Favorite Couch Gag/opening variation

[Leviathan]

Your favorite moments where there's a twist on the opening credits or some running gag the credits have.

My personal favorite of all time is from an episode of American Dad, "Office Spaceman". It opens with the usual intro of Stan singing the American Theme song as normal, but when he goes for the paper, the headline is Alien Spotted, a picture of Roger.

It's my favorite becuase of how sublime it is. The opening comes to a complete screeching halt, complete with a record scratch, but then it seamlessly without missing a beat transitions to the start of of the actual episode. That combination of jarring and smooth is on another level.

 

[Surreal Kangaroo]

My favorite is one episode of Dexter’s Lab that ended the theme with Mandark plugging in the machine instead of Dee Dee. The reason why I liked it was I feel like the revival episodes should have updated the opening to match the art style.

 

[CartoonCF]

The episode Bingo of Bluey. Bluey & Bingo's names got switched around in the intro. I'm always anticipating that little moment when the show comes on.

I hope they do it again.

 

[Classic Speedy]

Family Guy theme goes wrong:



Completely catches you by surprise the first time you watch it.

 

[Pooky]

"Larry says Narf too"




Here's a weird bit of local trivia; the edit of The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show that aired on Sky in the UK in the 90s superimposed the "meeting Fred and Wilma" coach gag over the episode's usual Sgt Pepper coach gag. You could tell it was an edit because the accompanying musical sting was still on the soundtrack. This was presumably done in recognition of this being the episode where The Simpsons topped the Flintstones' episode count, but it was weird to do a "knowledgeable" edit like that, because otherwise the only changes Sky made were censorship cuts to make episodes suitable for the family friendly time slot. As far as I know/recall they didn't particularly advertise the episode as a record breaker here either.

 

[Classic Speedy]

Thought of another example: The Dr. Katz episode called "Ticket" opens with the usual Dr. Katz head graphic... only for the head to VERY abruptly morph into a police light and siren noise.

Cuts to the opening scene and Dr. Katz has been pulled over for running a stop sign.