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Should Monk have kept the original theme song?
There's an inside joke hidden in two Monk episodes referring to the absolute fan fury unleashed when Randy Newman's song replaced the original theme.
The bouncing guitars of the Monk theme song heard throughout the show’s first season became a surprise hit with viewers tuning in.
The song became so popular that the original Monk network USA posted a version of the song that fans could download and listen to even when the show wasn’t on air.
This original theme song was composed by Jeff Beal, who has earned Emmy nominations for compositions for hit TV shows for HBO and Netflix.
Playing the tune was Grant Geissman, a jazz guitarist and session musician who has recorded with Quincy Jones and Sheila E.
On TV, Geissman’s music has been featured on live shows like The Tonight Show, Merv Griffin, and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, as well as on more recent hit series like Boy Meets World and Dawson’s Creek.
But it was on Monk that he arguably found his biggest TV fanbase, with super-fans of the show downloading his original theme to save a version for themselves.
That’s why it caused quite the disruption when Monk producers out of nowhere swapped out Geissman and Beal’s song for a new theme song.
For the second season of Monk, it’s Randy Newman’s "It’s a Jungle Out There" that’s heard over the show’s opening credits.
Fans were so distraught by this decision that Monk producers couldn’t ignore their loud protests and wound up writing a bit into the show that made light of the theme song scandal.
In the Monk episode "Mr. Monk and the TV Star," Sarah Silverman makes her debut appearance as Marci Maven, an obsessive TV fan who loudly complains about her favorite TV show replacing its theme song.
Silverman would appear three times over the series run of Monk as Marci, so the inside joke doesn’t end when this episode ends.
According to IMDb, fans felt so passionately that the original theme song should be reinstated that they organized letter-writing campaigns to the network.
As a gift to these fans, at the end of "Mr. Monk and the TV Star," Adrian Monk makes a solemn promise to Marci that if he ever gets a TV show of his own, that he would never change the theme song. When this scene ends, the original theme song plays, and if you pay attention, you’ll hear this joke recur at the end of the episode "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan," which is the next time Marci appears.
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21 Comments
Now, all we have is "phoney" Reality shows that are about money Shame on the television industry for allowing this. God Bless the creators of, "Me. TV for allowing our children, and their children to not only view but witness what TV and great & wholesome entertainment was meant to be, and what it is all about. Amen!
Otherwise, what's the point of title credit.
Btw: I don't think they actually filmed all the time "in" San Francisco but took their title shots and key landmark shots from there. They did a lot of interior filming.
Being a native to the Bay Area you can tell when they start using neighborhoods and streets and other details. Not saying they never, ever did, but it wasn't completely filmed like "Streets of San Francisco" or "Nash Bridges" (obviously)!!