E Street - Theme and Titles

Theme and Titles

The original episodes of E Street had a lengthy opening title sequence made up of clips from the pilot and first episodes and was accompanied by a slow, jazzy theme tune. However, when the series relaunched 6 months later at Episode 47, the entire sequence, including the E Street logo, was replaced by a specially compiled montage of the contract cast, cleverly linked together with a paint-brush wipe effect. Episode 51 introduced a more upbeat and funky theme tune, replacing the previous soulless version. These changes perfectly encapsulated the new image the programme was trying to convey and attract a wider audience.

This design of opening titles and music lasted until Episode 134, featuring only minor alterations as characters came and went. From Episode 135, however, the opening title sequence was dropped and replaced with a re-cap of the previous episode, an aerial view of Eden Street with the E Street logo forming, followed by establishing shots of the area with writer and producer credits. Sometimes, the previous episode cliffhanger would be played after the short sequence and continue uninterrupted into the episode. This practice was common with Network Ten stable-mate Neighbours, which similarly dropped its opening credits in 1990 in favour of a short re-cap, brief titles accompanied by a music sting. This opening to E Street remained until its final episodes, although Neighbours reinstated an opening sequence in 1992. More recently, Home and Away now frequently open episodes with a re-cap, brief title screen and 5 second music sting, much like E Street in the early 1990s.

The end title sequence remained unchanged, with credits rolling over an aerial shot of Westside during nighttime. The original theme for the closing credits was 2 minutes in duration, and was changed from Episode 51 to the updated version, an extended mix of the music now used for the opening titles.

On the original Australian credits, there were several sponsorship credits that were removed from UK broadcasts. A different music soundtrack was also used on the international version of E Street, but can be heard uncut on the recent DVD release of the series.