"Main Titles" - An Emmy Curiousity
Friday, July 15, 2016 at 10:47PM 
American Horror Story is one of the only series eligible every year in this category. It was nominated for Murder House, Asylum, and Freakshow onlyA good title sequence is a godsend to any series. The best of them convey the tone and spirit of the show but in a creative rewatchable way (my favorite of the past few years: Marvel's Daredevil). Series are only eligible for this Emmy award in their first year on television. The exception is of course anthology series which tend to change their opening credits each year. For example American Horror Story has had three nominations in this category for Murder House, Asylum, and Freakshow but was passed over for Coven and Hotel. On the odd occasion that a non-anthology totally changes their main titles they can submit again. This limitation makes the category, by default, my pet favorite. After all it's the only one that voters are forced to rethink anew each year. They can still be lazy with their votes, of course, but they can't be lazy in the exact same way that they were the year before. Progress!
Do the nominees this year make you want to watch the show? Do you think these were worthy choices or did you have subsitutes in mind? All the nominees are after the jump...
Main Titles Nominees
Its sister category is "Main Title Theme Music" which you're also only eligible for once.
Main Title Theme Music Nominees:
Narcos
Jessica Jones
Night Manager
plus...
Emmy Related 2016 Posts
Comedy Nominees
Drama Nominees
Tracee Ellis Ross for Black•ish
The People vs OJ Simpson
American Crime
Confirmation
Grease! Live
Constance Zimmer for UnREAL
Sterling K Brown for The People vs
Snubs & Perplexities
Happy Thoughts Finale
Reader Comments (13)
Opening credits are a dying art, especially for broadcast networks, maybe out of the fear that people will change the channel. Streaming shows have captive audiences, though, so maybe they can bring them back.
I must enjoy a 1980s vibe, because two of my favorite opening credit sequences in recent years were for shows set in that decade: HALT AND CATCH FIRE (Emmy nominated last year) and DEUTSCHLAND 83. Both intros are on YouTube.
Narcos
Titles: TMITHC
Music: Sense8
I am still enraged that Ramin Djawadi was not nominated for his GoT main music theme. Good god on earth Emmys.
I like the credit of TMITHC and music of Jessica Jones.
And question here, is "And Then There Were None" not eligible this year? Cause I remember really liking it and its main credit. Plus that cast is amazing.
I remember lovingggggg True Blood's and United States of Tara's main titles.
Ibis -- i loved those two, too. Tara won the category but I don't think True Blood's was even nominated in its year. grrr.
Craver -- that is insane. I stopped watching the show early on but the theme music was so great.
Nat: No, True Blood WAS nominated in it's year. None of The Wire's title sequences or themes got nominated. All the sequences (S2 and S4 winning), and three of the five themes (S2 ineligible in music due to using the original track the other four are based on and S5 not being good enough, S1 and S3 winning), probably should have been nominated. What five shows get kicked out in Title Sequence? The Mind of the Married Man in 2002, The Anna Nicole Show in 2003, Nicole Kidman: An American Cinematheque Tribute in 2004, The Triangle in 2006 and anything but Mad Men in the exceptionally weak seeming 2008. What three in Theme Music? A Day in Their Lives in 2002, Monster House in 2004 and Get Ed in 2006.
Craver has a good question because And Then There Were None had an excellent title sequence. Of these I'd go with The Night Manager (which I thought was highly over-rated, and by the end far too pleased with itself and optimistic to feel like Le Carre to me, but I quite liked the opening credits), though I don't like any of these as much as Halt and Catch Fire's.
I love these categories. I've never heard of The Man in the High Castle before, but somehow it's my favorite.
P.S. I would have included AHS: Hotel
In Main title design my pick is either Jessica Jones or Vinyl... i'm leaning towards the former because of its wonderful use of color
For Main Title Theme Music: ♫she's so broken insideeeeeeeee♫ just love it
I have no idea how Regina Spektor wasn't nominated for the OITNB theme song a couple years back! My favorite
Thanks for sharing please do share such post USPS mail forwarding
Lost tracking number