Ira Newborn - Mr. Naked Gun

Ira Newborn (sometimes credited as James Ira Newborn) seems to have built a film music career from the scoring of light-hearted comedies, although it has to be said that some of these comedies have a deep side to them too. Not only has he scored the Naked Gun series based upon his TV theme for Police Squad, but he has also had a significant involvement in the movies of people like Steve Martin, John Candy, Jim Carrie and Dan Aykroyd, including for the latter the musical supervision and conducting honours for the Blues Brothers movie.

You might say that the Dragnet and Police Squad themes emerge from a parody of the mood set by Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn theme, also used in the Blues Brothers movie. The theme for Dragnet itself uses a four note motif borrowed from a "Film Noir" movie called "The Killers" scored by Miklos Rozsa.

Films by Ira Newborn:

• My Blue Heaven
• Naked Gun 1, 2, 3 - or 2 and a half, 33 and a third
• Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Candyshack 2
• Dragnet
• Weird Science
• The Blues Brothers - conductor and musical supervisor
• Ace Ventura, Pet Detective

TV themes by Ira Newborn:

• Police Squad - later reused in The Naked Gun series