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50 free Hard TV Theme Songs trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This is the hard TV theme songs quiz. If you already know the Rembrandts sang the Friends theme, that Danny Elfman wrote The Simpsons and that Lalo Schifrin's Mission: Impossible is in 5/4, these 50 questions go further: the band that turned down Friends first, the 15-year-old who wrote the M*A*S*H lyric, the sitcom that changed its own title to match its theme, the seven-minute Smiths B-side that became a witch show's opening, and the lullaby a game-show creator wrote for his son that now plays during Final Jeopardy. The set covers composers and session players, chart peaks and Grammys, songs borrowed from earlier records, the different versions of a theme across seasons, and the lawsuits and rewrites behind the tunes. Nothing here quotes a lyric; every question is about who made the music, how it was made and what happened to it. It is written for people who never skip the intro. Every answer was checked against a primary or encyclopedic source before publishing and each question carries its citation. For a warm-up, start with our main TV and movie theme songs quiz and come back for this one.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which band was first asked to let its song 'Shiny Happy People' be the Friends theme, and turned it down?
R.E.M.
Warner Bros. Television then picked the only available band on Warner Bros. Records to record the replacement. A Nashville radio station later made the theme a hit.
Q 02Which two Friends creators share the writing credit on the Rembrandts' theme with Allee Willis?
David Crane and Marta Kauffman
Danny Wilde and Phil Sōlem later added two verses for the 1995 single, which reached the top ten in Ireland and the UK.
Q 03Gary Portnoy co-wrote the Cheers theme with which songwriting partner?
Judy Hart-Angelo
The 2013 EP Cheers: Music from the TV Series includes Portnoy's demo and several earlier attempts the pair made before landing on the famous version.
Q 04Where did Andrew Gold's 'Thank You for Being a Friend' peak on the Hot 100 in 1978?
25
Gold called it 'just this little throwaway thing' that took him about an hour to write. Cindy Fee sang the sitcom version.
Q 05Who wrote the lyric of the M*A*S*H theme 'Suicide Is Painless' for Altman, reportedly in five minutes?
His 15-year-old son Michael
Altman wanted 'the stupidest song ever written' and found his own 45-year-old brain could not manage it. The vocal version hit number one in the UK in 1980.
Q 06Which instrumental group's 1968 cover of the Hawaii Five-O theme reached the US top five?
The Ventures
Morton Stevens composed the original. In 2015 his children sued CBS over the theme's use in the rebooted series.
Q 07Who realised Ron Grainer's Doctor Who theme at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1963?
Delia Derbyshire
Every note was made by cutting and splicing tape of a single plucked string and oscillator swoops, years before commercial synthesisers existed.
Q 08Julee Cruise's 'Falling', the Twin Peaks theme, topped the singles chart in which country in 1991?
Australia
David Lynch wrote the lyrics and Angelo Badalamenti the music; Badalamenti won a Grammy for the instrumental 'Twin Peaks Theme'.
Q 09John Sebastian's theme for a 1975 ABC sitcom had a knock-on effect on the sitcom itself. What was it?
It was retitled Welcome Back, Kotter after the song
Sebastian could not rhyme anything with 'Kotter' except 'otter', so he wrote around it. The single hit number one in May 1976 after only five weeks on the chart.
Q 10Which Mike Post-produced singer finally scored with 'Believe It or Not' from The Greatest American Hero?
Joey Scarbury
Post recalled telling producer Stephen J. Cannell the flying-suit premise was 'nuts'. The pilot first played the theme without vocals.
Q 11'Miami Vice Theme' was the last instrumental to top the Hot 100 until which 2013 track?
'Harlem Shake' by Baauer
The soundtrack sat atop the US album chart for 11 weeks in 1985, the most successful TV soundtrack until High School Musical in 2006.
Q 12Which guitarist is featured on Mike Post's Grammy-winning 'Hill Street Blues' theme?
Larry Carlton
The single reached number 10, matching Post's 1975 Rockford Files theme, and both men collected the 1982 Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.
Q 13What was the Flintstones' opening theme called for its first two seasons, before 'Meet the Flintstones'?
'Rise and Shine'
Q 21Lazlo Bane's 'Superman', the Scrubs theme, first appeared in 2000 on which film's soundtrack?
