"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 Pinwheel. " Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around. Look at my Pinwheel and see what I've found. Pinwheel, pinwheel, where have you been? Hello, how are you, and may I come in?" Pinwheel first aired on a local cable network out of Columbus, Ohio from December 1977- April 1979. It didn't gain larger attention until cable television started to expand and the Pinwheel Channel was also expanded into a national cable network and go on to eventually be called Nickelodeon. The show targeted at preschoolers was reformatted as a series of hour-long episodes shown in three- to five-hour blocks and Pinwheel became the first Nickelodeon programming. Pinwheel went on to run for five seasons and 260 original episodes until July 1984. Nickelodeon continued to air re-runs of Pinwheel, including becoming a key show within the new Nick Jr. time block starting in April 1988, until July of 1990.
The "Pinwheel Theme" was composed by George James who also played the character of "Jake" for the entire run of the show itself. In addition to Pinwheel, James composed the theme music for By the Way and Hocus Focus, produced records, wrote for Sesame Street, performed in Twyla Tharp's stage production of Hair, and produced and directed audio books. The song is pretty simple, but gets stuck in your head fairly quickly. To anybody who watched this show more than a few times, the theme song is certainly one burned into your brain. Here is the opening for Pinwheel featuring the theme song...
I remember watching Pinwheel at my grandparents house when I was quite young since they had cable television in their city well before it came to our city (for some reason). So it does hold some warm nostalgia for me especially in that regard. "Pinwheel, pinwheel spinning around. Look at my Pinwheel and see what I found. Pinwheel, pinwheel, breezy and bright. Spin me good morning, spin me good night."
Hope you enjoyed tuning in for another "episode" of TV Theme Songs!