Why I Watch the Intro

I can see why some people might not find much value in the opening credits of television shows. Once you've seen an opening title sequence once, why watch it again for every subsequent episode? 

I watch title sequences because they serve as a transition from everyday reality to the world of the show. The music and visuals evoke specific emotions meant not only to introduce us to the cast and other creators, but to put us in the right frame of mind for the drama or comedy to come. For genre or so-called "high concept" shows, title sequences often include a narrative thesis for new viewers, welcoming them to landscapes that might be difficult to grasp without some kind of introductory exposition. This was especially important in the days before the Internet made finding information as easy as typing a question onto a screen. 

Imagine, for example, watching a random episode of Gilligan's Island sometime during 1965 without its famous title sequence: 
 

The jaunty theme song tells us the who, what, when, where, and how of the show in a way that invokes lighthearted hijinks. The new viewer knows exactly what to expect: seven people with disparate backgrounds and personalities are castaways on an uncharted island, and they're hoping for rescue. 

Then there's the brilliant opener for each episode of The Rockford Files: 

Before we even see James Garner as Jim Rockford, the camera pans across his desk as someone (a different person each week) leaves a message on his answering machine, usually leaving some kind of bad news. Images of the titular private eye flash across the screen; Rockford usually looks pensive, pained, or puzzled, in keeping with the cheerfully fast-paced, liltingly ironic theme music. We also see images of Rockford's environment, the urban Los Angeles of the 1970s, along with a couple of shots of his father, a key supporting character. The fast-paced editing--which includes many shots of Rockford's signature vehicle, a gold Pontiac Firebird--suggests plenty of action and adventure, serving as a nice contrast to the music; subliminally, we expect some laughs to accompany the car chases and fistfights. 

Finally, consider The Waltons: 

Jerry Goldsmith's magnificent theme plays over images of a tranquil forested mountainscape and a cozy two-story home nestled in its valley. Here live The Waltons, a large extended family whose members clearly love and support each other, expressed without words as Pa brings home what is clearly the family's first radio. The fashions and technology on display, combined with the score, create a sweetly nostalgic sense of time and place; we imagine a time that perhaps included more struggle, but perhaps, too, more innocence. (We know it's an illusion, but a comforting one.) 

A carefully crafted introduction is crucial to our understanding not just of a show's plot or characters, but its ethos. Would Law & Order feel the same without "In the criminal justice system . . .?" Would Star Trek be a cultural touchstone without "Space, the Final Frontier?" 

I don't think so. And that's why I watch the intro. Every time. 

Oily Copra Trader

"What's 'copra'?" I asked myself when I looked up the name of this Pulp Figures miniature. It's coconut meat--that yummy white stuff on the inside of the nut. 
 

Tropical Castaway Beachcomber

I had some fun with the basing here, trying to make it look like this castaway is enjoying gentle surf along the beach of his isolated tropical home. 
 

RSS Dragonclaw

I have painted . . . a sailing ship! 

The severed dragon claw anchor for which the ship is named. 

You can fit a lot of miniatures on this ship. Also, a lifeboat. Or rowboat.

A nice day to relax on the deck. 

Nothing will befall the ship when it's manned by this crew! 

Coconut Long Shots

Somehow, I must hack into Jeff's computer to learn what prompt and settings he used to successfully coax Stable Diffusion into concussing Gilligan with a coconut. While strangely idyllic, I must nonetheless consider these results as ignoble failures. 

Island Visitor Tokens

 

Bingo, Bango, Bongo, and Irving, AKA The Mosquitoes. 

Eva Grubb, Erika Tiffany Smith, Duke Williams, and Boris Balkinoff.

Evil Gilligan (Russian spy), Evil Mr. Howell (greedy duplicate), George Barkley (contest winner), and Ghost (Russian spy). 

The island's gorilla, Herbert Hecuba, Igor Balkinoff, Igor the cosmonaut, and Ivan the cosmonaut. 

Lord Beasley Waterford, the jungle boy, Jonathan Kinkaid, and Jackson Farrell.

Tongo, Rodriguez, Ramoo, and Norbert Wiley. 

The XR-1000 drone, Wrongway Feldman, and the NASA Mars Orbital Probe (MOP). 

Castaway Tokens

If I ever finish my homebrew Gilligan's Island roleplaying game and actually convince some people to play it, I'll need some tokens to represent the original Castaways, since the player characters (cast in the role of new shipwreck survivors) will probably run across these folks at some point. I found some publicity stills and screen captures of the characters and then used this online tool to make the token, which will work with Roll20 and other virtual tabletop systems. 

Tomorrow, I'll post tokens of some of the more memorable island visitors...