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Earle H. Hagen Emmy-Winning TV Music Composer

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Earle H. Hagen, the Emmy Award-winning television composer who wrote the memorable theme music for “The Andy Griffith Show," “The Dick Van Dyke Show," “I Spy" and other classic TV programs, has died. He was 88.

Hagen, who composed the jazz standard “Harlem Nocturne" and was a former big-band trombonist for Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Ray Noble, died Monday night at his home in Rancho Mirage, said his wife, Laura. He had been ill for several months.

After spending seven years at 20th Century Fox as an arranger and orchestrator, Hagen moved into television in 1953 after the studio cut back on its music department.

Over the next 33 years, he composed music for some 3,000 TV-series episodes, pilots and TV movies -- as well as composing the themes for popular shows, including “That Girl," “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," “The Mod Squad" and “Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer."

Hagen also wrote a jazz arrangement of the traditional Irish tune “Londonderry Air," which served as the theme for Danny Thomas' popular situation comedy, “Make Room for Daddy." The Thomas show, which debuted in 1953, launched Hagen's longtime professional relationship with director-producer Sheldon Leonard.

“There is no question in my mind that Earle Hagen is one of the most important composers in the history of television, if not the most important," said Jon Burlingame, author of the 1996 book “TV's Biggest Hits," a chronicle of American television scoring.

When Hagen started his television career, Burlingame said, “there was very little original music being composed for television. He was one of the very few people who took the leap and saw the potential of music for television in terms of what could be accomplished dramatically and comedically."

The themes that Hagen wrote, Burlingame said, “are among the most iconic in television history.

“Just think about the sort of country, folksy feel of 'The Andy Griffith Show' theme, and think about the big-band theme of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show.' Who doesn't know those things?

“Even themes for shows like 'That Girl' and 'I Spy' and 'The Mod Squad,' which perhaps don't re-run today as much as they should but at the time were huge television hits, were memorable. Hagen had an ability to capture the tone of any show he worked on."

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