The 90 Seconds that Created a TV Legend, a Musical Mystery

by Drew Holmes

Bruce had a problem. The pilot episode of the television drama he was producing was currently filming but lacked a theme song for the opening credits. Time was passing like a burning fuse, and he needed a composition now. The task was titanic.

So, he called his friend Boris, an accomplished movie composer and jazz musician, and invited him to attend the filming at Desilu Studios to get a feel for the show. Though he had written music for TV shows before, Boris had never been to a live television shoot and welcomed the opportunity to be a part of the action.

The fast-paced drama centered around two lost nuclear warheads and the ensemble of characters desperately trying to recover them. Common to television, the scenes were not shot in chronological order and, having no copy of the script to refer to, Boris could not make sense of what he saw. Desperate to find something visual around which to build a musical theme he asked for the footage of the title sequence, but Bruce told him there was none because he had rejected the first draft. The undertaking was unattainable.

Bruce instructed him to “write a theme that’s exciting, promising, but not too heavy. Make some fun out of it. But at the same time, make it like a promise that there’s going to be a little bit of action.” With that loose framework in place Boris had an idea of what direction to go in. He would write something punchy and aggressive, yet fun and unexpected. His purpose looked promising.

Drawing inspiration from the initials of the show’s title, Boris translated the two letters into Morse code. Using the resulting dash dash dot dot pattern as a rhythmic base he had the theme song committed to the page in 90 seconds. This pattern naturally leads to a 5/4 feel and Boris would later tell the Wall Street Journal, “I suppose the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s ‘Take Five’ was in my heart, but the 5/4 tempo just came naturally. It’s forceful, and the listener never feels comfortable.”

For critics and viewers alike, the song was a smash hit. Within a year Boris recorded an original soundtrack album, winning two Grammy awards: one for best instrumental theme and the other for best original score for a motion picture or TV show. The aim was achieved.

The success of this composition cemented a legendary career spanning seven decades. Writing prolifically for both film and television, Boris was nominated for twenty-two Grammys (winning five), four Primetime Emmys, and six Academy Awards. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 2018 received an honorary Oscar. With that dossier no secretary would disavow knowledge of his actions.

In 1966 when Bruce Geller asked his friend Boris to write the theme for his new show, he had no idea it would result in “Burning Fuse”, one of the most recognizable pieces of music ever written in the 5/4-time signature. For Boris Claudio “Lalo” Schifrin, the assignment he chose to accept was decidedly difficult. But unlike the title of the television program for which he wrote his most famous piece, it was anything but Mission Impossible.