My Favorite Themes - Part XIV

Score: Stay Tuned by Bruce Broughton (Tombstone)

About the film: TV lover Roy Knable (John Ritter) gets the surprise of a lifetime when he and wife Helen (Pam Dawber) are sucked into a hellish television universe and must find a way out. From director Peter Hyams (A Sound of Thunder, End of Days and, incredulously, Capricorn One) comes this attempt at television parodies. The cast, especially Jeffrey Jones, tries, but the material lets them down, only occasionally hitting an inspired note (the animated sequence, "Where have you been?"). It's something of a guilty pleasure, but, overall, the idea was done better in later years (notably a "Teen Titans" episode).

Title: "Main Theme". Quite surprisingly, Broughton lent the proceedings a very heroic main melody. Heard over the opening credits, there seems to be a theremin in the mix. The composer gets to stretch in a number of different styles, but perhaps my favorite musical moment comes in the "Star Trek" sequence; an ingenious melding of the main theme and an imitation of Goldsmith's "Next Generation" music.

Other themes of interest: The only other theme to speak of is a motif for Hellvision on low woodwinds, augmented by two unsettling piano notes.

Availability: A soundtrack was released on Morgan Creek records at the time of the film's release. Unfortunately, it contained only two tracks: the "Main Titles" and "Darryl's Dad" (a slapsticky version of the main theme). However, I hold out hope that a longer, better release will appear...someday.