A Question About TV Opening Montages

(NOTE: Based on time elapsed since the posting of this entry, the BS-o-meter calculates this is 15.678% likely to be something that Ferrett now regrets.)

Watching The Wire’s opening sequence, I was struck by how much of it was footage taken from later episodes of this season.  Which is a style of opening sequence that’s very modern; basically, a theme song accompanied by a bunch of mini-trailers for the excitement of the upcoming season.
They wouldn’t have done that back in the 1970s, I don’t think; there weren’t season-long arcs planned, back in the day.  So this has to be a recent development.  And I wondered, “Which show did it first?”
Gini said she thought Buffy did it, and vaguely recalled some Joss Whedon commentary to that effect, but Babylon 5 also did it.  So I ask you, dear readers: what is the earliest show you can remember that used just clips from the upcoming season in the opening sequence?  (Please note that this is different from having “generic portions of the show” in the opening sequence, which can hardly be helped; if you need a generic action shot, you’re taking it from the scenes you’ve shot.  I’m talking an opening sequence that changes every season to show upcoming events from this season.)

Posted by on Oct 14, 2012 in Current Ramblings | 4 comments

4 Comments

  1. David Crampton
    Oct 14, 2012

    I’m not sure if it came before or after Bab5, but I remember Stargate: SG-1 doing that.

    Respond
  2. Damien Ryan
    Oct 14, 2012

    Nevermind previewing the season: Space 1999 used to show a condensed montage of the entire episode each week. That’s where Ron Moore got the idea for the BSG revival.
    Do I win?

    Respond
    • TheFerrett
      Oct 15, 2012

      Not quite, but it’s an interesting technique!

      Respond
      • Damien Ryan
        Oct 19, 2012

        Definitely. It’s a very fine line between making your fans think, “Holy crap, I can never tune to another station for the next hour” and calling down the deep vengeance of a wild spoiler daemon.

        Respond

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