TV On The Radio: The 2025 Tele-lection

Since 2017 on That Thing With Rich Appel, the syndicated weekend show I host on stations with an Oldies or older-leaning Classic Hits format, the “Tele-lection” has been a February tradition, which it was again this past weekend.

Given the nature of That Thing, which aims to re-create “the classic top-down Top 40 sound” – a mix of the music, jingles, commercials, pace and personality from ’60s, ’70s, and a-smidge-of-’80s radio – flipping one of our three hours a week, once a year, to the annual listener-voted countdown of the 40 all-time-best TV show themes has never been a tough sell.

While it helps that nearly half of the themes making the cut most years once had a presence on top 40 radio – from “The Monkees” and “Hawaii Five-O” during the ’60s, to “Welcome Back, Kotter” and “Happy Days” in the ’70s, to “Friends” in the ’90s – that still leaves more than half heard only on TV. 

Still, I’d argue that all these themes, especially the top 15 shown below, occupy the same part of our brains as any classic song that’s stood the test of time. Who can’t sing “Movin’ On Up” from “The Jeffersons,” or the “Gilligan’s Island” theme, when they hear them? It doesn’t hurt that all of the top 15, and nearly all the top 40, are from shows that still air every day on cable channels or are available on streaming services.  

Every year on Tele-lection weekend we hear from listeners, and this year was no exception. Peggy listening to That Thing on KPKL (Kool 107.1) Spokane, Wash., listed favorite themes such as “The Rockford Files” and “Bonanza” on our Facebook page. Wayne in Manorville, N.Y. streaming us on JB105 Providence, R.I., texted “Love this – great show, my favorite,” adding the “Batman” theme was “the best.” Here’s what the listeners chose this year:

Now, the Tele-lection postgame show:

• In its nine years, only three TV themes have been voted No. 1: “Hawaii Five-O” for five of those nine, the “Cheers” theme (“Where Everybody Knows Your Name”) last year, and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” theme (“Love Is All Around”) for its third time at the top this year.
• 37 of this year’s top 40 TV themes have been voted in for at least two of our nine years, with 17 having made the list all nine. The three themes making their debut this year are: “One Day at a Time” by Polly Cutter (No. 25), making it the sixth theme from a Norman Lear sitcom to make the cut; “There’s a New Girl in Town,” the theme from “Alice” (No. 38), sung by its star, Linda Lavin; and “Come and Knock on Our Door,” the “Three’s Company” theme (No. 40), by that other Ray Charles – the one whose Ray Charles Singers took “Love Me With All Your Heart” to the top five in 1964 – in a duet with Julia Rinker.
• 12 of the 40 are instrumental themes, including, again this year, Mike Post’s three that charted top 40 (“Rockford,” “Hill Street Blues,” “Magnum, P.I.”). 
• Only one theme among our listeners’ top 40, John Sebastian’s “Welcome Back” (No. 5), went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, during “Welcome Back, Kotter’s” first season on TV (1975-76), while the theme from “Friends” (The Rembrandts’ “I’ll Be There for You”) hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Airplay chart during that show’s first season (1994-95).

There’s a station playing That Thing with Rich Appel at most times over the weekend. Find a station here. Here’s our coverage of last year’s countdown.