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 Wars, Jaws, and Jurassic Park. The deal to compose The Mission, as the NBC News theme came to be called, took two years to finalize. Williams was initially reluctant to take on the project, finding it particularly challenging. The primary concern? The theme would need to endure frequent use over many years—something that, at the time, no one anticipated would last for two decades. Up until then, Williams considered composing the five signature notes for Close Encounters of the Third Kind as his most difficult task. He and director Steven Spielberg had spent days debating the arrangement. At one point, a frustrated Spielberg even contacted a mathematician to calculate the number of possible combinations for just a few notes. When the answer came back at around 35 million—clearly untestable—they returned to the drawing board.
Eventually Williams did of course take on the project for NBC News. He was given free reign, only being asked to include opens, bumpers and closes. After a number of meetings with the NBC executive who was in charge of this project, Tom Wolzien, and the executive producers of Nightly News and Today (to get their visions on their programs), he set out to compose the music. NBC didn’t hear from him again until the day of the recording session. Afterward, he delivered 19 cues to the network, including four closing themes, four opening themes, and 11 bumpers. The version you’re hearing is The Mission, Part I, which became the closing theme for NBC Nightly News.
John Williams – NBC Nightly News close (The Mission, part I)
A more hard hitting cut of The Mission was chosen as the opening for Nightly News.
John Williams – NBC Nightly News open
Here, you can listen to a few rare bumpers from the original package that were used on various NBC News programs, including Nightly News. The recording process for these cues was incredibly demanding, with two long, grueling sessions required. Each cue went through multiple takes before Williams was satisfied with the result. The first bumper you hear is actually take 90, while the second is take 108!
Victor, you forgot that John Williams also scored Superman, and the Amblin Entertainment logo.
Hearing this theme so many times while growing up, I never noticed the harp until now. There are so many subtle nuances in this short piece, and the level of musicianship for these studio ensembles was and still is astounding. It really did make you feel good about watching the news, evoking a romantic sense that the journalists were trying hard to make the world better by informing us. Now, I can’t bear to be in a room with TV news on.
SO VERY GLAD to find this music again… thank you so much.