'The Simpsons' vs. 'Miami Vice': Vote for the Best TV Theme Songs

Homer Simpson takes on Sonny Crockett in Round 1 of Yahoo! TV's Theme Song Thunderdome.

With March Madness in full swing, we decided to do a TV-themed bracket of our own: a no-holds-barred tournament to determine the best TV theme song of all time. After lots of heated debate, we've selected and ranked 32 of the most memorable TV theme songs ever, pitting them against each other in a winner-takes-all bracket. Over the next few weeks, we're asking you to vote for your favorite theme songs until we get a winner -- and a few songs stuck in your heads.


(7) "The Simpsons"

Much of the fun of the "Simpsons" theme song is in the accompanying visuals -- Bart Simpson's myriad different "I will not" blackboard punishment exercises, Maggie going over the Scantron at the supermarket, and Homer's operatic "AIEEE" face as he's nearly run over in the driveway. At the same time, though, the show's been on so long that just hearing that distinctive choir-of-angels opening bar will prompt a flood of those visuals in the listener's mind.


(10) "Miami Vice"

"Miami Vice" has its own associated visuals -- dated '80s ones involving suits worn with sherbet-colored T-shirts; Don Johnson's carefully curated stubble -- and it's a 100%-artificial synthesizer confection by Jan Hammer. But it conveys the neon-underbelly intensity of the show perfectly; it charted as a Billboard #1 when it was released as a single in 1985 (the last instrumental song to do so); and it won Grammys. Then again, Milli Vanilli won Grammys. Still, it's a great time capsule, and we love that weird chord resolution at the very end.


Which theme song deserves to move onto the next round? Vote in the poll above, click here to see the full bracket and vote on other pairings (Round 1 voting ends Wednesday at 6 PM PT), tweet out your choices using the hashtag #TVThemeSong, and hit the comments to tell us about all the great theme songs we forgot to include.