Things start as a pretty much faithful recreation of The Simpsons’ credits, save some tracking lines and general wear meant to indicate that we’re watching the titular VHS tape.
It’s this familiarity that French animator Yoann Hervo plays off of in his popular 2015 YouTube video Weird Simpsons VHS. But when we hear Danny Elfman’s theme music, when we see that logo in the clouds above Springfield, it’s like we’re right back in 1995. Sure, that show, which is about to enter its 28th season, is about two decades past its prime. It’s almost Pavlovian.Īnd few opening credit sequences are as comforting as The Simpsons. The cue that we’re about to see something familiar, something we trust. (I mean, we all know what we’re about to watch, don’t we?) But a great credit sequence can serve as a palette cleanser. In the era of the binge watch, we don’t necessarily need them every single episode. There’s something comforting about TV show opening credit sequences.
