing, though: despite his presence in the sequence, Danny Strong only gets a “Guest Starring” credit once the episode has begun. Seems that fourth wall only stretches so far…

THE X-FILES
“X-Cops”



The following is a special episode of The X-Files. Viewer discretion is advised.”

If that’s not a sign that strange things are afoot at the Circle K in this episode of Chris Carter’s ground-breaking TV series from 2000, the beginning credits that follow tell you everything you need to know. Fox reality show Cops, surely the most down-to-earth of all TV programmes, teamed with The X-Files for a one-off special which began with the Cops credits unspooling over scenes of genuine street busts, arrests and writhing low-lifes interspersed with clips of Agents Mulder and Scully in grainy black and white.

Somehow, the sight of our two paranormal investigators running after cop cars, knocking on doors and chatting with the police seemed a darn sight more convincing when filmed on a hand-held camera in true verite style.

Sadly, the Cops credits merely opened the teaser; the real X-Files credits then kick in before the show returns to its new look. It’s a shame the bubble had to be burst, but it doesn’t detract from what is still a brilliant beginning (and, may we add, a stunning episode).

LOST
“The Variable”



Lucky co-incidences, eh? When JJ Abrams’s version of Star Trek premiered on the big screen, one of his TV shows was still premiering new episodes. And so, for one week only, and in America only, and viewers were treated to a Lost/Trek crossover to promote the new film with the Enterprise unexpectedly whooshing out Lost’s “O”, and title sequence’s normally black background changing into a starscape. So, are Trek and Lost in a shared universe? Is the island actually a holodeck illusion? All will be revealed soon…

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
“Once More With Feeling”





Short, sharp and sweet – that’s the best way to sum up the opening credits for this sixth season songfest. Not wanting to waste time when there’s so much musical goodness to come, Buffy’s frenetic titles are transformed into a montage of the cast’s faces projected onto the moon as their names pop up beside them. The typography is pure “musical”, the font soft and rounded and nothing at all like Buffy’s usual gothic look, and there’s not a whiff of Nerf Herder and their guitars.

Still, in retrospect, those faces on the moon do remind us a little of The Mighty Boosh…

Futurama
The Movies



Each of the hour-long Futurama’s had fun with the show’s opening titles. The first, “Bender’s Big Score” was the least radical , interspersing the usual titles for a series of shots of the characters “doing their thing” one after the other, in a kind of animated version of standard US TV title sequences. Much better was “The Beast With A Billion Back” which for some inexplicable reason tagged on a brilliantly bonkers, lengthy black and white Steamboat Willie skit onto the end of the standard title sequence. “Bender’s Game” chose another classic ’toon to lampoon in the form of Yellow Submarine. The result is, if possible, even more surreal than the Beatle’s original. Sadly, the final movie, “Into The Wild Green Yonder” didn’t follow the same theme instead going for a rather unmemorable Vegas vibe (though the mock-Sinatra theme song is fun). Shame – we’d’ve loved to have seen a Futurama version of The Flintstones’ opening titles. Or maybe even The Simpsons – we could have finally seen what Fry looked like with yellow skin.