“Meet the Press” 1990 – 2005 Theme
This theme, part IV of The Mission, was originally intended for the 1986 midterm elections. In 1990 it was adopted by Meet The Press as its...
NBC News
“Sunday Today” 1987 – 1992 Open
In 1987 the Today Show expanded to six days a week: Sunday through Friday. The Sunday edition was a much more serious show. It was more...
“Meet the Press” 1987 – 1990 Open
Before Meet the Press adopted the Pulse of Events as its main theme, the show used other cuts from John Williams’ The Mission. At first they...
“Before Hours” Close
The program may have been forgotten, the theme certainly is not forgettable. This is Part II of The Mission by John Williams; originally titled as the...
“1986” Theme
1986 was NBC’s fourteenth attempt in seventeen years to launch a successful newsmagazine. It debuted in June of 1986 and lasted for only twenty broadcasts. The...
“NBC News at Sunrise” 1985 – 1996 Open
This is another cue from The Mission by John Williams. NBC selected it as the opening for NBC News at Sunrise, which was the network’s early...
“Today” 1985 – 2005 Open
This is the cue from The Mission that NBC selected to open the Today Show and is the only John Williams cue that was still used...
“Today” 1985 – 1990 Theme
This is the third part of the four-part package that John Williams composed for NBC News. For Today, he wrote Scherzo for Today. In musical terms, a scherzo...
“NBC Nightly News” 1985 – 2004 Theme
In 1985, NBC sought to move away from synthesizer-based sounds and commissioned a full orchestral news theme package from legendary composer John Williams, whose credits include Star...
“Decision 84” Open
In 1976 NBC introduced the concept of red states and blue states. To graphically illustrate the election results, they colored a state red if a Democrat...
“NBC Nightly News” 1983 – 1985
This electronic theme was used to open nearly all NBC News programs of the era, including Nightly News, Meet the Press, NBC News Digest, and NBC White Paper, a documentary...
“NBC News at Sunrise” 1983 – 1985 Theme
When it debuted in 1983, NBC News at Sunrise was the early morning counterpart to Nightly News. At the time it was an important program on...
“NBC News Overnight”
“You hear something that may be music or may be the sound Donald Duck would make if you held his head underwater a while,” that is...
“NBC Nightly News” 1979 – 1983 Open & Close
NBC Nightly News debuted in July of 1970 after Chet Huntley left the Huntley-Brinkley Report. David Brinkley anchored with John Chancellor and Frank McGee as part...
“Today” 1982 – 1985 Theme
The next Ellis theme, a different arrangement of his “This is Today” theme, debuted during Bryant Gumbel’s first show on January 4, 1982, and was used...