5 Best '80s Sci-Fi Series Theme Songs, Ranked

There are plenty of great sci-fi shows from the '80s that audiences remember watching, and several of those shows had memorable theme songs that fans remember listening to as well. Sometimes that's not always a good thing. A few shows opened with earworms that would get stuck in your head and stay there long after the ending credits had rolled. The most memorable of them are still stuck in people's heads nearly a half-century later.

Here are five of the best '80s sci-fi series theme songs, ranked from worst to best. All of them have a memorable, distinct sound, whether they're for an animated science-fantasy adventure, a superhero comedy, or an actioner about an artificially intelligent automobile. It's a sound that, for lack of a better way to describe it, is extremely of the 1980s. There are synth tunes and yacht rock vibes galore. But, even though all these theme songs are so clearly products of the decade, there's a reason why they endure all these years later.

The theme song for "Inspector Gadget," the syndicated series about a bumbling cyborg detective, is one of the greatest cartoon theme songs of all time. It is also, frankly, one of the worst because of how much the repetition of "Do doDo doDO InsPEctor GADget," broken up only by an occasional "Go, Gadget Go!" gets stuck in one's head.

Shuki Levy is the composer to thank (or perhaps blame) for the "Inspector Gadget" theme. Levy did the music for a bunch of '80s cartoons, including "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe," "The Real Ghostbusters," and "M.A.S.K." In the '90s, he also did the music for "Power Rangers" and "Digimon: Digital Monsters."

"I focus on the character itself when I start composing," Levy told CBC. "Then I take the directions of the producers, the kind of rhythm they want, and I just go with it."

Levy's "Inspector Gadget" theme song also appeared in Disney's 1999 live-action adaptation of the cartoon, which starred Matthew Broderick.

The ABC series "Street Hawk," which aired for just one season in 1985, is not one of the best-remembered shows of the '80s. Rex Smith stars as a cop who goes undercover riding what the opening narration describes as an "all-terrain attack motorcycle designed to fight urban crime, capable of incredible speeds up to 300 miles an hour, and immense firepower." So, think "Knight Rider" but on a bike instead of a car, and not as funny. It was canceled after half a season, airing just 13 episodes.

However, "Street Hawk" is worth remembering because none other than Tangerine Dream composed the propulsive, synthy theme song. The track, "Le Parc," originated on Tangerine Dream's 1985 album of the same name. Tangerine Dream was responsible for a ton of iconic '80s scores, including the music for movies like Michael Mann's "Thief," and the Tom Cruise film "Risky Business." The "Street Hawk" theme isn't their best work, but probably the best thing about the short-lived show all the same.

The title sequence for "Thundercats," the syndicated science-fantasy cartoon that aired from 1985 until the end of the decade, is one of the best openings of any show. It's thrilling, boasting fluid, action-packed animation that is leagues better than the less-expensive animation from the actual show. It also features a killer theme song.

Though there is an urban legend that "Inside the Actors Studio" host James Lipton composed the "Thundercats" theme, that's not the case. Bernard Hoffer, a prolific Swiss-born composer who did the music for the rest of the show, also did the theme. Though Hoffer was classically trained — applying that training to cartoons like "Thundercats" by giving each character their own leitmotif — he very much enjoyed scoring the Saturday morning children's series.

"In the 'ThunderCats' score, you hear the highest of high brow music composition," Hoffer told WBUR's Radio Boston in 2011, per the official "Thundercats" site. "This was real music. And it was a combination of classical music superimposed over rock."

Larry Kenney, who voiced Lion-O, provided the iconic "Thundercats, HO!" shout that punctuates the theme and helps make it so memorable. Jules Bass of the Rankin/Bass production company that made the show, wrote the lyrics.

A cool, sleek electronic beat drives (pun intended) the title sequence for "Knight Rider," the classic '80s actioner starring David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight and his talking Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, K.I.T.T. Intense, steady, futuristic, and just the tiniest, winking amount of silly in a way that tipped its hat to the somewhat kitschy nature of "Knight Rider," the theme was a perfect introduction to the four-season series.

Stu Phillips, who also did the score for "Battlestar Galactica," created the "Knight Rider" theme using four separate synth players along with some drums, bass, and an acoustic piano. The "Knight Rider" theme has such a good beat that it couldn't stay contained to the show. In 1998, rapper Busta Rhymes remixed a song of his originally titled "Turn It Up." The first version of the track samples an Al Green song; "Turn It Up (Remix) / Fire It Up" dropped that in favor of the "Knight Rider" theme. The remix charted at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The superhero genre doesn't always overlap with sci-fi, but since Ralph Hinkley gets his super-suit from aliens, this three-season ABC comedy drama that premiered in 1981 qualifies. Thank goodness it does, because the theme song, frequently known as "Believe It or Not," is one of the greatest TV themes of all time, so it's great to have it represented on this science fiction-focused list.

The song was composed by Mike Post, who, upon being told the premise of the series, said "this is nuts," as he recalled in an interview with the Television Academy. He turned to songwriter Stephen Geyer for the lyrics, wanting to see if he could "maybe make an analogy between love and flying in a suit." Joey Scarbury, a singer who Post was producing for and whose career really never took off, sang the tune.

"Theme from The Greatest American Hero (Believe It or Not)" is one of the rare songs created for a movie or TV show whose legacy has eclipsed the medium it originated in. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Seinfeld" viewers might remember an episode where Jason Alexander's George Costanza has a parody of the song as his answering machine message.