Charmed Opening Credits

Description
The opening credits exist of various scenes from episodes including some deleted scenes. The first three seasons used lots of gold, blue and black colors on the clips and many flashes, the five last seasons used more red, blue, green, yellow and black colors and almost no gold and less flashes. The first three episodes also had credits which had different text-effects.

The opening starts with a Golden Gate Bridge shot, with the triquetra and then it shows Piper pressing a rose thorn in a puppet, as the To Lose a Love Forever spell requires, and then, we see a shot of a full moon. Both scenes from the episode "Something Wicca This Way Comes".

Then we see the title clip.

After the Title Clip
After the title clip, and before the actors footage, we see some scenes which include:

Last Part of the Clips
After the actors footage, we see some scenes which include the last part of the clips before the end:

(except early Season 1 opening credit)
 * Season 1-3

End Part of the Clips
After the San Francisco Cable Car (incl. Triquetra) footage, we see some scenes which include the end part of the clips:

(from last part of the episode "Something Wicca This Way Comes")
 * Season 1-3

Theme song
During all broadcast seasons of Charmed, the opening theme music was the song How Soon Is Now? by the band Love Spit Love. The song was also used in the movie "The Craft", and was originally composed and performed by the influential British band The Smiths. During the mid-80s the song was very popular and has been referred to as the "Stairway to Heaven" of the '80s.


 * The fourth and fifth season premiere episodes had special opening credits of 5 seconds which had textless music.


 * The song was replaced on the season 8 DVD's of Charmed because the license for the song expired before the production of the season 8 DVD's. Brad Kern tried to get it back for the Region 1 release but couldn't.

Lyrics

 * I am the son,
 * I am the heir.
 * I am Human and I need to be loved,
 * Just like everybody else does!
 * See I've already waited too long,
 * And all my hope is gone!

thumb|300px|right|The Smiths original versionthumb|300px|right|The Love Spit Love version (used on the show)

Trivia

 * The only opening to feature only the three main characters (the sisters) is shown once in season 2, Morality Bites.
 * When one of the supporting character's does not appear in a particular episode, his/her name also does not appear in the opening credits. Although, there's been two incidents where this hasn't happen. T.W. King was credited in That 70's Episode but he wasn't shown in that episode (Although his younger self was) and Brian Krause was credited in Hyde School Reunion but he wasn't shown in that episode.
 * The capital letter flashes that are seen throughout the whole series are only the letters that spell out Charmed.
 * The starring shot from the season 4 - 8 opening credits is slightly changed in some episodes of season 4.
 * Karis Paige Bryant was credited in the opening, though she only appeared in 4 episodes. This is due the sudden decision of writing Jenny Gordon out of the series. Fans seemed to dislike her character, which resulted in her early leave.
 * The text effect has been changed 3 times during the first four episodes of the series. Since Dead Man Dating, the text effect has remained the same; a scroll of initials spelling "charmed" before the actor's name.
 * From season 4, Most of the scenes in between the Sisters clips, were from season 3, Although one was from season 2 (Morality Bites: When Prue used her Telekinesis, and ended up destroying the attic) and the remaining ones were from season 1.
 * From season 1 to season 2 there was a pattern in the opening Credits. For example: After Prue's title clip, there's a scene of Prue and Piper, which means Piper is next in the opening credits, after Piper's title clip, there's a scene of Piper and Phoebe, which means Phoebe will be next and after Andy's title clip, there's a scene with Andy and Darryl, then Darryl's opening clips will appear. During season 3 this pattern was broken as between Piper and Phoebe's clip was a clip of Prue and Phoebe. (see the photos)


 * The opening credits theme song, is also shown on The Craft which is also about witches and was shown to have similarities to Charmed. Ironically, when the theme starts playing Skeet Ulrich who plays Chris in the movie is shown, Skeet would later go on to appear in Scream, with Rose McGowan who plays Paige Matthews in Charmed.
 * When Shannen Doherty left at the end of Season 3, the Season 4 credits had to be redone. Although one particular clip was left in. When Charmed comes onto the screen, you can see candles surrounding it in the background. That scene is from Something Wicca This Way Comes and was used as one of the two "starring clips" in the original credits. Although the scene quickly cuts to a clip of the Golden Gate Bridge for anyone to notice. (see here for picture) The clip was still used in combination with another clip, at the end of the credits when Connie Burge is credited. The clip that was put over noticeably covers Shannen, and is due to that, not centered. Also Shannen's hands can still be seen during the starring shot, as she is the one who flips through the Book's pages, and also after Rose's clips when she puts the Book of Shadows on its stand.
 * Since The Wedding From Hell, Alyssa Milano is no longer billed as the last cast member in the Opening Credits after Dorian Gregory, however she is billed after Holly Marie Combs, despite this she is still billed with the top billing status, 'And Alyssa Milano', despite being the third cast member to be billed in the opening credits. She remains the 'And' title until the fourth season where she will be billed first.
 * The font used in the credits is called the "Charmed Font" and is fan made, the real font is not known. Since the fourth season the font has changed to "Mason" for Starring, And...as "Piper" and Created By. Both fonts can downloaded here: Charmed Fonts
 * On October 7th 2010, Holly tweeted "I will never forget the thrill I got watching the credits for the first time with Shannen. It was a feeling I had never felt before or since".
 * The last cast member to be added to the opening credits was Kaley Cuoco.
 * In the Season 4 premier episode Charmed Again part 1 and 2 there is a slightly change in the opening titles we see a shot of the Book of Shadows then the triquetra and then the words charmed fade in then in to the episode with a different sound.
 * Alyssa Milano had the most number of her styles incl. early Season 1 (8) in Opening Credits (incl. looks, hair, costume, make-up (for women only), etc.). Holly Marie Combs, Brian Krause and Rose McGowan (5 each), Dorian Gregory (4), Shannen Doherty (incl. early Season 1 also) and Julian McMahon (3 each) and others had 1 each (T.W. King, Greg Vaughan, Karis Paige Bryant, Drew Fuller & Kaley Cuoco).
 * The first and last cast members to be given a credit in the opening sequence (Shannen Doherty and Kaley Cuoco respectively) both portrayed witches with the power of telekinesis.
 * The Unaired Pilot (including Lori Rom and Chris Boyd) had no opening credit in this show.

Billing Order
Alyssa Milano was credited with And during the first three seasons, after Shannen Doherty left, she was put first and Holly Marie Combs was credited as And Holly Marie Combs as "Piper" after she demanded this from the producers of the show. Brian Krause almost got credited with "With". In the eighth season, Kaley Cuoco was put before Brian Krause since he would be leaving after the tenth episode Vaya Con Leos.

Flashes
These are used throughout the whole credits, there are still more to be added.

The Flashes that have letters that spell Charmed