The Tao of Steve
That was a year before Scrubs debuted. The song is sometimes titled 'I'm No Superman'.
Q 22'Little Boxes', the Weeds theme, was written by Malvina Reynolds after seeing tract housing where?
Daly City, California
Pete Seeger's 1963 recording was his only charting single, at number 70. Reynolds wrote it in the car while her husband drove to a gig in La Honda.
Q 23Who performed the version of Tom Waits' 'Way Down in the Hole' used in season four of The Wire?
Five Baltimore teenagers
The instrumental resembled the Bugs Bunny Show overture also airing on ABC, which may be why it was replaced in season three.
Q 14Which soprano sang the wordless vocal line in Alexander Courage's original Star Trek theme?
Loulie Jean Norman
Courage mixed voice and instruments equally for a mysterious sound, but Roddenberry had the vocal brought up. Courage also made the Enterprise 'whoosh' with his own voice.
Q 15Who actually wrote and sang the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme 'Love Is All Around'?
Sonny Curtis
The former Cricket also recorded two full-length versions; his 1980 country arrangement reached number 29 on the country chart. The lyrics changed after season one.
Q 16Kevin Williamson used 'I Don't Want to Wait' for Dawson's Creek after failing to license which song?
Alanis Morissette's 'Hand in My Pocket'
Using a pre-existing song as a theme was novel at the time. Cole wrote the track at her spinet piano as her grandfather neared death.
Q 17The Smiths' 'How Soon Is Now?', covered for the Charmed theme, was first the B-side of which single?
'William, It Was Really Nothing'
The cover first appeared on the soundtrack of the 1996 film The Craft. The original runs nearly seven minutes.
Q 18Which entertainer's estate is co-credited on Phantom Planet's 'California' for its resemblance to an older song?
Al Jolson
The title and chorus echo 'California, Here I Come'. The song is about driving Route 101 to a concert and became a top-ten hit in the UK and Ireland.
Q 19They Might Be Giants won their first Grammy in 2002 for which sitcom theme?
'Boss of Me' from Malcolm in the Middle
An earlier version was written for a Philadelphia radio contest with a very different chorus. The single made the top 30 in the UK.
Q 20Whose book Big Bang had Ed Robertson just read when he improvised the rap behind The Big Bang Theory theme?
Simon Singh
Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady heard the freestyle at a Los Angeles concert and phoned him. A full-length version was released in October 2007.
Each season used a different recording; Waits himself sang season two. An extended Blind Boys version played over the series-finale montage.
Q 24Which HBO show made Jace Everett's flop 'Bad Things' chart in the UK and Scandinavia four years on?
True Blood
It came from his only album for Epic Records Nashville and won a 2009 BMI cable television award.
Q 25The title of Nick Cave's 'Red Right Hand', the Peaky Blinders theme, comes from which epic poem?
Paradise Lost
Milton's phrase refers to the vengeful hand of God. The 1994 track was re-released as a single in 2014 thanks to the show, and had earlier featured in the Scream films.
Q 26Massive Attack's 'Teardrop' was originally meant to feature which star before Elizabeth Fraser?
Madonna
The harpsichord-driven track was Massive Attack's only UK top-ten hit. Fraser, ex-Cocteau Twins, wrote the lyrics.
Q 27Inner Circle's 'Bad Boys', the Cops theme, was first released on which 1987 album?
One Way
It only became a US hit in 1993, reaching number eight, after 'Sweat (A La La La La Long)' broke the band internationally.
Q 28'Johnny's Theme', the Tonight Show opener, began life in 1959 as which Paul Anka instrumental?
'Toot Sweet'
Anka added lyrics for Annette Funicello under the title 'It's Really Love'. Tommy Newsom's arrangement was on the Tonight Show Band's Grammy-winning debut album.
Q 29Johnny Pearson wrote 'Heavy Action', the Monday Night Football theme, in 1970 for which production-library company?
KPM
In Britain it is the theme to Superstars, and it also opens Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl. Pearson wrote it while playing in the Top of the Pops orchestra.
Q 30The SpongeBob SquarePants theme is a sea shanty adapted from which traditional song?
'Blow the Man Down'
Painty the Pirate is voiced by Patrick Pinney, who had no other role in the series. Creator Stephen Hillenburg reportedly wanted the most annoying song possible.