May 28, 2008 8:00 pm US/Eastern
TV Theme Song Pioneer Earle Hagen Dies
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Andy Griffith, left, and Ronnie Howard appear in the opening credits of the popular early 1960s CBS situation comedy "The Andy Griffith Show." The memorable theme was compsed by Earle Hagen.
CBS Television
He's a man whose name you probably don't know, but whose work you'll instantly recognize.
Composer and television theme song pioneer Earle Hagen died Tuesday. He leaves behind a legacy in which he created some of the most memorable music of the last few decades, and in doing so, he captured the essence of our times.
Hagen is known for composing the themes to "The Andy Griffith Show," "I Spy," and "The Mod Squad," among others.
It took Hagen all of fifteen minutes to come up with the theme song to the Andy Griffith Show. In fact, he's the one whistling it. If ever there was a tune that defines home, wholesomeness, and heartland America, the one-whistling wonder is it.
Hagen started off playing trombone with big bands, then worked on a few movie scores, but early on discovered his specialty was composing TV theme songs, and chances are you remember them all.
Hagen's gift was finding just the right melody to match a show's character.
"I think he did it magnificently in the sense of really tailoring each of those melodies, each of those kinds of theme songs, to a show," said Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly.
But he also had a genius for subtle hints at what you should feel within the show, like a moment in "I Spy," when the heroes are betrayed by a friend to the tune of Hagen's genius.
Hagen gave Americans the cultural soundtrack of the nation – not necessarily how people are, but how they like to see themselves.
"And that soundtrack in particular with him was very optimistic, it was very positive, it was very forward thinking," said Tucker. "And I think he captured that beautifully without compromising his artistic integrity."
Hagen was also generous with his knowledge. He wrote the book on composing for TV and movies, literally. "Film Scoring" has been required reading at many schools around the world.
He and Lionel Newman were nominated for an Academy Award for best music scoring for the 1960 Marilyn Monroe movie "Let's Make Love."
For television, he composed original music for more than 3,000 episodes, pilots and TV movies, including theme songs for "That Girl," "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C."
His wife, Laura, says he died of natural causes at the age of 88 at his home in California.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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