Mike Post About My Favourite TV Theme Composer...

Friday is Fun with Music. And Playlists!

May 05, 2022

In primary school, way back a hundred years ago or so, I learned about Mike Post. He was the guy that wrote the theme tune for Hill Street Blues. I loved that show. I didn’t really understand it so well, at first. But it was one of the shows I was allowed to stay up and watch – if I couldn’t get to sleep, if I just wanted a bit more time up and with my folks, and from there I started to follow some of the storylines.

I certainly understood that piece of soundtrack music though. Along with Chariots of Fire and the music to Our World (Jean Michel Jarre’s Equinox) it had an enormous impact – on m listening then. And now.

Recently I watched the pilot episode of Hill Street Blues (Disney+) and have a vague winter project planned of watching as much of the series as I can.

Getting me through – each time – will be that theme tune. One of my all-time favourites. So much so that I had to buy the single on vinyl.

Mike Post didn’t just make the theme tune to Hill Street Blues though – he created the theme music for many of the TV shows that raised me. Magnum P.I., The A-Team, The Greatest American Hero, Wiseguy…

There are TV shows I didn’t watch much at all, but I know because of the music. Doogie Howser, M.D. and L.A. Law for instance. They’re Mike Post’s work too.

And one of his absolute best – maybe one of the very best TV themes ever – is Quantum Leap.

I have never ever watched an episode of Quantum Leap. But I feel like I know the show, I feel like I should have watched it, and I’m sure on some level I missed out. But I know and love the music.

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That’s partly because I would tune in and hear it – I must have been watching something right after Quantum Leap every week. And it’s also because when iPods ruled the stereo, I had a playlist of about 100 TV themes. And we would play a drinking game around guessing the theme tune quickly; me in charge of the stereo and playing snippets.

The long winter evenings would fly by (so, no chance of Hill Street Blues re-runs back then eh).

Today, I wanted to celebrate some Mike Post. Here are some of my favourite TV themes below. All by Mr. Post. What a legend. What a great skill he possesses.

I have his album of his best known and loved TV themes. But of course, that’s not quite enough. I want more. I always want more.

He's never that far from my mind, but I was reminded about Post this week from two disparate sources. I revisited a few albums by The Who and on one of their more recent releases there’s a song called Mike Post Theme.

And I watched a documentary about the TV and film composer Snuffy Walden. I guess Snuffy is to the 1990s as Mike Post was to the 1980s. At any rate, Post popped up a bit on that doco – Up To Snuff - to share some kind words. It was great, but made me wish for a Mike Post documentary, or a biography, or, I dunno something…

It's certainly no secret that my all-time favourite TV theme is the one from Taxi. But Post is easily my favourite TV theme composer. What an amazing track-record.

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In his early years with music, fresh out of garage bands, he created the arrangement for the Mason Williams staple, Classical Gas. He went on to play piano on a Van Halen song. From an album he produced with the band. Unfortunately, it is easily the band’s worst album. But hey, between Classical Gas and Van Halen III he wrote the music for The Rockford Files, Law & Order, NYPD Blue, all of the big-big shows I mentioned earlier and many, many more. That’s some career.