The Eighties
A decade of amazing pop culture milestones, sitcoms in the 1980’s knew how to do a theme song. The crème de la crème:

Perfect Strangers – the greatest TV show ever about a guy named Balki and his cousin.

Family Ties – the “sha-la-la” at the end is legendary,

Who’s the Boss – “the choice is up to you, my friend” – how inspirational!

The Dukes of Hazzard – technically the show began in the 70’s, but come on, this is a classic.

The Greatest American Hero – I never watched a single episode of this show, but what a song!

The CW
Sure, most of the shows on the WB/UPN/CW are aimed at teeny boppers, but there have been some gems – gems with killer theme songs no less.

Veronica Mars – The Dandy Warhols brought it with their theme song, although they really did make it lamer in Season 3.

Smallville – this song is best sung by James and myself in the highest pitch possible.

Smallville Theme
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It’s Not TV, It’s HBO
Remember when HBO used to just air movies, and not amazing series with fantastic theme songs?

The Sopranos – how else can you make a drive through New Jersey seem cool?

True Blood – everything about this show is cool, especially the way it starts.

Kid Friendly Fare:
Shows for kids need to have an amazing theme song to hook the kids in – it’s just good marketing.

The Muppets – no one from our generation does not have this song memorized.

Spongebob Square Pants – a true modern sing-a-long classic.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – They’re heroes in a half shell… and they’re green!

Lyric-less
Sometimes, a great theme doesn’t need any (or just a few) words in order to be super catchy.

The Simpsons – universally know because of the show’s popularity, but a great theme in its own right.

30 Rock – a great tune that lets you know you’re in store for hilarity.

The Office – this was Courtney’s ring tone for a while, and it never got old.

Nearly two years after we finished the second season, Courtney and I finally finished up watching Veronica Mars on DVD. Raf, who lent us the DVDs and warned us that the season wasn’t the show’s best, turned out to have a point. Still, the show was still clever, funny, and interesting enough to keep you guessing with most of its mysteries.

Veronica’s transition to college was fairly smooth, if it was a bit coincidental that so many of her old pals from high school all decided to go to the same college in the same town. And it did feel like there were too many characters too fit in – many times this character or that was “out of town” just to explain why they weren’t in an episode or two. And the remix of the theme song?  Not necessary or cool.

The third season also didn’t have one long mystery that played out from the premiere to the finale like the first two seasons; instead there were two longer arcs and a few standalone episodes at the end. The campus rapist arc was a great story, while the death of the dean felt a little forced. I did, however really enjoy the standalone episodes at the end of the season, and I really felt like the show was picking up steam right as it ended. Go figure, right?

I watched the “trailer” for Season 4, where the showrunners pitched a concept of having the next season jump forward a few years to Veronica’s first day on the job at the FBI. The trailer showed promise, and I think that would have been a decent show – although it would have been somewhat irksome to have not followed up the cliffhangers from the season finale.

They say that a Veronica Mars movie is still possible,so fingers crossed for that.  But even without a movie, it was still a great show over three seasons, which is definitely impressive.

Breaking news!  (By way of EW’s Michael Ausiello – seriously, can I have this guy’s job?  I’d be totally awesome at it!)

Series creator Rob Thomas has been chatting with Miss Mars herself, Kristen Bell, about the possibility of bringing the canceled show to the big screen.  It seems like there has only been a little bit of chatter about it, and Thomas is working on two other shows at the moment.  It’s probably not worthy of super-intense speculation at this point, because I’m sure anytime a TV show has been canceled, every show-runner and star have at least entertained and talked a little bit about the possibility of a movie.  Still, it’s good to know that they’re considering it and would both be enthusiastic about the project and don’t have that “I’m over it, we told the story we needed to tell, I want to move on with other things and not be remembered for just one show despite the fact that it was awesome” mentality.

The show definitely worked well in the format of a TV show, playing with a few long running mysteries that take a full year for Veronica to work through while new easier cases pop up weekly.  I would guess that in a single two-hour movie there would be a larger focus on one overarching conspiracy, but I’m confident that the writers would make it work.

P.S. I do realize that it may be weird for me to be jonesing for more VM when I still have another season of the show to go through, but I just can’t help it.  I’m just that sure that when we finish season three (whenever that may be), I’ll still want more Veronica, Keith, Logan, and Wallace.

