48. Peter Gunn
Composer: Henry Mancini
Never seen the show, but this song won Mancini an Emmy and two Grammys for whatever they’re worth. Hard to go wrong with orchestras including trumpets.
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Theme Songs: 50, 49
50. Have Gun, Will Travel
Title: The Ballad of Paladin
Composer: Johnny Western, Richard Boone, and Sam Rolfe
Performer: Johnny Western
I’ve seen perhaps five episodes of every TV western ever made, but I do like the music. I don’t really care for the theme to Bonanza (a bit too twangy), but I enjoy this ode to Paladin, which has more restraint than most.
Top 50 Original Theme Songs
I listen to theme songs. Like, I have an entire playlist devoted to them on my mp3 player. I think that qualifies me to prattle on about them for a month.
A lot of work used to go into creating catchy, original songs for the opening or closing credits of your favorite shows. These days, most shows either forgo songs all together (e.g. Lost) or they grab something already in existence that fits the show’s personality (e.g. Friends, Wonder Years, Scrubs).
For the next five weeks, we’ll cover two songs per day. These 50 are the ones most likely to get stuck in my head all day, but in a totally good way.
1. Wart
Bosses, especially in NES games, fall into one of two categories. They’re either insanely easy once you determine the trick to beating them, or they’re insanely hard, requiring perseverance and multiple hits. Wart is neither of those. While there are strategies to defeating him and avoiding getting hit, there’s no automatic road to victory. On the other hand, it is very possible to get very good at defeating him, taking no to minimal damage. In a way, he’s like Mike Tyson.
2. No Escape
presented by nibbishment
No game in the Mario series was more willing to dispense with established rules than the second game in the series (yes, I know, “Doki Doki Panic”, etc, etc). Of all the rules it broke, though, the most sinister was clearly the one that most of us took for granted.
What’s offscreen is in the past.
3. Don’t Blink, Don’t Look Down
presented by nibbishment
When I was 9, my parents, my brother and I house-sat for a couple who lived on a lakeside lot. This family happened to have a Nintendo with a copy of Super Mario Brother 3. My parents didn’t want us to waste our time playing it when there was so much natural beauty to behold. They had a point, of course, but my brother and I still set our alarm clocks for absurdly early hours so that we could sneak down to play it. Every day for two weeks, we would get to the same exact place in the game.
I wrote that up a couple of years ago when I was going through my list of favorite video game moments. This one was number 27, which seems just about right. We so badly wanted to beat this level and it just didn’t seem possible to do so. We had no problem getting here – whistles made that almost trivial. For some reason that I don’t seem to recall, we always used our P-Wings elsewhere, which (in one of this level’s – and indeed, this’ game’s – biggest failings) would have rendered this level stupidly easy.
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4. Open Sesame
At the end of nearly level in SMB2 you are faced with the impossible large face of a hawk. Once you’ve completed the level he opens his large gape and invites you inside to play at the casino.
5. Actually, Your Princess Is In This Castle
presented by nibbishment
We* knew what this was all about. We had all heard that there were eight worlds in Super Mario Brothers, and there were only 4 levels per world, so in the closing moments of 8-3 (easily the hardest level in the game, btw. There was no easy way around those damn hammer throwers with the entire level taking place on flat ground. We died SO MANY TIMES on that level), we knew what was coming – the last level, the end castle… the final boss.
Of course, we had two lives left, so we died in the first room, unable to figure out the logistics of that first jump.
Continue reading 5. Actually, Your Princess Is In This Castle
6. Stop! Hammer Time
Once you get the hang of things in Super Mario Bros. the game becomes pretty easy. Enemies have predictable patterns, and with a little patience, there’s little in the way of challenge outside of timing your mad dash for every Bowser visit. But there’s one area of the game that never gets easy and to this day still makes me nervous.
7. Take A Walk In Someone Else’s Shoes
The original game just had big Mario and fire-breathing Mario. I was honestly content with the addition of Raccoon Mario, and then the game had to bust out Frog Mario and Oh-My-God-There’s-Medusa Mario.
Death By Troggles 
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