"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale" of a time when television shows began with awesome TV Theme Songs. "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name" and sometimes you want to go back to when TV Theme songs were special. "Here's a story... of a lovely" time when TV Theme Songs served to identify, distinguish and set the stage for the television program that followed. "You take the good, take the bad, take them both and there you have" what unfortunately has become a lost artform. "Believe it or not", sadly it seems no effort or pride is taken in the TV Theme Song ever since Seinfeld proved a short synth-bass riff could be used instead. “Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!” This regular feature may not "make all our dreams come true", but it will remember some of the best TV Theme Songs from years past (with a focus on the '80s decade). "Come aboard, we're expecting you."
This time we will cover the theme song for My Sister Sam titled "Room Enough For Two". "Everything starts like a knock at the door. You don’t know what it is but you know who it’s for. That’s the way we began and there’s no end in sight. Something good must be right." My Sister Sam debuted in October of 1986 on CBS running just two seasons and 44 episodes. The series achieved solid ratings its first season, but after being renewed was moved to a different night which resulted in a steep ratings drop and resulted in the series being cancelled.
The theme song “Room Enough For Two” was co-written by Steve Dorff and John Bettis. If you didn’t know already, you might also be interested that Bettis is the lyricist for other '80s hits like Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature”, Madonna’s “Crazy For You”, The Pointer Sisters’ “Slow Hand” and Whitney Houston’s Olympic theme “One Moment in Time”. Dorff has had 15 Top 10 hits himself, songs in nine #1 films plus three Grammy and five Emmy nominations over several decades in the industry. The two also co-wrote the popular theme song to Growing Pains titled "As Long as We've Got Each Other" as well as its spin-off Just the Ten of Us. They were able to secure the amazing voice of Kim Carnes to perform this one. Carnes is best known for her trademark raspy voice and her biggest hit "Bette Davis Eyes".
Here is the opening for My Sister Sam featuring "Room Enough For Two" performed by Kim Carnes...
Steve Dorff ended up winning a BMI TV Music Award in 1987 for his work on this series. I had the privilege of an interview with Steve Dorff and here is a portion of what he had to say about working on this theme song:
Because of the great success we were having at Warner Television which produced a lot of the shows I worked on, I was asked to meet with the very talented Diane English who executive produced 'My Sister Sam' and later Murphy Brown. John and I were on a nice roll so we created the themes for both of these shows.
"There’s room enough for two in a place that I know of. Has a city view with a blue sky above. Anywhere is home when there’s someone there to share it. There’s room enough for you. I got room enough for two in my life."
Hope you enjoyed tuning in for another "episode" of TV Theme Songs!