Top Ten TV Theme Songs

Let's continue our look at Paste Magazine's list of the Top TV Songs, this time #6 on their list:

6. The Jeffersons - "Movin' On Up" by Ja'net Du Boise

How's this for the inter-connectedness of Hollywood? Du Boise played Willona Woods on Good Times. Janet Jackson was also on Good Times. Justin Timberlake caused a little wardrobe malfunction with Janet Jackson during Super Bowl XXXVIII. Fellow Mousketeer alum Keri Russell starred in Mission:Impossible III. The original Mission:Impossible TV show aired on CBS alongside All in the Family. The Jeffersons was an All in the Family spin-off. OK, so that was pretty random, but you can't argue against the greatness of "Movin' On Up."



Lyrics

Well we're movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.

Fish don't fry in the kitchen;
Beans don't burn on the grill.
Took a whole lotta tryin'
Just to get up that hill.
Now we're up in teh big leagues
Gettin' our turn at bat.
As long as we live, it's you and me baby
There ain't nothin wrong with that.

Well we're movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.

The Jeffersons is an American sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975, through June 25, 1985, lasting 11 seasons, and a total of 253 episodes produced by T.AT. Communications Company from 1975-1982 and Embassy Television from 1982-1985. It is the longest running comedy (or series of any genre) with a predominantly Black cast in the history of American television.

The show focused on George and Louise Jefferson, an upper middle-class Black couple. The show was launched as the second spin-off of All in the Family, on which the Jeffersons had been the neighbors of Archie and Edith Bunker.

Nielsen Ratings

1974-1975 #3
1975-1976 #21
1976-1977 #24
1979-1980 #8
1980-1981 #6
1981-1982 #3
1982-1983 #12
1983-1984 #19

interesting tidbits:

The Jeffersons was a spinoff of All in the Family in which the Bunkers' black next-door neighbors moved to a "deluxe apartment in the sky." This gospel-tinged song described their progression "on up."

The Jeffersons featured TV's first mixed-married couple, a white husband and a black wife. It had its own short-lived spinoff, Checking In.

This is commonly played at sporting events when a team which has previously been doing poorly makes a startling comeback and hence moves back "up" to its previous status.