'Hawaii Five-O' meets 'Miami Vice'
In an age of reality television, I mourn the death of the TV theme song. I miss the glory days of the 1970s and 1980s where programs like The Jeffersons, Diff'rent Strokes, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show gave us catchy tunes that were almost as enjoyable as the shows themselves. Of course, YouTube has become a great way to get your theme song fix, and today I saw something really cool.
Though Hawaii Five-O's theme music never had lyrics, I consider it the best TV theme of all time. The great music by Morton Stevens, combined with the excellent visuals, particularly that awesome wave at the very beginning, made for a fantastic viewing experience. Even today I have to watch it every now and then. And naturally, when you find something you love, you get a little protective of it. YouTube is littered with awful remakes of TV and movie themes so I was a bit anxious when I came across a clip that combined the theme music of Miami Vice with the visuals of Hawaii Five-O's opener. After all, Hawaii Five-O was the better program.
But as it turned out, I had nothing to fear. Jan Hammer's synthesized instrumental music may scream the '80s, but the music perfectly matches the Hawaii Five-O visuals. Everything comes at just the right time in the music, from the wave, to Jack Lord turning around on the Waikiki balcony, to the rotating police siren careening through the streets of Honolulu. I was impressed.
Though the two shows took place in very different time periods--the drug-fueled violence of South Beach and Crockett's pastel shirts would have looked out of place in Oahu in the 1970s--they do have a few things in common. Both involved cops and bad guys, evil mastermind villains, women in distress, a little skin, and tropical locales. Cheers to TheDuchy, the clip's creator, for making this happen.
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