--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Top 10 Cartoon Theme Songs image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) # Top 10 Cartoon Theme Songs by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Sep 30, 2010 8:00 PM CUT by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Sep 30, 2010 8:00 PM CUT ## Underdog 
Seeking a new character to sell breakfast cereal to children, General Mills stuck to tradition in 1964, adding to the long list of anthropomorphic animals on Saturday morning cartoons. Along with King Leonardo and Tennessee Tuxedo came Underdog.



The theme, written by W. Watts Biggers, Treadwell D. Covington, Joseph B. Harris and Chester A. Stover, appeared in three different opening sequences for the show and was so memorable that several covers have been done, including one by the Butthole Surfers for the album Saturday Morning Cartoons' Greatest Hits in 1995, a jazz version for Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbital Quartet and one by the Plain White T's for a 2007 film based on the heroic pooch. micahernst ## The Jetsons 
In 1962, the 21st century seemed another world away — a world in which we rode to work in flying cars only to fold them into our briefcases before taking a conveyor belt to our desks. Simple lyrics like "meet George Jetson" set against a futuristic tableau satirized the typical tropes of 1960s sitcoms. At the same time, however, the show happily embraced them, suggesting that the conventions of the traditional American family will linger into the distant (though now not-so-distant) future. The show only lasted one season, but the 24 episodes — and their iconic theme song — lasted for years in syndication. micahernst ## Spongebob Squarepants 
Premiering in the summer of 1999, Spongebob Squarepants quickly became one of the highest-rated children's programs in history. And with a catchy, call-and-answer theme song, it's easy to see how kids got hooked. The opening sequence, featuring Spongebob playing his own nose like a flute, captures the goofy charm and boundless optimism that made the Nickelodeon show a sensation. micahernst ## Scooby Doo, Where Are You! 
Music in the late 1960s was so good that even the cartoon themes worked as pop songs. "Scooby Doo, Where Are You!" is a charming little musical creation, full of wonderful internal rhymes and a bridge that wouldn't have sounded out of place on the Beatles' Help!. Though the song sounds like it was recorded by a bargain-basement band of Beach Boys imitators, it was actually written by Ben Raleigh and David Mook and recorded by music executive Larry Marks. Apocryphally, the tune was finished just a few days before the first Scooby Doo episode aired. micahernst ## Doug 
Though it's no "Duck Amuck", the opening sequence of the 1990s Nickelodeon cartoon Doug offers children an introductory lesson on the wonders of surrealism and meta-narrative. A pen draws a horizon line, which becomes a curtain, which becomes a heart, which becomes a balloon, which becomes a hole in the ground, which becomes a rope. By song's end the captive young audience's minds are glowing with the possibilities of self-referential narrative subjectivity. They will have no choice but to enroll in film school. micahernst ## Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 
Give this theme song points for narrative economy. In only a minute it sets up the Turtles' backstory, outlines the stakes and introduces the four main characters with pithy couplets. (If you needed a reminder: Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines; Raphael is cool but rude, Michelangelo is a party dude.) It also reminds viewers of the series title, a dozen times. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES! micahernst ## The Flintstones 
"Flintstones, meet the Flintstones, they're the modern Stone Age family." It's been 50 years since viewers first fell in love with the citizens of Bedrock, and yes, we've been Yabba Dabba Doo!-ing ever since. Created by genius animators Hanna-Barbera, the show presented hilarious Stone Age equivalents to the '60s sitcom, while its iconic musical theme, "Meet The Flintstones," has no doubt etched its way into our hearts as one of the most hummable tunes in the Saturday cartoon canon. micahernst ## DuckTales 
Some of the lyrics might not make sense to those older than the age of 10 — we're not sure how life in Duckburg is like a hurricane, or exactly what a "duck blur" is — but the DuckTales song is still awesome. Part of it is the rocking late '80s track, part of it is the number of globetrotting shots they pack in to a minute-long segment. But mostly it's just that it makes us really, really want to dive into Scrooge McDuck's vault of gold. micahernst ## Transformers 
Pshh, Shia Leboeuf. Pshh! You've got nothing on the spectacularly '80s bit of retro awesomeness that is the original Transformers theme song. Sure, it's absent Michael Bay explosions. But the choral vocals and the hilariously cliché laser noises more than make up for the absence. micahernst ## The Simpsons 
Simple, yet never the same, The Simpsons holds the creative bar for opening credit cartoon sequences. From Bart's chalkboard lines of the day to the famous couch gag, the genius behind the intro is in its variety. As entertaining as the show is itself, the opening has lived through hundreds of iterations in The Simpsons's two-decade history, each with their own subtle or startling tweaks. This version, which features a snippet of the famous score from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, shoots us up into the cosmos for an alien's eye view of Springfield. After 22 seasons, it's this inventiveness that keeps us tuning in. micahernst Top 10 Cartoon Theme Songs ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7126046/the-top-10-cartoon-theme-songs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7126046/the-top-10-cartoon-theme-songs/"},"headline":"Top 10 Cartoon Theme Songs","datePublished":"2010-09-30T20:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T07:02:11.757Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/archive/7126046/the-top-10-cartoon-theme-songs/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7126046/the-top-10-cartoon-theme-songs/","name":"Top 10 Cartoon Theme Songs"}}]}] ```