TV Opening Credits, Intros, etc.: "X is...," "Y in...," or "Z as..."?*

How many series in television history have had openings using one of these three beginnings: "X is...," "Y in...," or "Z as...", also known as "above-title billing"?

Here are some I know of:

For "X is...":
"Barry Newman is...Petrocelli" (top of that 1974-76 NBC legal series that also had Susan Howard and the late Albert Salmi)
"Mike Connors is...Mannix" (1967-75 CBS detective series)

For "Y in..."
"Judd Hirsch in...Taxi" (1978-82 ABC and 1982-83 NBC comedy)
"Jack Warden in...Crazy Like a Fox" (1984-86 CBS detective series that also had John Rubinstein)
"Robert Wagner in...It Takes a Thief" (1968-70 ABC spy/adventure series)
"Bob Newhart in...The Bob Newhart Show" (1972-78 CBS comedy that also had the late Suzanne Pleshette)

For "Z as..."
"Robert Young as...Marcus Welby, M.D." (1969-76 ABC medical series that had James Brolin as his partner Dr. Steven Kiley)

 

Jack Klugman as...Quincy M.E.
Bill Cosby in...The Cosby Show

 

James Garner in...The Rockford Files

 

The four lead actors on All in the Family all got above-title billing, Y-style.

 

Did not know that! Will have to look that up.

 

"...and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver."

 

Apparently it wasn’t every season, though, as I just saw one intro that has the title first. Here it is...

 

And here’s one with above-title billing...

 

Here's a weird one of the Y variety: "Starring Ernest Borgnine in... Future Cop" (from that short-lived 1977 ABC sci-fi series)

 

Bumping this up: "Bill Bixby is...The Magician" (from that 1973-74 NBC detective series with that late, great star as amateur magician Anthony Blake)

 

My Three Sons used

"Starring Fred MacMurray" "And as Uncle Charley <actor name>". But for the boys it used "<actor name> As <character name>".

 

James Garner as Nichols
NBC even titled it that on their towel

 

That's a contractual thing. I'm reminded of how Jonathan Harris wanted special billing and would only sign a year-to-year contract on Lost in Space, so he was always billed as "Special Guest Star." Eventually, he wound up making more money than anybody else in the show and had a lot of input on scripts, writing (or rewriting) a lot of his own dialogue.

I seem to recall Henry Winkler's billing changed in Happy Days as he eventually became the de facto star of the series. There are often heated arguments behind the scenes about this, like the Laverne & Shirley billing where Penny Marshall's name was lower on the left and Cindy Williams' name was higher on the right:



The agents and lawyers also fight over the size of the credits, and generally they require that the biggest stars' names are 100% or 90% as big as the title of the project, and other actors' titles are negotiated depending on their status and importance in the series. For example, in a show like Happy Days, to appease Tom Bosley, his name came last but he had special billing: