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Mike Post is known for his TV theme music for shows like The Rockford Files, L.A. Law and Law & Order. He has won several Grammys, Emmys and BMI awards for his work in music and television.
Mike Post is known for his TV theme songs for such series as Law & Order, The A-Team, NYPD Blue, The Rockford Files, L.A. Law, Quantum Leap, Magnum, P.I., Hill Street Blues and more.
Learn about Mike Post's career in television, music and film, from his early days as a club musician to his Grammy-winning collaborations with Pete Carpenter. Discover his theme songs for shows like The Rockford Files, L.A. Law and Hill Street Blues.
- The Rockford Files
- Magnum P.I.
- Hill Street Blues
- The Greatest American Hero
- L.A. Law
- Quantum Leap
- Doogie Howser, M.D.
- Law & Order
- NYPD Blue
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
Post said he and co-composer Pete Carpenter brought in blues harmonica, synthesizer, flutes, French horns, and trombones for the theme to this NBC detective drama starring James Garner. But it was the electric guitar that gave co-creator Stephen J. Cannellpause. “I said, ‘Just go back and listen to your Peter, Paul and Mary records, Cannell. Don’t ...
Long before Donald Bellisario co-created the NCIS franchise, he co-created this CBS crime drama, which featured Tom Selleckas a Hawaii-based private eye (decades before the successful reboot). “[It was] very easy to do because I knew the character so well.” Post said. “I’d gone to grammar school, junior high, and high school with Tom Selleck [and h...
Hearing about director Gregory Hoblit’s plan to open this NBC police procedural on the “mean streets” of its unspecified locale, Post suggested to creator Steven Bochcothat the music “go against” the imagery and be “something really kind of poignant, but not sloppy, sentimental.” He then went home and came up with the theme song in half an hour.
Post provided the music, Stephen Geyer the lyrics, and Joey Scarbury the vocals for “Believe It or Not,” the theme song of this ABCsuperhero comedy-drama, after Cannell approached the composer with the unusua...
In contrast to Hill Street Blues, Post said the theme song for this NBC legal drama, another collaboration with Bochco and Hoblit, was “really hard,” and the final version was the fifth theme that he had written for the show. He went with French horns to convey the majesty of the law, snare drums for a Beach Boys vibe, and alto sax for the sexiness...
After their Magnum P.I. collaboration, Bellisario had Post create a theme for this NBC sci-fi series starring Scott Bakulaas a physicist stumbling across space and time. “Bellisario is a really bright guy, you know, having this guy leap around,” Post said. “So it had to be playful, but it had to be quirky. It’s like, ‘What the hell are we doing? Wh...
The composer teamed up with Bochco again on this ABC medical dramedy, which the latter co-created with David E. Kelley. “That’s all about the child, capturing how child-like he was,” Post said of the theme song, referring to Neil Patrick Harris’ child doctor character. “The ultimate fish-out-of-water is this little kid being attached to this great ...
Post was involved with Law & Order when it was still a CBS pilot and followed it when it ended up at NBC, composing the theme song, the score, and the iconic dun-dun sound. And because that cue is music and not a sound effect, Post gets a royalty every time it’s used. For that reason, L&O creator Dick Wolfonce demanded that Post take him out for di...
When Bochco co-created this ABC cop drama with David Milch and brought Hoblit on as director, he and Hoblit gave Post “extremely succinct” marching orders, the composer recalled. In fact, they only gave him two words: drums and subway. “I made a groove out of the train sound,” Post said. “And then I took these big, giant drums that were really insp...
Learn how Mike Post created the iconic themes for classic shows like Rockford Files, Magnum P.I., Hill Street Blues, and Law & Order. Watch clips and read anecdotes from his 2005 interview with the Television Academy Foundation.
Five-time Grammy Award-winning composer of many TV theme songs you may know. New bluegrass and blues orchestral album coming out in April 2024!
Aug 20, 2023 · Mike Post is the composer of the iconic Law & Order theme song and the "dun dun" sound that marks the show's scene changes. Learn how he wrote them and why they are so memorable.
A breakout success – and at 23, winning the first of his five Grammy® Awards – with his arrangement of the 1968 instrumental smash hit “Classical Gas” raised Post’s profile as a composer,...
