As I’m sure you can imagine with the news about my dog and all, I’ve been in kind of a funk the last few days. And where do I turn when I’m feeling down? Where else but to that wondrous opiate of the modern masses, television! Or, as Homer Simpson once called it, “Teacher, mother, secret lover.” So, in that spirit, let’s take a look at yet another TV title sequence that I’ve always thought was tres cool, or at the very least, entertaining:

Detective shows were all over the airwaves in the early ’80s, a consequence, I believe, of the success of Magnum, PI. It seems like I used to watch all of them, too; I know this blog makes it seem as if the only entertainments I’ve ever liked involve starships and rayguns, but I’ve always been big on gumshoes, too. Go figure.

Most of the post-Magnum detective shows seemed to follow the general Magnum formula: a mixture of action and silly comedy centered around a hunky bachelor private eye with a flashy car who somehow manages to live (unrealistically) far beyond his means, given that he so frequently is dealing with deadbeats or charity cases. There was usually at least one goofy sidekick around for good-natured male bonding, and women were present only as damsels in distress, femme fatales, one-episode dates, or the Haunting Woman from the Past.

Simon & Simon added an element of sibling rivalry to this mix by making the titular characters brothers, and later introduced the boys’ mother as a regular character. Next to Magnum, this show was probably my favorite of the various detective series, although oddly enough, I don’t remember much about it beyond the basic premise. I do recall that I always identified more with facial-haired Rick than preppy, prissy AJ, although I preferred AJ’s Camaro to Rick’s big cowboy truck. I’m just not a truck kinda guy, I guess…