And while we’re on the subject of canceled shows becoming movies, what’s up with the Arrested Development movie?  Everyone in the cast has said they’d sign up for it, and I think the latest was that series creator Mitchell Hurwitz was working on a script. That would also be a damn safe bet to be an amazing movie. (Remember when George Michael and Maeby were on an episode of Veronica Mars?  That was awesome.)

I was pretty disappointed that Keith wasn’t elected Sheriff, and I totally agreed with Veronica that he should have fought harder to make the town of Neptune a safer place where mysteries get solved by the actual police.  But it was realistic that if he refused to fight back against Lamb’s low shots, Keith would lose.  Also based on reality is the fact that Aaron would have smooth talking lawyers who would do everything in their power to get their celebrity client off scot free.  It sucks, but it’s true.  At least he got the justice that he deserved in the end.

As a side note, the guest stars this year were all pretty amazing.  Kendal aka Cordelia aka Charisma Carpenter is just a babe, plain and simple, and its great to have her around.  Steve Gutenberg also did a great job as the not totally trustworthy Mayor, and it’s kind of too bad they can’t have him back next year after his ride back to Neptune got blowed-up real good.  The cameos by Joss Whedon, Kevin Smith, and Alyson Hannigan were also nice touches.

So despite some being a lot more confused than I was in Season One, the show is still highly enjoyable.  The class-warfare theme were explored a lot more this year, and while they could have gone over the top with their points about the battles between the haves and the have-nots, the drama always felt genuine.  Veronica was a little less of an outcast this year, but not totally, and she still had to do a lot all by her lonesome.  Despite the semi-weak cliffhanger that ended the season, I’m still looking forward to Season Three, to see what happens when Veronica goes off to college.  Something tells me she won’t be your average sorority girl…

Oh, and the theme song?  Still super catchy.

Not only was I, until very recently, a Buffy virgin, I had never seen the short-lived but geek-loved Veronica Mars. Raf, the very same friend who lent me his Buffy DVD’s, also lent me Season One of Veronica Mars, and told me I’d love it. Raf, you were right. The missus and I just finished the first season, and it was pretty darn amazing. At the risk of sounding like a weirdly obssesed fanboy, I can’t help but gushing about what I love about this show.  (Besides the totally awesome theme song, that is.)

For starters, Kristin Bell is amazing. Not only is she super-cute, she’s a great actress, and she gives the character a ton of smarts and sass without it ever feeling like she’s trying to hard. Seriously, I bet this role in the hands of most actresses would come across as incredibly hokey and lame. And it’s important that she be believable, because she carries much of the show on her own. That’s not me discounting the rest of the characters, but Veronica is in charge of her own investigations, and she is on-screen for most of the show, plus her voice-over when she isn’t. But you never get sick of her. Sure, other shows have strong lead characters, but shows usually don’t allows their background characters to simply exist, they are too often forced down your throat.

That said, the other actors on the show all do a great job at playing the other people in Veronica’s world.  I  enjoyed watching the evolution of Logan, and Duncan became much more three dimensional as the season progressed.  But the true standout of the cast besides Bell has to be Enrico Colantoni’s portrayal of Keith Mars.  The fact that this is a show about a teenage girl, and the main “relationship” revolves around the girl and her father might seem weird, but it makes sense in the context of what has happened to this family.  In spite of all the tragedy that’s occurred to them, they truly love each other, and they make a great team.

The show also masterfully handles the balance of an overall arc and stand-alone episodes, by making virtually every episode contain both.  Veronica uses her smarts and private investigator savvy to solve mysteries in the present, while also working at uncovering the truth about the Lily Kane murder.  The way that the show spreads out this case throughout the season makes sense, especially given the magnitude of the cover-up and the personal toll it has taken on the Mars family.  And the standalone stories are also brilliant – there were some twists and turns along the way that I saw coming, but for the most part, the cases that Veronica takes on are hard to predict, even if you’re trying to.

If I had to find one thing to gripe about, it would be that at times Veronica takes what people say at face value when she should be more suspicious of their motives.  But I guess despite her cunning, she is still only human and is allowed to make errors in judgment every now and again.

I’ve heard that the next seasons aren’t as strong as the first, but I’m still looking forward to watching the further adventures of Veronica Mars, and seeing the aftermath of everything that went down in the first season finale.  Now if only there was someone who would be kind enough to let me borrow those DVDs…