Charmed Opening Credits

Description
The opening credits exist of various scene's from episodes including some deleted scene's or promotional scene's. 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.

Title clip
The title clip exists out of a zooming in clip of the Book of Shadows (deleted scene' from "Something Wicca This Way Comes"), with "CHARMED" scrambling over a three blue leaves and a circle that come together and form a triquetra. There is a little flash and we suddenly see overhead shot of the sisters at a round table ("Something Wicca This Way Comes") the blue triquetra and "CHARMED" then fades out.
 * Season 1-3

Theme song
During all the seasons of charmed in the opening credits the song called How soon is now by the band Love Spit Love has been played. The song was used in the movie "The Craft" which is probably the reason why the song was used for Charmed. The song was originally composed and performed by the influential British band The Smiths. During the mid-80s the song was very popular and some have referred to it as the "Stairway to Heaven" of the '80s.


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


 * The song was replaced on the season 8 DVD's of Charmed because the license of 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!

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 (When Prue used her Telekinesis, and ended up destroying the attic) and the remaining one's 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 mean's 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.
 * The opening credits Theme song, is also shown on The Craft which is also about witches and show's others similarities to 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".

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 eight season, Kaley Cuoco was put before Brian Krause since he would be leaving after the tenth episode Vaya Con Leos.

Reruns
TNT, a television network that airs reruns of Charmed, has shortened the time allotted for the opening credits, therefore shortening the song to merely two lines:


 * I am Human and I need to be loved,
 * Just like everybody else does!

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