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The typical line used in a 1950s science fiction trailer is, “this could be YOUR future!” Most of the time, they are pretty far off. I haven’t been taken over by pod people. Flying saucers have not invaded Los Angeles. We haven’t started turning dead people into Soylent Green. If you watch Fahrenheit 451, however, they were fairly spot on. Now, we don’t travel in monorails and the landscape doesn’t look like an odd post-war European neighborhood, but the television idea is right. Everyone has giant wall-mounted monitors. Nobody, except revolutionary intellectuals, reads. And the television shows use the audience as part of the program, as in “What do you think… Linda?” or “Vote now on American Idol.”

Whatever your position is on the benefits or evils of reading, the title sequence is magnificent. How do you create titles when the audience can’t read? You can do it with still images of television antennas, solid color, and a voice-over. No type, no animation, it’s a simple idea that costs $1.25. But I’ll take this over a million-dollar HD CD sequence that has glossy chrome, flying thingamajigs, and blasting audio. Call me old.