Taking inspiration from HBO’s The Undoing, which opens with a theme song performed by star Nicole Kidman, Saturday Night Live envisioned opening credits songs for some other hugely popular shows as sung by their stars. They include Netflix’s Bridgerton, The Queen’s Gambit, Stranger Things and The Queen, The Office (now on Peacock), HBO’s The Succession and Sex and the City (revived by HBO Max without Kim Cattrall) — which all have instrumental themes — and Frasier (also on Peacock), whose Kelsey Grammer-performed theme song was reinvented for the era of social media. The sketch show also poked fun at HBO Max for reviving Sex and the City without KimCattrall.
The songs’ lyrics are a blunt representation of the basic premise in each show. A couple of examples:
Steamy Regency drama Bridgerton: “Sex, lots of color-blind sex, sex, costumes but why do the opening credits look like a screensaver from the 90s?” (performed by series narrator Julie Andrews, played by Cecily Strong)
Period chess limited series The Queen’s Gambit: “Chess and drugs, and drugs and chess, girls playing chess and then doing drugs and then playing chess.” (performed by star Anya Taylor-Joy, played by Melissa Villaseñor)
Sex and the City revival: “Sex and the City without Samantha, It’s Sex and the City without the sex. I hope you enjoy the city. (performed by Cattrall as Samantha, played by Chloe Fineman)
Watch above the theme songs, including SNL host John Krasinski doing a parody for his show The Office.