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Original opening title sequences are an endangered species on television \u2014 many TV shows just show a simple title card or, worse, rely on AI-generated graphics in a not-so-Secret Invasion<\/em><\/a> of nonhuman artistry. Streaming TV revived the art form for a moment before platforms offered viewers the chance to bypass the credits.<\/p>\n \u201cThe \u2018skip intro\u2019 button simply means that fewer shows will have main titles now,\u201d Patrick Clair, who worked on the titles for Silo<\/a><\/em>, 3 Body Problem<\/a><\/em>, and Fallout<\/a><\/em>, told Variety<\/a> <\/em>last year. \u201cBut the good thing is that it is a very intentional choice for a showrunner to have main titles. If it is there, it is because they want it to be part of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, the best opening title sequences set the tone of the show, complement the narrative, or just serve as an entertaining diversion from the drama at hand. Here\u2019s our pantheon of TV\u2019s best opening title sequences of all time.<\/p>\n In a certain light, The X-Files<\/a><\/em>\u2019 opening titles look like a PowerPoint presentation run amok, with sci-fi images and keywords like \u201cparanormal activity\u201d zooming in and dissolving away. But echoey synth and eerie whistling of Mark Snow\u2019s theme ties it all together to an iconic 45-second sequence.<\/p>\n This mystery series\u2019 animated titles introduce us to the show\u2019s trio of amateur detectives as the camera pans across the windows of their Upper West Side building. And in a treat for armchair detectives watching at home, the titles include Easter eggs for each episode.<\/p>\n Put-upon women of art history get their close-up \u2014 and their comeuppance \u2014 in a sequence that animates classic paintings by Cranach, Van Eyck, Wood, Warhol, and more. These women, like the Wisteria Lane wives, shoulder undue burden to the ingratitude of their husbands.<\/p>\n What\u2019s impossible is not feeling a rush of adrenaline with this spy show\u2019s ever-changing title sequence. Each episode\u2019s version shows flashes of action from that hour as a burning fuse starts a countdown punctuated by Lalo Schifrin\u2019s theme.<\/p>\n Peacemaker<\/a><\/em> really commits to a bit. After the dance party of Season 1\u2019s opening titles, Season 2\u2019s sequence boasts an even bigger spectacle. The show\u2019s characters \u2014 a bald eagle, included \u2014 keep a straight face as they perform extravagant choreography and as James Gunn finds the perfect needle drop for the moment.<\/p>\n This vampire drama\u2019s opening titles felt like the show itself: pulpy, impious, and as steamy as a Louisiana swamp. But there\u2019s substance behind the style: The imagery likens the show\u2019s anti-vamp attitudes to humanity\u2019s long history of bigotry.<\/p>\n This drama introduced new opening titles in Season 2, but both versions feature cast members dancing to Grass Roots oldies in a pachinko parlor, their exuberance bounding off the screen, before the title of the show appears in Korean, Japanese, and English. The sequence is an ode to joy \u2014 and a juxtaposition to the narrative\u2019s hardships.<\/p>\n The titles of Rod Serling<\/a>\u2019s classic anthology evolved over the years, but each version had viewers biting their nails as they dared to unlock a door with the key of imagination. (And as far as we can recall, this is the only TV show intro to be recreated in a Disney thrill ride<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Like the best ad copy, Mad Men<\/em>\u2019s opening titles are deceptively simple: An office disintegrates around a silhouetted Don Draper, sending him tumbling into oblivion, falling past the 1960s-era advertising covering the facades of Madison Avenue office buildings.<\/p>\n The animated hit packs so much exposition into its titles: We see a rascally Bart, an absent-minded Homer, a good-natured Marge, a prodigious Lisa, and a playful Maggie, plus various other Springfielders and an iteration of the show\u2019s couch gag. Instant classic.<\/p>\n The titular serial killer\u2019s morning rituals mirror his nighttime crimes in this sequence, in which ordinary actions \u2014 like shaving, preparing breakfast, and even flossing \u2014 look sinister when photographed in extreme close-up.<\/p>\n Detailed maps of fictional realms are a fantasy staple, but never were they as intricate as the globe around which the Game of Thrones<\/a><\/em> titles tour us, with Westerosi turrets and fortifications rising mechanically out of the landscape as we see pertinent locations from the show.<\/p>\n13. The X-Files<\/em><\/h2>\n
12. Only Murders in the Building<\/em><\/h2>\n
11. Desperate Housewives<\/em><\/h2>\n
10. Mission: Impossible<\/em><\/h2>\n
9. Peacemaker<\/em><\/h2>\n
8. True Blood<\/em><\/h2>\n
7. Pachinko<\/em><\/h2>\n
6. The Twilight Zone<\/em><\/h2>\n
5. Mad Men<\/em><\/h2>\n
4. The Simpsons<\/em><\/h2>\n
3. Dexter<\/em><\/h2>\n
2. Game of Thrones<\/em><\/h2>\n
1. Severance<\/em><\/h2>\n